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The concept of professionalism
An essay about professionalism i
Thoughts on professionalism and the importance of it
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Professionalism in the social work field goes beyond licensure and expertise (Cournoyer, 2014). According to Cournoyer (2014), social work professionalism encompasses the concepts of integrity, self-efficacy and knowledge, self-understanding and self-control, and social support (Cournoyer, 2014). Embedded in social work professionalism is the person-environment perspective, which posits that our personal attributes, interactions and relationships with others, and environment influence a social worker’s practice. Cournoyer stresses that it is a social worker’s responsibility to acknowledge and regulate his or her personal biases, ideologies, and beliefs when working with clients in order to prevent them from negatively impacting the therapeutic …show more content…
alliance and client outcomes (Cournoyer, 2014). As a prospective social worker, I intend to strengthen my understanding of my own personal biases and ideologies by doing mindfulness exercises so that when I do become a licensed social worker, I can provide unbiased, ethical services to my clients. At the center of the person-environment perspective is one’s personality characteristics.
My Big Five Personality Test results revealed that I typically do not like to try new things, I am well organized and reliable, introverted, courteous and supportive of others, and generally relaxed. Some aspects of my personality can be beneficial in social work practice. For instance, I scored high on agreeableness and low on neuroticism, which means that I am reliable, trustworthy, altruistic, and emotionally stable. Since a central component of the therapeutic alliance is the client’s ability to depend on a social worker to provide effective and ethical services to that client so that the client may have positive outcomes, these personality traits can benefit my practice. However, one trait that may not benefit my practice is scoring slightly low on openness to experience. Since I typically do not like to try new things, it may be difficult for me to adapt an innovative approach and try new therapeutic techniques with clients if I have already found a method that works, which could ultimately limit the scope of services I provide. To offset this tendency, I will utilize my proclivity for continuous learning to increase my willingness to try new therapeutic approaches with …show more content…
clients. One’s personality can influence how one handles unanticipated situations. For instance, I scored high on the General Self-Efficacy scale, but scored slightly low on openness to experience meaning I am generally confident that I am equipped with the skills needed to effectively handle any given situation, however I usually do not like to try new things (Cournoyer, 2014). I tend to exhibit low levels of self-efficacy when I am in a situation where the stakes are high and I do not feel like I am able to adequately address a situation. For instance, when working as an intern at Big Brothers Big Sisters, I was responsible for getting hefty donations for that particular branch and did not feel like I had the skills needed to persuade companies to donate money to the organization so as a result, I acquired few donations. Cournoyer (2014) emphasizes that it is essential for social workers to not only be competent, but also confident when working with clients in order to provide ethical and effective services to clients. To strengthen my self-confidence in my social work practice, I plan on using positive self-talk to lessen my doubtfulness. Cournoyer (2014) states that social workers must engage in honest and ethical acts when providing services to clients. I scored highly on the integrity and work ethics test meaning I could see the rationale behind dishonest acts when taking into account situational factors in a given circumstance, but do not condone them. I exhibit strong integrity in my relationships with my family, friends, and significant other. However, I have struggled to be honest in situations where I believe lying would save a person from distress or concern. For instance, I lied to my parents about becoming a smoker even though they suspected I was because I did not want them to worry about me. Since it is difficult for me to be truthful to someone when I know it will provoke unwanted thoughts or feelings, I can see that this will be a challenge for me to overcome when working with clients in the future. I can overcome this challenge by attempting to understand how my client might feel if I were to defy his or her trust. Integrity and neutrality are two key players in ethical social work practice.
