Building a Compassionate and Resilient Community of Social Work Field Instructors

The time is now to dedicate funding to build a compassionate and resilient community of field instructors and is under scored by the Council on Social Work Education, the accreditation body for social work programs across the United States. CSWE makes the bold statement in the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) that practicum or field education is the signature pedagogy. (CSWE, 2022) The purpose of practicum as the signature pedagogy is the inculcation of theory with competency-based practice. In this practicum space, the role of our volunteer field instructors is to support, teach and challenge our social work students to make the transition from theory and ideology to practice with clients and systems with confidence and effectiveness. In addition, social work’s professional association, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) a code of ethical principles and ethical standards to which social workers must adhere underscores the need for us to support our field instructors in these critical educator roles. NASW states, “among them are the values of integrity and competence by which individual social workers are expected to “... take measures to care for themselves professionally and personally...” and “...strive to increase their professional knowledge and skills and to apply
them in practice.'' Additionally, the NASW code of ethics scribes responsibility to the University of Washington School of Social work in that, “[s]ocial work organizations, agencies, and educational institutions are encouraged to promote organizational policies, practices, and materials to support social workers’ self-care.” (NASW, 2021) It is truly clear, that both our CSWE accreditation body and NASW professional association are calling us to action and now more than ever we need to build a compassionate and resilient community of field instructors.

To act on this call to action, this grant proposal will cultivate a sense of community among field instructors through virtual and in-person events and remain current in social work theory and field education practices. The School of Social Work, Office of Field Education is requesting UW Resilience and Compassion Seed Grant funding for our proposed 2023-2024 training schedule, and to support our collaborative efforts at identifying long term funding sources for training sustainability and community building that will enable ongoing critical field instructor training and professional development. Burnout amongst our field instructors is high and this growing need to find sustainable and effective training and professional development opportunities is critical to our social work students’ education, experience, and well-being(McCarthy et al, 2022). The UW SSW Field Instructor Training (FIT) Committee and community volunteer led Field Educator Advisory Committee (FEAC) will collaborate in implementing this grant opportunity by accessing content experts in the community to provide training, support, and mentorship to our 300 plus field instructors who are teaching our MSW and BASW Students. Planning meetings will occur virtually over the summer of 2023 to plan the details outlined in the supplemental budget.

Our grant proposal aligns with all six goals of the UW Resilience Lab and the Campus Sustainability Fund and two of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations (UN). The two goals we will address of the UN include goal number 3 of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. This goal will be addressed through the implementation of educational self-care and resiliency workshops for field instructors and community building efforts among our community-based field instructors. Goal 4 of the UN, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all will be met through the implementation of workshops on the NASW (National Association of Social Workers) Code of Ethics, providing training and workshops based upon field instructor request for learning and addressing disparities through these new learning opportunities. A detailed budget request and completed application form are included in this grant proposal submittal.