A Typical Day at a First-Year Placement
Hi! My name is Alex and I am a BU School of Social Work student ambassador at the Charles River campus. I am currently a first-year student with a clinical practice major. I am also pursuing the Trauma and Violence specialization. In this blog I provide an overview of field education and describe what an average day at field placement looks like.
What is a field placement?
Throughout your MSW journey, field placement is a major component of your time and education. It is arguably the part of your formal education where you will gain the most practical social work insight, skill, and experience. As a first year MSW student, I have found the field placement to be one of my favorite—and most challenging—aspects of the program. It stretches me and allows me to practice the skills I’m learning from my foundation classes.
All students at BUSSW are required to complete two field placements (except for Advanced Standing students who complete only one). The first year is called the foundation placement and is designed to give students a broad sense of the social work field. This placement is 480 total hours or about 2 full days per week for the first year of the program. The second year placement is called the advanced placement and designed to give students the opportunity to fine-tune their learned skills and areas of interest. This placement is 720 total hours or about 3 full days per week for the second year of the program. Unfortunately, not all field placements are paid. However, there are a few paid field placements and some students are able to receive stipends for field placement from BUSSW.
To give you a sense of what a first-year field placement might look like, here are a few anecdotes from my experience.
In the field
Every Wednesday and Thursday, I commute to my field placement or “internship” at a substance dependency recovery home for men. It’s a residential facility, so the clients live at the site. I rely on public transportation to get there, so it can take me about an hour and a half. The commute is fairly easy for me—from my home, I take two trains and a bus. I am actually thankful for the long ride because it allows me to get some of my class readings done. Most of my peers have field placements closer to where they live so long commutes are definitely not the norm!
Once I’ve arrived at the facility, I check in with my supervisor and head to my office. Having my own office has helped me feel like a valued team member at my job. On a typical day, I arrive at noon. During my internship hours, I interact with clients, sit in on case management sessions, meet with my supervisor, co-facilitate groups, write process recordings, catch up on emails, and work on school work. By 8:00 pm, it is time for me to head home. I say goodbye to the clients and staff and start my commute home.
On some days, there are special events happening. For instance, this past Halloween, the staff at the recovery home threw a Halloween party for the clients. Holidays are sometimes difficult for clients because they often are not able to spend them with their loved ones. To help with that reality, the staff decorated the dining hall and planned fun Halloween-themed activities and food. The clients really seemed to enjoy the simple gesture to make their Halloween experience more enjoyable.
Overall, I feel that I have already gained invaluable insight and experience in my first-year field placement. Working with the substance dependency population has been a new experience for me professionally. Not only have I learned about this population and some of the obstacles they face, I have also had the opportunity to practice clinical skills, such as facilitating groups, developing treatment plans, and observing program operations. Not every day is fun, exciting, or easy, but each day has provided new experiences and information that I will carry with me throughout my social work journey.