Direct Practice Interests of Entering MSW Students

Bridging the Crevasse Between Direct Practice Social Work and Management by Increasing the Transferability of Core Skills

“…Butler's findings are consistent with others who found students shared a dual interest in direct practice and the profession's traditional focus on disadvantaged populations (Bogo, Michalski, Raphael, & Roberts, 1995;Limb & Organista, 2006). Although the data on student interest in direct social work appears to be less than what Rubin and Johnson (1984) originally reported, the current literature indicates that approximately 80% of MSW students' primary interests are in direct practice (Austin & Ezell, 2004).…”

“…In their study of incoming MSW students, Rubin and Johnson (1984) indicated that 86% of incoming students were obtaining the MSW degree to enter private practice, 82% were planning to be in private practice within five years of graduation, and the majority were not committed to the profession's focus on helping disadvantaged groups of people. Two years later, a follow-up to the study found that while students were less likely to believe they would enter private practice upon graduation than when they entered the program, respondents still remained most interested in private practice (Rubin, Johnson, & DeWeaver, 1986).…”

What Changes MSW Students' View on the Mission of Social Work?

“…In fact, more than half (57.5%) of the members of the NASW reported they were engaged in some forms of private practice (Gibelman and Schervish, 1996). Likewise, today's students are more interested in entering social work as a pathway to private practice as a therapist than previous students (Rubin and Johnson, 1984;Rubin et al, 1986;Specht and Courtney, 1994), which predominantly emphasizes individual change over societal change. To no discredit of any MSW program dedicated to assuring the learning opportunity of a generalist practice model to their students, it is believed that social work students are often trained as clinical practitioners, known to emphasize individual change with limited attention given to advocacy and social change (Ehrenreich, 1985).…”

“…The author stressed the need to pay particular attention to ethnicity and age of students when addressing issues related to social work values and attitudes. With regards to the influence of race/ethnicity, research reported that students of color showed more preference for working with disadvantaged clients (Rubin and Johnson, 1984;Abell and McDonell, 1990;Limb and Organista, 2003).…”

“…Although numerous attempts have been taken to examine the motivation, aspiration, and preference in terms of the areas of practice for social work educators (Rubin and Johnson, 1984;Rubin et al, 1986;Butler, 1990), limited attention has been paid to the students' view on the primary social work mission. The choice of whether to emphasize individual adaptation or social change as the primary mission of social work is crucial because, as mentioned above, attitudes and beliefs influence how social workers define problems associated with their clients in practice.…”