The Hunter Experience

Summary

Rotation in field education is a new phenomena with potential for increasing student's knowledge of increasingly complex social work practice environments. With support from The John A. Hartford Foundation, the Hunter College School of Social Work/Brookdale Center on Aging Geriatric Field Practicum Partnership Program developed and implemented a field rotation model. The goal of Hunter's rotation model is to maximize student exposure to the continuum of care in geriatric social work services. This paper describes the process of developing a field rotation model, and presents early results on exposure to the continuum of care and the impact of rotation on students and field instructors. Pre-liminary results suggest that students and field instructors responded positively to field rotation. With improved skill at administering rotations in field education, field instructors and social work educators may be more responsive to its greater utilization.

Key Words:

• Field rotation model
• geriatric social work education
• practicum partnership