Are Social Work Students Prepared for Documentation and Liability in Managed Care Environments?

Abstract

Students from two Southeast MSW programs (N = 98) were surveyed in this exploratory study investigating their perceptions of liability and documentation in managed care environments. The findings suggest that students learned documentation skills in the field component of social work education (68.7%), and not in the classroom (29.3%). Respondents indicated they documented according to field site guidelines (87.9%) for reimbursement (70.7%). Finally, only 33.3% of students believed they had the necessary documentation knowledge and skills to protect themselves from a lawsuit; and fewer believed that the classroom (15.2%) or the field component (18.2%) of social work education prepared them to avoid liability or a lawsuit. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Key Words:

• Social work education
• managed care
• liability
• documentation
• field education
• skills