The field placement is an important component of all health-care degree programs. It is the key context in which theory and classroom teaching can be observed, applied and integrated through practice and the process of skill development. In Social Work, the Council on Social Work Education refers to field placements as the “signature pedagogy” of the profession, underscoring the preeminence of this component of the degree.

The issue of how to generate sufficient numbers of student placements in agencies has long been a concern for both universities and the field alike. On the one hand, there has been increasing pressure on the practice community to supervise more students as degree programs have increased their admission quota. On the other hand, hospital settings in particular have experienced well-documented challenges that have negatively impacted their abilities to offer field placements, especially due to high volumes, acuity and complexity of caseloads, as well as restructuring of hospitals and the loss of clinical positions.

Within this context, the social work service at Sunnybrook has developed an innovative and unique approach to ensuring that each of our staff is fulfilling their education mandate in working in a teaching centre. We have developed and implemented a Social Work Student Education Standard (SSES), adopted in May 2010. This is one standard within the profession’s “Standards of Practice” document, which sets out the minimum standards of professional practice, expectations, and accountability for all social workers at Sunnybrook in regard to student education. The aim is to ensure consistency and equity across all areas of practice, and in so doing, to ensure participation in teaching activities, specifically in the area of offering student placements.

In essence, the SSES clarifies the nature and components of social work field education at Sunnybrook and sets forth the indicators and activities for social workers, in line with the University of Toronto Teaching Centre Guidelines. It has been affirmed that such expectations for education should be made explicit in job descriptions and in the process of new staff hiring, as well as incorporated into performance appraisals of existing staff members. Clearly, a key indicator in the SSES is the one that states: “All staff are expected to offer an MSW practicum a minimum of once every 2 years if it is undertaken in a rotational model, or once every 3 years if it is a full placement”.

This standard is really a formalizing of the activities one expects from a staff member who chooses to work at a tertiary care centre such as Sunnybrook, where our mandate includes being a teaching hospital and a centre of excellence in student education. The assumption is that if you choose to work here, you commit to educating students, and to doing so continuously. However, we recognize that such a standard does not speak to the issue of the quality of the education program, nor the subjective approach undertaken by the staff members in carrying out these activities. Indeed, you simply cannot ‘standardize’ a passion for teaching!

Since implementing the standard in 2010, social work staff participation in education activities at Sunnybrook, including offering student placements, has increased. We are currently in the process of evaluating the impact of this standard through a research grant from the Bertha Rosenstadt Trust Fund at the University of Toronto, to be completed in 2014. We believe the SSES is the first of its kind in Canada, and that it will have further positive impacts in its potential for replication across other health care disciplines.

If you’d like more information about the SSES, or would like a copy, please email illana.perlman(at)sunnybrook.ca.

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