Running head: EVALUATION OF PRACTICE

Evaluation of Practice
Kelly E. Burg
Wayne State University

EVALUATION OF PRACTICE

Introduction
Spaulding for Children is an adoption and foster care agency, located in Southfield,
Michigan. As an intern, I have been fortunate enough to be working closely with the foster care
side of the agency. I have had many interactions with birth parents, foster parents, and the
children. This has allowed me to gain a strong knowledge about child welfare. The experience
from the internship has allowed me to use my competencies and apply them to practice while
working with clients. Throughout this paper, the evaluation of clients, skills used at then agency,
improvement of social work skills, experiences that were gained, and the values and ethics of
social work that were developed will be discussed.
Evaluation of Practice
The evaluation of practice with my clients has improved since September when the
internship begun. Before starting, I wasnt sure on what to expect. I wasnt comfortable with my
communication skills one on one with clients. It took me about four months to break in and
become comfortable working individually with clients. When evaluating my progress, I am
impressed with how much I have opened and began to get comfortable when working in person
with clients and making phone calls to clients. I know that there is room for growth within my
practice. I know I need to improve on asking more appropriate questions at the right times. I
catch myself often by asking questions that arent related to what is being talked about. This
often throws off clients and gets our conversations off topic.
Community Systems
When working with clients, I know that an impact is being made. The clients are seeking
out for help to the agency because they want to be reunified with their children. The birth parents
may be court ordered to receive services. The case workers are making an impact on these clients

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by giving them the proper resources to help them become reunified. The services may not only
help impact them by getting their children back. These services may be impacting the clients
personal life. If a client is addicted to drugs or alcohol, services such as personal therapy or rehab
may help save their own life.
Skills at the Agency
In order to work in the area of child welfare, such as foster care and adoption, a social
worker must be able to provide clients appropriate and professional service. They must adapt and
learn to use certain skills within the agency. Communication and listening skills are important
when working in foster care and adoption. Case workers must be able to listen and document
what is said by a client or interactions with a client. If something isnt documented, it didnt
happen. Case workers need to understand the person and environment from which a client comes
from. The Case workers need to look at the background of a client and understand issues they
may have faced such as substance abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, or sexual abuse.
Working in foster care and adoption case worker must be educated on different resources.
They must be able to provide the clients with the correct classes that he or she may need to
become reunified with their children. It is also important that social workers provide clients with
empathy. They need to be understanding of what a client has went through in order to help
understand the situation that has occurred.
Population and Field of Practice
Before starting my placement, I was interested in working with children and families. I
worked at a school district for five years prior to this internship. After being placed at Spaulding
for Children, I am 100% sure that children and families are not the populations that I want to
work with. My personal values were challenged under many different circumstances. I had a

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difficult time with my personal opinion and my professional opinion. Child welfare isnt an easy
area to work with in social work. Communicating with birth parents who may have physically or
sexually abused their children was very challenging.
I have learned that this is not the correct population or field of social work that I should
pursue. Working with children, birth parents, and foster parents is challenging because there is no
way that you can make everyone happy in the situation. The population is an at risk population
who may have a difficult time providing food, shelter, and clothing to their children. Although I
love children, I just dont believe this is the correct population I want to pursue. I want to try
working with probation and adults next.
Improving Social Work Practice
To improve my social work practice with my client population, I need to put my own
personal values aside. As a social worker, I must remain professional at all times, even if I
disagree with the situation. To improve my skills, I need to use my communication and listening
skills better. There have been several times where I misinterpreted something that was being said
by a client. This happened because sometimes the clients arent speaking clearly or mumbling
their words. I need to clarify what I hear by validating what was said by repeating it back to the
client.
As a social worker, I need to ask more questions to get more in depth information about
different situations. I feel like sometimes I rush conversation with clients if I am on the phone or
in person because I feel like I am just an intern and not practicing yet. I should still take my
internship seriously just as if I was a professional social worker. I feel as if my answers to clients
arent correct or fully answered the way they should be, therefore I will transfer them to my
supervisor to make sure it was answered correctly.

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Experiences and Knowledge

Spaulding for Children has provided me with wonderful experiences. Every day at the
internship is always different. There is always something new and exciting that is happening.
Being involved with different cases has given me a better understanding of the client and
environment from which they come from. There is always a reason behind the reason why a
client is the way he or she is.
I have been working closely with one case since I started in September. I have seen the
whole case progress. The children came into care when I first started. The next month, the
fathers rights were terminated because of physical abuse. He was charged with physical abuse
because he cut his daughters cornea of her eye with a sharp object and legally blinded her. The
mother had to legally split up from the father in order to keep her rights to the children. She is
still having difficulty remaining apart from this man. Although she denies seeing him, through
home assessments it was proven that he is still around.
I have learned from this case that you cant trust a clients word, even though she is
compliant with everything. As a case worker, you must value social justice. Watching this case
unfold I have gained knowledge about social change in a persons environment though this case
because her whole life changed within one day. She lost her husband, children, and another
source of income. As a case worker in foster care and adoption, the worker must make sure that it
is a safe environment for the children to go back to. I have gained the knowledge of
understanding what to look for when doing home assessments to assure that the children would
be going back to a safe home.
(Papell, C. 2015) The social worker must be aware always that categorizing in the
human behavioral sciences is a theoretical activity for the purpose of organizing phenomena, and

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that no human experience is fully explored by any theory, because dialectical and ecological
relationship with living inherently creates newness. In the assessment process social workers
train themselves to start with the perception of the real world using theory not to tell us what is
there but to illuminate our perceptions. This quote shows that understanding knowledge must
be explored with different theories.
Understanding Values and Ethics
Values and ethics are important in any professional job. As a social worker, they must
follow the NASW Code of Ethics. The six main set core values that a social worker must follow
are service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships,
integrity, and competence. Spaulding for Children has shown me the importance of these values.
No matter the situation, these values all must be followed. (NASW. 2016) The Code is designed
to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or
ethical uncertainties arise. This Code helps relate to my placement because I have had many
professional obligations that have arose and I needed to make sure I kept my values professional.
This placement has also allowed me to understand how important dignity and worth of a
person is, as well as how important integrity is. Dignity and worth of a person is important
especially in child welfare because for the most part, these parents are living in poverty. The
social worker must remember to treat everyone in a respectful manor no matter the
circumstances. Working with birth parents is challenging because you may be working with
someone who abused their child and you must remain professional as a social worker. At my
placement I have also began to understand how important integrity is because all social workers
must behave in a trustworthy manner. When doing reports, the social worker must provide all

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truthful information. They must be responsible and attend home visits monthly, court hearings,
and provide their clients with resources if needed.
This assisted me in the development of social work practice because I am now familiar in
what to expect when working with clients. These values have shown me how important it is to
remain professional at all times when working with people who may be in poverty or dealing
with a certain personal issue. I must put aside my personal thoughts and remain professional at
all times.
Conclusion
Spaulding for Children has help me build my knowledge and apply my skills based on
the competencies of practice. I have improved on my skills since the beginning of my internship.
This experience has also helped me understand how important values and ethics are in social
work. My experiences will forever be remember. I cant wait to begin my own career as a social
worker and be able to help clients every day to make an impact!

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8
References

National Association of Social Workers. (2008). Code of Ethics of the National Association of
Social Workers. Washington, DC. NASWA Press. Retrieved from
http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp.
Papell, C. (2015). The Use of Knowledge in Social Work Practice. Crossmark. Volume 38, Issue
3 & 4. (pp. 305-306). Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/doi/full/10.1080/01609513.2014.94678
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