Building competency in self-care for social work students: a course-based case study

ABSTRACT

There is increasing recognition that social work educators must do more to ensure that social work students transitioning into the profession are prepared to engage in adept self-care practices. However, documented curricular efforts targeted at meeting this aim are few. This paper documents the impact of a credit-bearing self-care course on student (N = 40) competency about self-care. The course occurred in a social work education program at a large public institution in the United States. The researcher used a pre-experimental (e.g. pre/post) design to assess course outcomes. Results indicate significant improvements in student knowledge about self-care, skills related to engaging in self-care practices, and value related to self-care. After a review literature, this paper will provide a foundational overview of the course, delineate outcome variables and measures, explicate evaluative findings, and discuss salient implications derived from this endeavor.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-Care
• social work education
• curriculum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. Jay Miller

J. Jay Miller is the Associate Dean for Research, Associate Professor, Director of the Self-Care Lab, and the Doris Y Wilkinson Distinguished Professor in Social Work Education in the College of Social Work.