SWN021 Professional Practice 1

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

Critical application of values, knowledge and skills to work effectively within organisations is a key component of the social work degree. This first 500- hour practicum provides the opportunity to consolidate your learning through working in real world practice settings. In addition, there is an advanced skills training (mediation) stream where students will become eligible to practice mediation in their final placement. Under the supervision of a qualified field educator, you will demonstrate capabilities necessary for ethical practice in accordance with the AASW Practice Standards and Code of Ethics.Through direct practice experience in a designated context, you may be exposed to direct practice with individuals, groups, communities; working with diverse groups and cultures; policy analysis and development; developing critically reflective practice skills and research and knowledge generation.

This is a designated unit which is essential to your course progression. Designated units include professional experience units, units requiring the development of particular skills, and units requiring demonstration of certain personal qualities. If you fail to achieve a satisfactory level of performance in a designated unit, you may be excluded from enrolment or will be put on academic probation. If you fail a designated unit twice within your course, you may be excluded. Supplementary assessment is not available on designated units.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Interpret and critically apply social work ethics and values in accordance with the AASW Code of Ethics (2020).
2. Critically apply appropriate social work theories, knowledge and evidence, to inform effective and ethical practice across all mediums, including digital mediums.
3. Critically apply respectful, inclusive and collaborative working relationships with people who have different and diverse cultural identities, values, affiliations, beliefs and customs.
4. Apply critical reflective thinking, analysis and assessment skills to the complexities of social work practice.
5. Apply advanced professional social work interpersonal and intra-professional communication skills when working with others in a variety of contexts, including digital contexts.
6. Apply practise skills with appropriate personal autonomy, ensuring accountability in practice.

Content

Learning Approaches

This is an experiential unit of study requiring your critical engagement. You are required to undertake 500 hours of real-world practice experience within an appropriate agency as identified by the Field Education Unit, involving regular social work supervision. You should complete the first placement four days per week although a minimum of three days per week will be considered. You and your supervisor/s are supported on placement by a QUT Liaison Visitor. To achieve greater connections and peer support development this unit fully utilises Canvas capabilities and provides access to key reading and support materials.

Pre-placement planning: You must enrol in the unit approximately five months prior to the commencement of placement. You are also required to attend a three-hour planning/preparation workshop comprising of information preparing you for placement. Placement commences in either pre-O week or O week. You will be contacted by email correspondence from the WILS team and unless you meet all of the requirements, a placement will not be offered.

Workshops during placement: In addition to the pre-placement workshop, there are two workshops for you to attend. These three hour workshops occur mid-placement and at the end of placement, providing you with critical reflection opportunities.

Professional Practice 1 is part of QUTs Work Integrated Learning. You will perform the authentic role of the social worker. The audiences are your clients, communities, placement organisations and other stakeholders. Your purpose is to contribute to the positive outcomes for your clients, communities and placement agencies.   

Career development and employability: Practising as a social worker, under direct social work supervision is not just an AASW mandated part of social work education but it also offers you direct experience on which you can build your career. 

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback will be provided in the field education environment by the field education agency supervisors and QUT Field Education Unit.

Assessment

Overview

Assessment in this unit is based on your performance during the field education placement. Performance in the unit will be graded as Satisfactory (S) or Unsatisfactory (U). All performance requirements must be completed to a satisfactory standard to achieve an overall satisfactory grade for the unit. You must complete the required 500 hours.

Unit Grading Scheme

S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Placement performance

During the field placement you will be required to demonstrate a range of knowledge, skills and values that are commensurate with the unit learning outcomes. Assessment is through mid (250 hours) and end of placement assessment of competent performance and learning as evidenced in Learning Plan and Assessment Reports [LP&AR]. If necessary, assessment of performance will be informed by external supervisors and liaison visitor reports.

The LP&AR is the central placement document. Students must complete this plan in consultation with placement supervisor and liaison staff. Six [6] examples of evidence that demonstrate achievement of the six AASW Standards for Practice.

You must show how you have developed your understanding and social work practices with Indigenous Australians. 

You must also satisfy the 100% attendance requirement for this field placement.

Only the submission of documentation (LP&AR, timesheets and evidences) is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Weight: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Threshold Assessment:

For the purposes of professional accreditation and demonstration of capabilities/competencies, you must achieve a satisfactory level of performance in both the theoretical and practical elements of the unit to achieve a passing grade. Resubmission is not usually available for an Unsatisfactory result for placement performance.

