Practicum I

Overview

Course description

This course provides opportunities for students at a beginning level to practice skills in selected sites under supervision. Students will integrate and reflect upon their educational, personal and professional experiences in practicum and seminar.

Course content

The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

Practicum settings create opportunities for students to apply skills in a social service setting while benefiting from the expertise of skilled mentors in the field.
Students gain both insight and practice knowledge from field experiences.
Practitioners who regularly and accurately assess and reflect on their performance and who set goals for their ongoing professional development are more likely to be effective in their work.
A well-developed personal philosophy of practice is a cornerstone of competent human service practice.

Learning activities

Seminar
Field practice

Means of assessment

This course will conform to Douglas College policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:

Practice reports
Self-evaluation
Field assessment

This course is graded Mastery/Non-Mastery

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, within the following content areas, the student will be able to:

Professional Skills:
- demonstrate professional skills consistent with Canadian Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics
- establish effective, professional working relationships with practicum supervisors, agency staff, clients and colleagues, including seeking and accepting feedback
- demonstrate ability to complete assigned workload in a timely and professional manner
- demonstrate ability to deal with time and stress pressures with professionalism
Administrative Skills:
- prepare accurate, objective, up-to-date file recordings, forms and letters, using appropriate terminology
Basic Knowledge of Agency and Community Resources:
- demonstrate basic knowledge of the agency and the needs of the clients serviced by the agency
- demonstrate basic knowledge of legislation and policies affecting the agency
- demonstrate knowledge of community resources and an ability to carry out referrals as appropriate
Interviewing and Communication Skills (colleagues and clients):
- demonstrate ability to conduct effective interviews with client
- demonstrate ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of clients utilizing an empathic, problem-solving and strengths-based approach
- demonstrate assertiveness, self-awareness and appropriate personal boundaries

Textbook materials

TBA

Requisites

Prerequisites

CSSW 1122

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

September 2014 (Current)