Impact of adding mindfulness practices to a bachelor of social work direct practice course

This study sought to determine whether mindfulness increased or decreased for Year 4 Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students. Twenty-four participants received a brief mindfulness practice each week at the start of class and completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in the first and last class. Results showed a decrease from pre-test to post-test on the non-reactivity to inner experience facet of the scale. In addition, in a post-test, those participants who came to the BSW programme from secondary school had an overall higher score than those participants who came to the programme from community college. Moreover, participants who had no prior practice in mindfulness and those who did not practice mindfulness during their practicum saw an increase in scores. These findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are offered. Keywords: Mindfulness, BSW students, practices, social work, course.

Social Work Training and Readiness for Trauma-Informed Care in Nursing Homes

Most adults have experienced traumatic events (SAMHSA, 2017). Late-life traumas may compound upon trauma histories (Maschi, et al., 2013), accentuating the risks confronting older adults. Per CMS’ updated Requirements for Participation, nursing homes (NHs) must implement trauma-informed care (TIC) approaches, effective November 2019. Many NHs do not staff Masters of Social Work (MSWs), despite their expertise in providing mental health care. Notwithstanding, employed MSWs feel unprepared to help their NHs implement TIC. This presentation discusses findings from a national survey of NH social service directors (N = 932). Results showed 71% (n = 650) reported moderate to strong interest in TIC training. A Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed a statistically significant difference in TIC training interest χ2(1) = 43.690, p < .001, such that MSWs reported higher interest (M = 486.47) than non-MSWs (M = 375.23). There was no difference between those with and without a Bachelor of Social Work.

Tales of precarity: A reflexive essay on experiencing the COVID pandemic as a social work educator on a precarious contract

This is a reflexive essay that documents my experience of being a social work educator and early career researcher on a precarious contract in a university in the Republic of Ireland during the COVID-19 global pandemic. At the time of writing and during the different phases of the pandemic that have come to pass so far, I have been employed as a coordinator and lecturer on a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programme, while also teaching on and contributing to a number of other programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Like educators the world over, I was thrust into a space where teaching, overnight, migrated online. Like many others also, I experience this as someone with little job security, who has moved from one contract to another and who has no certainty as to what the future will bring in respect to ongoing employment. At the same time, I am keenly conscious that our students, from our first years who just started out to our fourth years on the cusp of graduation, are also reckoning with enhanced precarity and uncertainty. I aim to unpack the implications of this over the course of this essay by drawing on my recent lived experiences. In respect to method, I began documenting my experiences from the day the university closed through contemporaneous notetaking in a research journal. I also began to archive central university correspondence relating to the pandemic. I draw on these notes and materials here. While the purpose here is to offer a narrative that is not over-theorised, I do attempt to link my experiences to wider social, cultural, and political understandings so that what is presented can be described as autoethnography.

Lessons learned from COVID-19: Being known in online social work classrooms

This article presents findings from a survey of undergraduate social work (Bachelor of Social Work [BSW]) students about their experiences with remote learning during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this crisis, remote learning was rapidly implemented and many BSW educators and students experienced online classrooms for the first time. Findings from this study shed light on how remote learning shapes the interpersonal relationships and communication that are so critical to building students’ sense of classroom belonging, engagement, and learning.

Major-to-employment mismatch in social work: A values-based framework explaining job-search decisions among Chinese graduates in Shanghai, China

A total of 31 Bachelor of Social Work Chinese graduates were interviewed in college exit interviews in Shanghai about their job search processes. Their responses generated an 87.1 percent major-to-employment mismatch rate between their study major and the postgraduation employment type. Five findings on employment decisions emerged, namely, causation, contextual factors, intervening conditions, job-seeking outcomes, and a positive-but-negative feeling about job searches. This mismatch phenomenon leads to the development of a values-based framework to explain how a combination of professional values and materialistic rewards can influence postgraduation employment decisions. It is connected to the graduates’ motivation to apply social work values to match the employment they seek.

“Little Girls” and “Bitching Up”

This article explores the ways in which age and gender intersect to shape the workplace experiences of first-year Canadian social workers. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with nine early-career (0.6–3.7 years post-bachelor of social work [BSW]), young adult (aged 23.9–32.9) social workers in Alberta, Canada, to understand their experiences in the first year of practice after completing the BSW; this article addresses the themes relating to age and gender. The methodology used in the study was hermeneutic phenomenology. Findings include negative conceptualizations of young social workers, meanings related to age and gender, use of evocative language to communicate positionality and practice values (“little girls” and “bitching up”), and feminized constructions of social work. Implications for social work education, practice, and research are discussed.

How Are African Americans Currently Represented in Various Social Work Venues?

Purpose: This study explored how African Americans are currently represented in social work journals, research, and schools. Method: Journal publication content and editorship, research methods and designs, and school mission statements and course titles were examined. Results: Only 14% of publications in the top 5 social work journals targeted African Americans as study subjects. The terms “African American” and “race” appeared in only 10% of mission statements of the top 50 ranked schools of social work and 20% of mission statements of the top 23 ranked historically African American colleges and university (HBCU) schools of social work and appeared in only six bachelor of social work and four master of social work course titles at HBCU social work schools. Only 2 of the top 16 U.S. social work journal editors were African American. Discussion: Across current social work venues, this study reveals that there has been minimal emphasis in research and pedagogy on race and African American–related matters.