Surviving your social work placement / Robert Lomax and Karen Jones.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This clear and concise textbook is an invaluable guide for students embarking on their social work placements. Packed with tips, quotes, activities and illustrations, it offers coherent advice on how to get the best out of practice learning opportunities, as well as an insight into students' perspectives for practice assessors, lecturers and practitioners. Following the process of placement, the book guides students through their preparation for practice placement modules by presenting helpful ideas and practical advice on how to overcome potential challenges and make the most of the opportunities offered to students on their placements.Written by experienced academics, this is an essential companion for students at any stage in their social work course, as well as those studying other areas of health and social care practice.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Brief contents (p. v)
• Full contents (p. vii)
• Exercises (p. xv)
• Figures and tables (p. xvii)
• Acknowledgements (p. xix)
• Meet the authors (p. xxi)
• Introduction (p. xxiii)
• 1 Getting started (p. 1)
• The role of placements in social work training (p. 2)
• Preparing for placement (p. 3)
• Organising the placement (p. 3)
• Waiting to hear about your placement (p. 4)
• Planning to begin your placement (p. 5)
• Home and family life (p. 6)
• Making contact with your placement for the first time (p. 7)
• Practice placements in your own agency (p. 9)
• Getting started on your placement (p. 10)
• Your first few days (p. 10)
• Getting to know the people involved in your placement (p. 11)
• Induction (p. 11)
• Office culture - the things that are not written down (p. 14)
• Finally (p. 14)
• Further reading and resources (p. 14)
• 2 Learning for practice (p. 15)
• Celebrating your strengths and acknowledging your learning needs (p. 16)
• Strengths and needs analysis (p. 16)
• Using your Learning Action Plan (p. 18)
• Your learning agreement (p. 18)
• Taking control of your learning (p. 20)
• Watch what's going on around you (p. 20)
• Ask questions and talk to people (p. 21)
• Read as widely as you can (p. 21)
• Make good use of your study time (p. 22)
• Models of learning (p. 24)
• Honey and Mumford's learning styles (p. 24)
• Race's ripples (p. 26)
• Kolb's learning cycle (p. 27)
• Getting to grips with reflection (p. 28)
• What is reflection? (p. 28)
• Models of reflection (p. 28)
• Gibbs's model (p. 28)
• Fook's model (p. 28)
• Critical reflection (p. 29)
• Tools for learning (p. 30)
• Reflective diaries (p. 30)
• Knowledge maps (p. 31)
• Critical Incident Analysis (p. 32)
• Finally (p. 32)
• Further reading and resources (p. 33)
• 3 Using theory and knowledge in practice (p. 35)
• Theory in everyday life (p. 36)
• The importance of theory for social work practice (p. 38)
• What is theory for social work? (p. 38)
• Coping with contradictions between theories (p. 38)
• Developing a narrative of theoretical knowledge (p. 38)
• Using theory in practice (p. 39)
• Formal and informal theoretical knowledge (p. 40)
• Formal theoretical knowledge (p. 40)
• Informal theoretical knowledge (p. 42)
• Fitting it all together: theoretical knowledge for practice (p. 44)
• Other kinds of knowledge for social work (p. 45)
• Procedural knowledge (p. 45)
• Legal and policy knowledge (p. 45)
• Empirical knowledge (p. 45)
• Knowledge about services and resources (p. 46)
• Fitting different kinds of knowledge into the jigsaw (p. 46)
• Linking knowledge, skills and values (p. 46)
• Skills for social work practice (p. 46)
• Values for social work practice (p. 47)
• Finally (p. 48)
• Further reading and resources (p. 49)
• 4 Values and ethics in practice (p. 51)
• Some definitions (p. 53)
• Statements and codes of ethics for social work practice (p. 54)
• International codes of ethics (p. 54)
• UK codes of ethics (p. 55)
• Demonstrating values and ethics on placement (p. 57)
• Personal values (p. 58)
• Your values and where they come from (p. 58)
• Changing personal values (p. 58)
• Professional values (p. 59)
• Professional behaviour (p. 59)
• Unprofessional behaviour (p. 60)
• Professional boundaries (p. 61)
• Professional pitfalls (p. 61)
• Professional ethical dilemmas (p. 61)
• Social work values: the big picture (p. 63)
