Getting off to a good start with your Intern

Loretta Vitale Saks, MSW & Ellen F. Thursby, PhD NCSSS Office of Field Education August 26, 2009 This presentation is the intellectual property of the authors and may be used only with written permission and appropriate credit.

Orientation

 Introductions to staff  Office space, conference rooms, coffee pot, restrooms  Safety  Meeting with clients, home visits, neighborhood  Logistics  IDs, HR orientation

Orientation: Supervision

      Meet regularly • Minimum of 1 hr weekly required More availability early in the year • Important to meet throughout the year Keep challenging your student to grow Who else can student go to in your absence?

Relationship building, an ongoing process Call on liaison if need some help!

Orientation: Promoting Professional Behavior

 Work ethic  Importance of relationships  Responsibility to co workers, clients …  Intern represents the agency

Orientation: Promoting Professional Behavior

 Make expectations clear • • • • • Personal phone calls Computer use for non-agency business Dress code Time and attendance requirements Cell phones & texting

Orientation: Time Management

 Finding the right balance  For self & for student  Scarce resource  Too much time for some students  Most students want to be busy

Multiple Experiences

 Provide opportunities for students to assume different roles: • • • • Leader Organizer Advocate Problem Solver Role Model Educator Counselor Clinician

Adult Learning Theory

 Key Assumptions about Adult Learners   Adults are motivated to learn as they experience needs and interests.

Adults’ orientation to learning is life centered  Experience is the richest source for adult learning  Individual differences increase with age Knowles, Malcolm S. (1998) The adult learner.

John Dewey’s System of Learning

 Experience  Important to understand interns’ past experiences in order to effectively design a “liberating educational experiences” to allow the person to fulfill their potential  Democracy  Continuity  Interaction Dewey, J. (1938/1997).

Experience and education

. Macmillan.

The Field Instructor as Facilitator

 Set the mood or climate for learning  Clarify the purpose of assignments/tasks  Provide detailed directions at first  Enhance student’s desire to learn  Organize resources and make them available

The Field Instructor as Facilitator

    Review student’s workload regularly Clarify expectations for student’s performance Encourage feedback from your student Be available to your student – intellectually and emotionally

Goals of the Learning Plan

 Learning Plan negotiates the externally identified needs with the learner’s internal needs and interests  The Learning Plan provides a vehicle to make learning experiences a mutual undertaking between learner and field instructor

Steps to developing a Learning Plan

 Step 1: Identify the learning needs • • Social work competencies identified by profession Can include other competencies unique to individual or agency Step 2: Specify learning objectives • What student will learn , not what student will do

Steps to developing a Learning Plan

 Step 3: Learning Activities • What will be done to achieve the learning objectives  Step 4: Evaluation Criteria • Evidence of accomplishment  Step 5: Time Frame • When will the activity begin/conclude

Thinking about Supervision

     Recognize shift in role • Helper of clients

to students

mentor/educator/supervisor of “Start where the student is” • Doer

to

explainer Practitioner to one who assists student with interpreting/applying theory to practice Member of agency hierarchy

to

colleague/ collaborator with intern as well as evaluator of intern Employee

to

one who advocates for student’s positive learning experience Ortiz Hendricks et al, quoting Perlman quoting Aptaker, (1966), (4-5).

Thinking about Supervision

 Self-assessment  Education and experience  Supervisory/teaching style  Consider strengths, weaknesses, limitations  Recall your own field experience  Identify agency supports and stressors impacting you

Thinking about Supervision

 Assessment of student         Previous work/volunteer experience Student’s specific interests Theoretical knowledge Organizational understanding Attitudes and values Goals and objectives for placement Prior experience being supervised • Expectations of field instructor Obstacles to learning

Thinking about Supervision

 Helpful to take

Personal Style Inventory (Field Manual p. 108 ff)

• • Encourage student to take as well Looks at preferred ways of thinking & behaving in 4 dimensions along a continuum Much like Myers-Briggs Inventory  • Useful for discussing personal styles, and how they may impact the supervisory relationship