Cournoyer (2014) holds that if a social worker is self-aware, then he or she can ensure that one’s personal issues and biases remain personal in a professional setting. I scored high on the self-control measure, which indicates that I can manage my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors such that I can simultaneously acknowledge their existence, understand how they might impact my client, and decide how I should react based on my client’s best interests. However, in situations that are emotionally arousing, it is difficult for me to consider other’s thoughts and feelings because when my emotions are raging a disconnect occurs between my intellect and emotions, which in turn produces a narrowed, one-sided perspective. To counteract this tendency, I will practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises when working with clients to ensure my focus remains on the
client. On the relational level, family dynamics and childhood experiences influence one’s development (Cournoyer, 2014). Cournoyer (2014) emphasizes how essential it is for social workers to be aware of how one’s family dynamics and childhood experiences may have impacted one’s attitudes, values and beliefs, personality, and behavior. Creating a family genogram can help foster a better understanding of how one’s family experiences affected one’s personal characteristics (Cournoyer, 2014). I found that when creating my family genogram I began to see intergenerational patterns such as my parents and I are hard workers and creative thinkers (see Figure 1). Since it is inappropriate for such family patterns to be present in a professional relationship, it is important for me to recognize and identify my own family patterns in order to prevent them from developing in future relationships with my clients. It is imperative that social workers not only understand how personal and family dynamics, but also how ecological contexts affect him or her (Cournoyer, 2014). These environmental circumstances can be illustrated by an eco-map, which is a diagrammatic representation of how one’s family and environment interact (Cournoyer, 2014). Cournoyer (2014) explains that an eco-map identifies relationships that are energy-enhancing, energy-depleting, or balanced and can pinpoint which relationships are strained or harmonious. When creating my own eco-map, I found that I have rather pleasant, harmonious relationships that are energy-enhancing with my immediate family members (see Figure 2). Having a strong and reliable social support will allow me to focus on my clients’ issues rather than on my own. According to Cournoyer (2014), social workers must have extensive social support and energy-enhancing relationships with others because without them he or she will lack the personal resources needed to address his or her own issues and therefore, may increase the likelihood of a he or she seeking relational support from his or her clients. I am confident that I will be able to focus on my clients’ issues because I have a stable support system. As revealed by my Social Support Appraisals Scale results, I experience the greatest social support from my parents and receive a fair amount of support from my friends. I would like to get more support from my best friend because she can consistently provide me with the quality support I need. Communicating and spending more time with my best friend could give us more opportunities to support each other. Increasing communication is the key to strengthening my social support network, which in turn will ensure that my personal issues stay personal when working with clients. Social work professionalism occurs within the context of one’s self, one’s interactions and relationships with others, and one’s environment. Cournoyer (2014) emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and managing one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors when working with clients in order to prevent personal biases, beliefs, and ideologies from influencing the services social workers provide. Self-reflection fosters a better understanding of all facets of the self, which in turn ensures a social worker’s ability to provide effective and ethical services to clients (Cournoyer, 2014). Reflecting on my results from various questionnaires has highlighted my strengths and weaknesses in all aspects of social work professionalism. Recognizing areas where I may struggle or thrive in the social work field has made me more mindful of where I need to focus my attention. As a result of this self-reflection exercise, I can confidently say that I understand myself better and I will continue to use self-reflection as a means of preserving my objectivity when working with clients.
Entering the field of social work you must be prepared to encounter many personalities. Knowing this, you have to become aware of people with different backgrounds and morals. By doing this you will be able to help your clients to the best of your ability, without forcing your personal beliefs or values on to them. A value is a set of rules or or beliefs that affect your every day decisions (Sheafor & Horejsi, 2011). Applying your personal values to every situation is very important, however, you must learn to separate what you know and what is in actuality the best outcome for your client. I will be discussing the ways I feel about the “Vignette’s”, while also incorporating different things I have learned from the readings and class discussions.
Social workers have many tools at their hand to enabling personal values to remain in check. The general practitioners communication with supervisors and collages can provide guidance on this issue. They can attend professional workshops pertaining to subjects such as ethics, and maintaining professional relationships. Social workers can continually evaluate their own values and beliefs and seek professional help such as therapy when
Interprofessional practice is essentially the collaboration of multi-disciplinary professionals to achieve a common client-centred goal and in doing so, better assist with the complexity of the clients’ challenges (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2015, McCallin, 2014). Whilst the ability to work in partnership with other professionals is essential in creating the best outcomes for a wide variety of client care (Pecukonis, Doyle, & Bliss, 2008), social workers face a range of boundaries that may limit their ability to work coherently, including miscommunication, lack
Social workers may in their professional careers, be faced with situations which may cause them to question the next step. If social workers uphold their ethical standards, most challenging situations will be handled in a way that is fair to the client. Social workers must be aware of themselves as therapist in order to be an effective professional.