• Power and social justice (p. 64)
• Power (p. 64)
• Social justice (p. 66)
• Finally (p. 67)
• Further reading and resources (p. 68)
• 5 Keeping service users central to your learning and practice (p. 69)
• The context of service user involvement and participation in social work (p. 70)
• Ideological approaches (p. 71)
• Models of service user participation (p. 72)
• The Ladder Model (p. 72)
• The Bridge Model (p. 74)
• The Hub and Spoke Model (p. 76)
• The Service User Question (p. 77)
• Service user feedback (p. 79)
• The experience of giving feedback (p. 79)
• Getting feedback (p. 80)
• Service user participation and social work values (p. 82)
• Finally (p. 83)
• Further reading and resources (p. 83)
• 6 Making the most of supervision (p. 85)
• What is supervision? (p. 86)
• The four functions of supervision (p. 87)
• Organising supervision (p. 88)
• Planning (p. 88)
• Supervision agreement (p. 91)
• Supervision records (p. 91)
• Group supervision (p. 92)
• Undertaking your placement in your own agency (p. 93)
• Working with practice educators and practice supervisors (p. 93)
• Informal supervision (p. 94)
• Ground rules for informal supervision (p. 95)
• Working together (p. 95)
• Power dynamics in supervision (p. 96)
• Using feedback (p. 97)
• Disappointment and difficulties (p. 97)
• Finally (p. 98)
• Further reading and resources (p. 98)
• 7 Being assessed (p. 99)
• Assessment (p. 100)
• What is assessment? (p. 100)
• Approaches to assessment used in the UK (p. 100)
• Using the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) (p. 102)
• Holistic assessment (p. 104)
• Social work values (p. 104)
• Statutory tasks and contrasting placements (p. 104)
• Placement people and structure (p. 106)
• The practice learning team (p. 106)
• Key meetings (p. 108)
• Identifying examples of your work (p. 109)
• Assessed observations of practice (p. 109)
• Service user and carer feedback (p. 110)
• Practice documents (p. 110)
• Reflective writing (p. 111)
• Other types of examples from your placement (p. 111)
• Identifying examples of your work (p. 112)
• How do I know if my work is good enough? (p. 113)
• What if you think you might not pass your placement? (p. 114)
• Finally (p. 114)
• Further reading and resources (p. 115)
• 8 Managing stress on placement (p. 117)
• What is stress? (p. 118)
• What changes occur in your body when you are stressed? (p. 118)
• Why can placements be stressful? (p. 120)
• Avoiding stress (p. 120)
• Looking after your basic needs (p. 121)
• Looking after yourself on placement (p. 121)
• Managing your stress (p. 122)
• Identifying what is contributing to your stress (p. 122)
• Changing how you work with the source of the stress (p. 124)
• Managing sources of stress that are hard to change (p. 125)
• What if you feel you need extra help? (p. 128)
• Who may be able to help? (p. 128)
• Finally (p. 129)
• Further reading and resources (p. 129)
• 9 Troubleshooting (p. 131)
• Resolving issues related to practice learning (p. 132)
• Team and agency issues (p. 132)
• University-related issues (p. 138)
• Personal issues and taking time out from placement (p. 139)
• Problem solving on placement (p. 140)
• Unresolved placement issues (p. 140)
• Not succeeding on placement (p. 140)
• What happens next? (p. 142)
• Finally (p. 142)
• 10 Moving on from your placement (p. 143)
• Planning and achieving positive endings (p. 144)
• Moving on (p. 144)
• Coping with mixed emotions (p. 144)
• Positive endings: service users and carers (p. 145)
• Positive endings: your practice educator (p. 145)
• Positive endings: the team (p. 149)
• Positive endings: yourself (p. 150)
• Assessing your professional development (p. 150)
• Professional development plan (p. 155)
• Returning to university (p. 155)
• Preparing for your first social work job (p. 156)
• Finally (p. 157)
• Further reading and resources (p. 158)
• Appendix (p. 159)
• Appendix A Professional Capabilities Framework for Social Workers (England) (p. 159)
• Appendix B HCPC Standards of Proficiency (England) (p. 162)
• Appendix C Standards in Social Work Education (Scotland) (p. 163)
• National Occupational Standards for Social Work (Wales) (p. 164)
• National Occupational Standards for Social Work (Northern Ireland) (p. 164)
• References (p. 165)
• Index (p. 169)

Author notes provided by Syndetics