Personal Styles Inventory

I

– Introversion Independent Reflects Careful before acting

N

– Intuition Avoids others Misunderstood by others Needs quiet to work

E

– Extroversion Interacts with others Is open Is well understood

S

– Sensing Does not work without people Needs change, variety Is impatient with routine Sees possibilities Works out new ideas Solves novel problems

T –

Thinking Is inattentive to detail Leaves things out in leaps of logic Jumps to conclusions Is logical, analytical Has critical ability Is just Does not notice people’s feelings Does not show feelings Shows less mercy

P

– Perceiving Compromises Sees all sides of issues Is not judgmental Is indecisive Does not plan Does not finish projects Is practical Is patient Is careful, systematic

F

– Feeling Loses the overall in details Is frustrated with the complicated Prefers not to imagine the future Understands needs, values Demonstrates feeling Persuades, arouses Is not objective Is uncritical, overly accepting Bases justice on feelings

J

- Judging Decides Plans Remains with a task Is unyielding, stubborn Is inflexible, not adaptable Wishes not to interrupt work See

Field Manual (p. 108 ff)

.

Developing the Supervisory Relationship

  Discuss your role & student’s role  Boundaries Discuss student’s concerns as they arise    Give feedback from strengths perspective • Clear, consistent, supportive

and also …

Critical, challenging and constructive  Help student feel valued as person and colleague

• Developing the Supervisory Relationship Agenda suggestions:  

Sample agenda (Field Manual, p. 46)

Review

Learning Plan

regularly: are we on target?

     Discussion of clients, projects and assigned tasks • What skills is student gaining?

Help student link theory to practice Give feedback that is clear, consistent, ongoing • More focus on + than Practice skills and techniques Look ahead … • Termination with clients, with field instructor, with agency • Professional development Gray, S.W., Alperin, D.E., & Wik, R. (1989). Multidimensional expectations of student supervision in social work. The Clinical Supervisor, 7(1), 89-102, cited in Dettlaff, Alan J.

Discussion

1.

2.

3.

You and your partner recently broke up. Your student is observant and notices your mood. She asks you what is wrong Your agency is going through difficult restructuring. How do you address this with your intern?

You notice a change in your student, who recently began crying during supervision. How do you handle this?

1.

2.

Sustaining the Supervisory Relationship

• Modeling Encourage an open, exploratory process of give and-take as relationship develops  Avoid being defensive as encourage feedback on how things are going • Encourage exploration of different points of view  Critical reflection on decision making process “Think aloud” about steps took to arrive at a decision; were steps adequate? Did I omit alternatives? What assumptions did I make about the client? the community?

Sustaining the Supervisory Relationship

3.

• • Ask discriminating questions Ask questions that require critical thought to answer   What are the pros/cons of being more confrontive/more supportive with client at this point in your work together?

Why do you think stakeholders aren’t buying into the project? Any ideas?

Help student move beyond ‘gathering’ info to interpreting & evaluating

Sustaining the Supervisory Relationship

4.

5.

• • Identify themes Help intern look for themes in clients’ or groups’ words and behaviors Help intern develop abstract thinking and cognitive growth • • Use ongoing assignments to sustain relationship Process recordings Review

Learning Plan

regularly

Sustaining the Supervisory Relationship

6.

• • Co-construct competence *  Ask about accomplishments What has gone well this week?

 How

did

you manage that?

Look for “accelerators” to progress   What has helped you be able to connect with a client before? be successful implementing a new program?

How can we put that into place in this situation?

* Thanks to Dr. Barbara Early for her strengths focused discussion of “co-constructing competence.”

EARS (Elicit, Amplify, Reinforce, Start over)*

• • • •

E

licit

:

What went well?

A

mplify

:

What was good about it?

R

einforce

:

Wow! How did you

do

that?!

S

tart over

:

What else went well?

*Thanks to Dr. Barbara Early for EARS, taken from a presentation she gave on cognitive-behavioral theory and supervision.

We look forward to working with you!