Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

Herb Shon, Ph.D

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the perceived preparedness among social workers who have graduated from a generalist social work practice program. By researching the preparedness of generalist practice social workers, the researcher will be able to gain insight regarding the self-efficacy and confidence among social workers with the generalist practice education and to better understand their commonalities as well as barriers. Due to the lack of research on the topic, is an exploratory research project. All data gathered in the interviews were analyzed with qualitative techniques. The interviews will aim to identify major themes and sub-themes to organize the data collected. Participants were asked about their perspective and lived experiences about their generalist practice education; the qualitative method used was phenomenology. Overall, the data collected from the research could possibly impact the outlook of generalist social work education as well as give future students the proper information to be able to decide on the type of education they would like to invest in. Through data collection, participants stated that previous work experience and their field placements had a major impact on their knowledge base going into the field. Secondly, most participants expressed that the generalist practice helped them obtain their first job upon graduation. Although most participants indicated a positive correlation with the generalist practice, they were able to highlight some suggestions for the generalist practice curriculum which include, having a DSM course and focusing on the student’s preferred theoretical orientation.

Download

Share

COinS