New Partnership Yields Nursing Simulation Experience for Field Prep Students

University of Alabama nursing students and social work majors participate in a simulated screening in 2017.

UA nursing and social work faculty are able to monitor and modify the simulation from a control room.

Social work educators are looking to offer high quality experiential learning opportunities to improve student abilities to develop problem solving skills, critical thinking, and to build competence in practice.

Traditional classroom learning methods standardly utilize role plays and case studies. “Although they have a value in introducing students how to apply social work concepts, they are limited in scope,” said Shayla Smith, BSW field coordinator. “Simulations introduce complexities experienced in reallife settings that deepen students’ ability to integrate classroom concepts to real-life settings.”

Simulation activities can approach concepts such as navigating the unreliability in the human exchange, experiencing emotions evoked in crisis interventions, building self-awareness as students learn to explore the areas of diversity, and establishing clear roles while balancing team dynamics.

The Field Office partnered with the Capstone College of Nursing in spring 2019 to create an interprofessional simulation experience. Seven students were randomly selected from SW 444 - the field preparation course - to participate in the nursing simulation experience in order to apply basic interviewing and assessment skills. The goals of the simulation exercises were to demonstrate their ability to engage and establish rapport, acknowledge and respond to information, probing, reflecting, and asking open-ended questions.

The goal of repositioning simulation in the curriculum closer to entering the field is that students will build confidence in their ability to apply generalist skills in reallife settings. Pre-field simulation exercises strengthen the ability to transition into field practicum by providing a forum to connect classroom concepts to practice scenarios, engage self-reflection, and offer feedback from peers and educators.

This program created an intercampus partnership with the nursing school, which offers an existing comprehensive simulation program. The partnership created an opportunity for both social work and nursing students to practice and hone their skills in a learning environment that strongly mimics real interactions with clients and team members, prior to entering their clinical experiences.

Collaborative efforts between social work and nursing faculty led to the development of a simulation exercise in which both social work and nursing students have the opportunity to assess, engage, evaluate, and intervene.

BSW STUDENT NEWS

UA nursing and social work faculty are able to monitor and modify the simulation from a

Social work faculty engage with and assess students during the simulation exercise, similar to role plays and standardized clients utilized in classrooms in years past. Now, instead of reading a script from a sheet of paper and adlibbing as warranted, faculty are able to streamline the scenarios while students engage in a more realistic setting. In this simulation, this program utilized two faculty per simulation; Kimberly Gibson, MSW field coordinator, focused on being the patient, while Shayla Smith, BSW field coordinator, focused on the student interaction. Both faculty members then met with the student during the debrief. Students self-reflected on their interaction and their skills of assessment, engagement, evaluation and intervention while faculty also provided feedback.

Smith said students described the experience as a rewarding opportunity and that it was effective in contributing to their professional growth and development.

USWO officers picked for state conference

Undergraduate Social Work Organization executive committee officers Allison Neyman, president; Molly Collimore, vice president; and Leah Brown, secretary, were selected to attend the Alabama Conference of Social Work’s 103 rd Annual Conference in Orange Beach in February, 2019.

Baker selected for NASW role

BSW student Amanda Baker was appointed as a BSW student representative on the NASW-Alabama Chapter 2019-2020 Board of Directors.

Shortly after earning her undergraduate degree in psychology, Christina Jones accepted a job in a law office. It was initially a temporary job to bridge to her first “career” job, but she quickly transitioned to doing case management for the firm, which specialized in personal injury cases.

Her role at the firm illuminated the complex issues clients faced and the “presuppositions” lawyers had in trying to serve their clients.

“In that role, I saw the outlines for social work in each of these cases, especially as we served so many indigent clients,” Jones said. “I wanted to do everything for them, but I wasn’t able to.”

Jones’ experiences led her to the MSW program at The University of Alabama School of Social Work, and, in the 2019 spring semester, a transformative field placement that would reimmerse her in the field of law and test the boundaries of ethics between law practice and social work.

Jones was placed in the UA law clinic, primarily in the Elder Law Clinic, where law school students referred her cases in which clients had needs that social workers would typically handle.

The placement was a first for both the UA School of Law and the School of Social Work and presented many logistical and ethical challenges to Jones, her field supervisor, Dr. Leah Cheatham, and her law school task supervisor and Elder Law Clinic director, Allyson Gold. During the first half of the placement, Jones was part of a multi-disciplinary model in which she operated as a social worker independent of the law students at the clinic, which prevented her from knowing details prior to receiving a client. This arrangement was done to shield Jones from potential ethical dilemmas in confidentiality and mandated reporting, Cheatham said.

The second half of the placement allowed Jones to work closer with the law school students and have greater access to case details, which allowed for a more enriching interaction and further tested her comfort of her “ethics being pressured.” Jones said being safeguarded against these ethical dilemmas in the first half of the internship was constricting and frustrating. But, when she provided updates about her placement in her field seminar, she found that, unlike her classmates, she felt more comfortable operating under two sets of ethics.

