Assessing Outcomes

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PROCESS RECORDING 4

Social Work Research: Planning a Program Evaluation

Joan is a social worker who is currently enrolled in a social work PhD program. She is planning to conduct her dissertation research project with a large nonprofit child welfare organization where she has worked as a site coordinator for many years. She has already approached the agency director with her interest, and the leadership team of the agency stated that they would like to collaborate on the research project.

The child welfare organization at the center of the planned study has seven regional centers that operate fairly independently. The primary focus of work is on foster care; that is, recruiting and training foster parents and running a regular foster care program with an emphasis on family foster care. The agency has a residential program as well, but it will not participate in the study. Each of the regional centers services about 45–50 foster parents and approximately 100 foster children. On average, five to six new foster families are recruited at each center on a quarterly basis. This number has been consistent over the past 2 years.

Recently it was decided that a new training program for incoming foster parents would be used by the organization. The primary goals of this new training program include reducing foster placement disruptions, improving the quality of services delivered, and increasing child well-being through better trained and skilled foster families. Each of the regional centers will participate and implement the new training program. Three of the sites will start the program immediately, while the other four centers will not start until 12 months from now. The new training program consists of six separate 3-hour training sessions that are typically conducted in a biweekly format. It is a fairly proceduralized training program; that is, a very detailed set of manuals and training materials exists. All trainings will be conducted by the same two instructors. The current training program that it will replace differs considerably in its focus, but it also uses a 6-week, 3-hour format. It will be used by those sites not immediately participating until the new program is implemented.

Joan has done a thorough review of the foster care literature and has found that there has been no research on the training program to date, even though it is being used by a growing number of agencies. She also found that there are some standardized instruments that she could use for her study. In addition, she would need to create a set of Likert-type scales for the study. She will be able to use a group design because all seven regional centers are interested in participating and they are starting the training at different times.

Process Recording

Process recording is an appropriate tool used to document activities, interactions and conversations as they happen between a social work client and a field education experience student. In this process recording encounter, I will provide a transcript of what happened during my field education experience as I interacted with Mr. Mackinnon who was a recuperating fire victim, interpretation of what occurred in the dialogue including social work practice theories, description of my reactions with Mr. Mackinnon during the field education experience and how I applied social work practice skills during the process recording interaction.

A transcript of what happened during my field education experience as I interacted with Mr. Mackinnon , a student who was a recuperating fire victim when I visited a rehabilitation foundation where he was living. Mr. Mackinnon was undergoing social reformation in rehabilitation facility after experiencing severe burns while at a company premises where he was working and hospitalized (Ritchie, 2013). When I entered the room where Mr. Mackinnon was allocated to stay, I found him holding a small mirror busy looking on his image.

Me: “Good morning?” and looking at me he seemed shy and frustrated. After quite a while, like one minute or so of which he tried to hide his face from me he answered,

Client: “morning too.” He wanted to leave the room but I said to him,

Me: “please don’t leave, I have come to know how you are doing after your treatment. Kindly stay with me here,” I continued, “I am a field education experience student and very friendly and social. How are you doing now” I asked.

Client:“I am doing better but I am concerned with how my face and hands look after be burned,” he answered. He seemed gloomy and his eyes looked heavy and shy. I said to him,

Me: “I understand what you went through, but I have come to show you that the society and your friends love and miss you. Be strong and at peace, your skin shall gradually improve overtime.”

Describing my reactions with Mr. Mackinnon during the field education experience, I encountered a great feeling of sympathy for him and I tried to connect with his experience on the day of his fire tragedy. I felt pity for him but again my empathy become stronger. I imagined myself in his situation and I become so close to his condition until he noticed. His gloomy look on his face and the feel of escaping from my presence turned back and he could look me directly into my eyes without fear. He seemed to understand and trust my words when I told him that the condition would gradually improve overtime. His conviction moved from the mirror reality to the message of hope in my words.

I applied social work practice skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, attentive listening and communication skills during the process recording interaction (Greene, 2017). When I first saw Mr. Mackinnon, I started to imagine myself right in his condition and immediately I got the inspiration to encourage him. My emotional intelligence enabled me to be alive to what he was going through and sensitive enough to the kind of motivation he just needed from me at the moment. Again, I was very active to listen to his conversations and response and offered him immediate positive feedback. I applied the rightful communication skills so as to build a better state of hope than he was in.

References

Greene, R. R. (2017). Human Behavior Theory and Professional Social Work Practice. In Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice (pp. 31-62). Routledge.

Healy, K. (2014). Social work theories in context: Creating frameworks for practice. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., Nicholls, C. M., & Ormston, R. (Eds.). (2013). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. sage.