Direct Practice Interests of MSW Students: Changes from Entry to Graduation

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

“…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). In a similar study of incoming MSW students, Butler (1990) found that while more were interested in the profession's mission to help the disadvantaged, the majority (84%), were still seeking a career in direct practice.…”

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).…”

“…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.…”

Bridging the Gap: Gerontology and Social Work Education

“…Interest in aging has been defined as the intention to learn about aging in order to pursue a career in gerontology (Damron-Rodriguez, Kramer, & Gallagher-Thompson, 1998). It is particularly noteworthy that social work students tend to rate their interest in geriatric practice as being low in comparison with other areas such as mental health, child welfare, health, and family services (Abell & McDonell, 1990;Butler, 1990;Damron-Rodriguez & Lubben, 1997;Fredriksen-Goldsen, Hooyman, & Bonifas, 2006;Olson, 2002;Rubin, Johnson, & DeWeaver, 1986). And yet, by the year 2020, it is projected that approximately 70,000 gerontological social workers will need to be ready to meet the needs of a diverse older population (FredriksenGoldsen et al, 2006).…”