Exploring graduate students’ perceptions about social work licensing

Start Where the Social Worker Is: Social Workers’ Perceptions of Clinical Licensure in Nebraska

“…Consistent with other studies, this study found that social workers and OMHP understand the purpose of licensing and believe in licensure (Bibus & Boutté-Queen, 2011; Miller et al, 2015a, 2015b, 2017). This finding, and the studies that came before it with similar conclusions, signal to researchers, educators, and clinical supervisors that ongoing attention to licensing is imperative.…”

“…Granted, the current study is limited and represents social workers in primarily one state. However, this finding is consistent with concerns about the inclusion of licensure information within the social work curriculum (Miller et al, 2015a). It is essential to view this finding as an area for future exploration.…”

“…The extant literature on perceptions of clinical licensure primarily stems from macro licensure for social workers practicing in non-clinical settings (Donaldson et al, 2014(Donaldson et al, , 2016Pine & Healy, 1994) and students or faculty (Cherry et al, 1989;Miller et al, 2015aMiller et al, , 2015bMiller et al, , 2017Miller et al, , 2021. Other relevant research regarding perceptions of licensure includes Boutté-Queen's ( 2003) study of the perceived barriers to licensure, which found no significant relationship between licensing costs and perceived barriers to licensing.…”

Perceptions of Macro Social Work Education: An Exploratory Study of Educators and Practitioners

“…One respondent wrote, " [Clinically-bounded] licensure is the death of macro practice and is tragic for the future of social work" (p. 9). These results suggest that graduate social work curricula may favor educational content reflective of state licensing options, even if this is an unintentional outcome (Miller, Deck, Grise-Owens, & Borders, 2015). Fogel and Ersing (2016) note that there has been a decline in completed social work dissertations with a focus on macro practice, and suggest that this decline may be related to fewer faculty members interested in and prepared to teach this content within schools of social work, an area that warrants further study.…”

Social Work Licensure and Regulation in the United States: Current Trends and Recommendations for the Future

“…Research on the efficacy of social work licensure and practice regulation is limited in scope and volume (Kim, 2022; Miller, Deck, Grise-Owens, & Borders, 2015; Hill et al, 2017). Most significantly, perhaps, it is empirically unknown whether passing a national exam predicts greater social work practice competence.…”