MSW Interns’ Secondary Traumatic Stress: The Impact of Self, Supervisor, and System

Overview: Exposure to structural and individual traumas in placement has the potential to harm MSW interns. Interviews with interns and supervisors identify how personal practices, internship education policies, and placement structures collectively influence interns’ ability to make meaning of the work. Results highlight best practices that support MSW interns.Proposal text: ​​Background and

Purpose:
Social workers are exposed to structural and individual traumas as they navigate social systems rooted in white supremacy. Without proper professional supervision and support, social workers may develop secondary traumatic stress affecting their physical, emotional and social functioning, which impacts their practice. Toxic policies, such as the professional responsibility for self-care, inherently place the blame on the worker. New to social work, interns are of particular concern as they may not be equipped to successfully navigate exposure. Current research identifies the impact of exposure to trauma on social workers, but fails to understand how this applies to MSW interns. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, this study identifies how the self, supervisor, and system collectively influence how MSW interns navigate their exposure to trauma in the field.


Methods:
To identify the process of MSW interns' exposure and response to client trauma, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 MSW interns and 11 supervisors. The sample came from three different MSW programs in cities on the east coast, west coast, and midwest. Coding was an iterative process conducted in several rounds by three researchers to ensure intercoder reliability. This iterative process provided clarity on the dimensions and properties of potential categories. Once coding was completed, the researchers met to form the codes into categories using analytic memos. Categories were then compared to determine the process through which MSW interns and their supervisors experience exposure to trauma in placement.


Results:
Findings identify the processes through which MSW interns enter social work, are exposed to trauma, and outcomes of that exposure. MSW interns and supervisors name various aspects of the self, supervision, and system(s) that mitigate or perpetuate harm. MSW interns describe how their exposure to individual and systemic trauma led to three main outcomes: secondary traumatic stress, coping, and meaning making. Supervisors elucidated that their ability to identify and support intern exposure to trauma is dependent on their personal and professional experiences such as their background, exposure to trauma, and prior interactions with clients and supervisors. Interns and supervisors describe systems, including universities, internship sites, and the social work profession, that impact how they respond to themselves and their clients. Within these systems, interns have described varying levels of support while simultaneously describing how they and their clients have been harmed. This tension of systemic (dys)function is seeped throughout the profession.

Conclusions and Implications:
Identifying the response process to trauma exposure in placements highlights the need to better equip supervisors and interns. Field Education has the responsibility to systematically respond to and support students and their supervisors, particularly as the profession grapples with its harmful history during the traumatic context of COVID-19 and racism. Findings should be used to change and guide field education policies, trainings, and professional preparation that address trauma derived from and perpetuated in placement.