Meeting Student Needs While Honoring Faculty Limits: Field Education Solutions Using Continuous Quality Improvement

Overview: Field Director and Field Coordinators from one MSSW program will discuss how a continuous quality improvement model can provide a trauma-informed way to respond to student needs while honoring faculty limits during the COVID-19 pandemic.Proposal text: This presentation will explore the use of a continuous quality improvement (CQI) approach to solving problems in field education in a trauma-informed way.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented challenge. One specific challenge has been the disruption of field placements for social work students. When surveyed, 97% of Field Directors reported changes to field placements due to COVID-19 (CSWE, 2020a). These changes included the modification or cancellation of in-person field placements and the development of remote field opportunities (CSWE, 2020a). Facing these challenges, social work students needed additional support from field faculty and staff in order to be successful.

COVID-19 also brought about and amplified serious student challenges, which disproportionately impacted BIMPoC and first-generation students. A Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) survey found that 81% of social work students reported that the pandemic had negatively affected their mental health (CSWE, 2020b). Furthermore, students who experienced racial discrimination related to COVID-19 reported increased levels of anxiety and depression (Oh et al, 2021). First generation college students also reported greater challenges during the pandemic, citing limited access to supportive educational resources (Kiebler & Stewart, 2021). Finances were another significant concern, with 65% of social work students saying that the pandemic had negatively affected their finances (CSWE, 2020b).

At the same time, field faculty were working long hours to meet students’ needs and respond to disruptions in field (Mirick & Davis, 2021). This presented a challenge for field coordinators who felt compelled to do more for students while facing similar challenges to their own. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that all people have the right to both reasonable work and rest (United Nations, 1948). Honoring students’ right to their education and “a standard of living adequate for…health and well-being” during a pandemic while respecting the faculty’s own ethical mandate for self-care, necessitated innovative approaches to field education (NASW, 2021; United Nations, 1948, p.7).

To address these dual challenges, a field team at one university serving both face to face and online MSSW students gathered information, conceptualized a solution and developed a theory of change. A new model was enacted for generalist field seminars that incorporated a new use of adjunct field faculty. This increased student connection and support while decreasing the faculty workload. Simultaneously, to understand if the program changes were having their intended effect, the field team implemented a CQI approach using a “plan-do-study” act model. Recognizing that trauma-informed approaches are correlated with positive academic outcomes, trauma-informed principles were incorporated as feedback from students, faculty, field instructors and staff was used to evaluate the efficacy of a new approach and then make adjustments based on collective input. (Roseby & Gascoigne, 2021). CQI and trauma-informed principles have a “symbiotic relationship”, because of the priority both place on transparency, collaboration, and voice (SAMHSA, 2014; Yoon et al., 2019, p. 8). This panel presentation will examine the use of this CQI approach to addressing challenges in field education with a goal of meeting student needs while honoring faculty limits.