“I wanted to view myself within the construct of the law school ethics and social work ethics and see where I felt I found that, when we were functioning with our own separate ethics and I didn’t know details, I felt like I was more implicated because I didn’t have the opportunity to talk and share. I was just ignorant to whatever was going on.”

A ‘SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP’ When Jones interviewed for the field placement, she was told that having a social worker at the clinic embodied the clinic’s message for its students to explore the significance of their clients’ problems and how, “holistically, they arrived at those problems.”

For instance, lawyers might not consider how someone fighting a home foreclosure may have variables beyond their control, like the status of family members living in the home.

Jones said the law students began to see clients more like people that were hindered by their environment. And, with additional context, law school students were able to better define client issues and how to address them.

“They felt like they had the headspace to process and discuss it,” Jones said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t label it or talk about, not to reject it, but because it didn’t process and was easy to overlook, especially to lawyers, who have very clear definitions for everything they talk about.”

Jones further expanded the law students’ knowledge of social work resources and how to connect clients by creating an 80-page resource guide to fit the categories they would need. The law students were “shocked” by the number of services in the seven counties they serve, Jones said.

“To be able to provide that to them and to let them know, ‘you can provide these referrals to clients, even if there’s not a social worker involved in your case,’” Jones said, “they felt empowered by this. They were building relationships past the legal ramifications of the case.”

PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL WORKERS

Social workers continually deal with the perception that they “tear families apart.”

Jones helped dispel this stereotype in her most challenging case of a complex family situation that

originally began as a land dispute. Some of the clients shared concerns about neglect of a family member who wasn’t a client. Typically, most lawyers wouldn’t dig deeper into that revelation, Jones said.

Jones, though, under social work ethics and being “implicated emotionally,” had to find out more.

“They presented the case to me without names, so I wouldn’t be implicated legally,” Jones said. “They shared the conversations with me, and from our different vantage points, our team discussed situations like this in which they would not have to report it.”

The team decided to allow Jones to talk to the family, and she discovered “tension and a broken family.” She ultimately recommended the clients speak with family members about the neglect, which was unsuccessful, she said.

“We then encouraged them to go to DHR,” Jones said, “so I didn’t feel like I was implicated by not reporting.

“This conversation was a good opportunity to show the law students that just because you report something, it doesn’t mean we take anyone and break up families.”

MACRO, MEZZO OR MICRO? If Jones seems destined for a career in law, she agrees ... sort of. Jones aspires to work with children who have been abused or trafficked. She’ll complete a macrolevel internship with Shared Hope International, a human trafficking policy agency in Washington, D.C., before completing her MSW.

Working in a legal setting isn’t off the table, whether or not she pursues a juris doctorate. Wherever her postMSW career goes, she said her case work at the law school will be an asset.

At the 48th annual Alabama-Mississippi Social Work Conference in early October 2019, she discussed the importance of knowing the “innerworkings” of a case to maintain rapport with clients, which social workers aren’t always privy to. This factor was revealed in her case work, field placement and in her work with the Working on Womanhood intervention program for teens in Tuscaloosa.

“I found that working in personal injury law as a case manager – when I didn’t need to know everything – I immediately felt the shift in the relationship,” Jones said.

MSW STUDENT NEWS

Cayla Bush receives Albert Schweitzer Fellowship

MSW student Cayla Bush was named a Schweitzer Fellow for 2019-20 and has partnered with PRIDE of Tuscaloosa to address substance misuse among adolescent girls.

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship immerses a diverse group of graduate students in a mentored experiential learning and leadership development program designed to increase their skills and commitment to more effectively address the health needs of underserved people.

While continuing their graduate studies, Schweitzer Fellows are required to design, implement, evaluate and plan for the sustainability of community-based prevention and intervention projects that address the social determinants of health.

“Currently, I visit young girls at the Tuscaloosa Juvenile Detention Center weekly,” Bush said. “We discuss a variety of topics such as life skills, self-esteem and career readiness. However, our main focus is about substance use. My goals are to create a curriculum guide for substance abuse prevention for adolescent girls in detention centers and to increase the awareness about substance misuse.”

Bush’s faculty mentor for the fellowship is Dr. Karen Johnson, assistant professor of social work at UA.

Schweitzer projects typically encompass a wide range of subjects including the physical environment where people live, early childhood literacy, exercise and nutrition, access to health care, and equity for minority populations. Because Fellows are recruited from a wide variety of academic programs, they benefit from extensive interdisciplinary interaction, both with peers and mentors.

Following their initial year of service, Fellows become “Fellows for Life” and then join a group of professionals united by a common experience during graduate training and a common commitment to continue serving vulnerable populations through their work and service, thereby perpetuating the legacy and philosophy of famed physician-humanitarian Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

Two students receive McNair Fellowships

MSW students Angela “Angie” Smith and Rebekah Koen received UA Graduate McNair Fellowships in 2019.

The University of Alabama awards McNair Graduate Fellowships for entering graduate students who have either completed a McNair Undergraduate Scholars program or meet other eligibility requirements –first-generation student or member of a traditionally underrepresented group in graduate education. Master’s students receive a minimum of one year of support through a departmental assistantship or equivalent.