Assessment: Placement performance presentation

You have been asked to design a presentation of your practice framework which is an accumulation of your learning of theory integrated with work-based practice whilst on placement. You have also been tasked with delivering your framework presentation to your peers and members of the Field Education team as an online 10min digital poster. In the digital poster you will critically and creatively illustrate and justify to your peers, a professional practice framework which reflects your learning according to the AASW standards of practice.

Your framework presentation will be relevant to the target audience (your peers and the field education team) and informative and engaging to host organisations and practicum supervisors. The innovative approaches in your poster presentation (product) will highlight the potential of your professional practice framework in bringing about social change in the work for social justice. This process will also assist you in future social work job interviews.  

Threshold Assessment:

For the purposes of professional accreditation and demonstration of capabilities/competencies, you must achieve a satisfactory level of performance in both the theoretical and practical elements of the unit to achieve a passing grade. If you do not receive a satisfactory grade for the placement performance presentation one resubmission may be negotiated.  

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Requirements to Study

Requirements

Students are required to receive orientation to the agency workplace health and safety policies, and any specific risks and hazards associated with the particular agency setting.

Many organisations now require students to possess a National Criminal History Check, as this can take up to 6 weeks to process, students are encouraged to apply for this in the semester prior to undertaking their placement. For more information please contact health.wils@qut.edu.au .

Any placement in a health setting requires students to have completed their Hepatitis B and COVID-19 immunisations, along with other vaccinations. Liaise with the Faculty of Health WILS team to clarify what immunisations are required at health.wils@qut.edu.au

Blue Card

A blue card is required to complete this unit. A blue card confirms that you have passed a screening of your criminal history (the Working with Children Check) and have been approved to work with children and young people. For more information on the blue card and how to apply please visit the QUT website.

Costs

Placement requirements carry additional costs. Further information is available here: https://qutvirtual4.qut.edu.au/group/student/enrolment/your-fees/study-costs/tuition-fees

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

Cleak, H., & Wilson, J. (2019). Making the most of field placement (4th ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Recommended text(s)

Morley, C., Ablett, P., & Macfarlane, S., (2019). Engaging with social work: A critical introduction (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Risk Assessment Statement

You are also encouraged to have your Hepatitis B and COVID-19 vaccinations completed prior to your placements. Any placement in a health setting requires you to have completed their Hep B immunisation and COVID-19 immunisation, along with other vaccinations. 
 
You are required to participate in a total of 500 hours of off-campus work integrated learning practice – the placement experience. When undertaking field education placements, you are automatically subject to the Workplace Health and Safety Policies, Procedures and Regulations operating within these particular agencies and also QUT WHS requirements. You are required by law to comply with these policies and procedures at all times. Measures undertaken to minimise risks encountered during the off-campus field education placement include:

You are required to receive orientation to the agency workplace health and safety policies, and any specific risks and hazards associated with the particular agency setting.

The placement experience can result in some students experiencing emotional or psychological reactions to particular situations to do with the agency or relate to personal issues experienced by the student. It is essential that you disclose any information that may predispose you to such reactions and potential distress. Should this occur, you are strongly encouraged to advise your agency supervisor and Field Educator to ensure support is able to be provided.

Information regarding insurance cover for students undertaking university-approved activities within Australia is available at  https://qutvirtual4.qut.edu.au/group/student/jobs-and-careers/get-work-experience/insurance

Course Learning Outcomes

SW81 Master of Social Work - Qualifying

1. Critically evaluate and apply critical social work theories, knowledge and skills that reflect the professional standards of the discipline and identify with the values and ethics that guide professional practice, including the recognition of diversity, human rights and promotion of social equality and justice.
   Relates to: Placement performance
2. Formulate strategies for engaging in critical thinking, decision making, critically reflective and culturally safe practice to create innovative and contextually responsive interventions that work towards emancipatory change.
   Relates to: Placement performance
3. Apply digital capabilities while accessing and evaluating relevant bodies of knowledge that guide collaborative, intra- and inter-professional practice with diverse populations (individual, groups, communities) to promote and advancing socially just outcomes.
   Relates to: Placement performance
4. Communicate respectfully and work effectively with diverse groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, LGBTINBQ+, refugee, disabled and older populations, their families, carers, interprofessional teams and community leaders, to ensure safe and coordinated support for their interests and rights.
   Relates to: Placement performance, Placement performance presentation
5. Practise professional integrity, and effective written, oral and digital communication to analyse and convey complex information and build productive relationships across diverse stakeholders to promote ethical social work practice.
   Relates to: Placement performance, Placement performance presentation