As a consequence of this, a trusting environment is created and the client feels safe and cared for (ibid). This can also be supported by Håkansson (2003) who portrays empathy as a shared experience between the empathizer and the target. The importance of being understood by another human being is indispensable for the client, not least because it can lead to self-understanding. Self-understanding can last a lifetime, longer than any professional involvement which may be passing (Trevithick, 2009). Geldard and Geldard (2008) argues that if a helper has not sorted out his or her own value conflicts, there is a risk that their own confusion will interfere with the ability to focus on the client's confusion, and the helper may inadvertently end up using the counseling session to resolve his or her own conflicts rather than the client's. It is important for a helper to not get to emotional when meeting a client. Social workers need to be in control of their emotions
Competencies are “measureable practice behaviors that are comprised of knowledge, values, and skills.” (Kirst-Ashman, 2010). Thus it can be said that competency takes more than skills and knowledge, it requires the right and appropriate attitude that eventually translates to behavior. For the reason, it is the "means" to achieve the "ends." One should always bear in mind that the competencies of each job position differ from one another and may influence our career decision making. I have mastered several skills that would enhance my performance in a professional social work setting. These include but they are not limited to problem identification and solution with the use critical thinking, excellent communication and organizational skills, building collaborative and trust worthy relationships, flexibility etc…
Social work practice is a profession where it works alongside the ‘code of ethics’, these consist of formal statements which represent values of the professional community. The national associations such as Britain state the core values within this field are human dignity and worth, social justice, service to humanity (human rights), integrity and competence. The professional field is regulated by the ‘British Association of Social Work’ (BASW). The core values within social work are huma...
Conditions of “engaging in appropriate study, training, and consultation,” while having competent people in intervention or techniques providing supervision is ethical (Code of Ethics, n.d.). Another criteria that defines competence in the field of social-work recognizes the role of the practitioner regarding identifying and targeting families that are troublesome, along with the negotiation of access which requires special consideration (Spratt, 2011). The profession of the social worker is to design alternative examples while viewing issues in order to understand and act upon social problems (Spratt, 2011). Through the continued required development of support and one’s understanding, along with the appreciation of the position the practitioner might take in the development of solutions rendering it effective, and considerations are made regarding what leads to harms taking place over the life-span (Spratt, 2011). As an example to substantiate this claim of competence, we see social workers working within their professional boundaries, while attempting to perfect their development in the field in order to “advance their expertise” (Code of Ethics,
According to Wilson (2011), the key to effective and successful social work is the quality of the relationship with the social worker and the clients. Furthermore, social work is all about relationships. Relationship with colleagues and organisation, relationship with the clients, and most importantly, a relationship with the self which means having recognises oneself to see others as a unique individual in various circumstances. As Harrison & Ruth (2007) stated as for the effective practice, one need to reflect, critically analyse their experience and make sense of what happened. Therefore, self-analysis and reflection influence social work
The social work profession is not only about the knowledge of the theories, ethical guidelines, values and principles of the profession, but also it’s about applying that knowledge to everyday situations. It is a profession dedicated to enhancing human capacity to solve complex social problems in order to create a more humane and just society (Arizona State University, 2013). In the profession, social workers are encourage to use their skills such as their critical thinking and especially their decision-making skills. In addition, they work in a number of different settings with diverse individuals. Although dilemmas will arise, social workers need to be culturally competent to work with others and to avoid breaching any ethical standards.
One of the things about my job I struggled with in the beginning was learning to separate my life from my job since I was so immersed in the work that I was doing and the people I was helping. Over time, I quickly learned how to set boundaries and the importance of practicing self-care. Burnout is very common in the field of social work, which is why I prioritized my well-being. My professional experiences have taught me how to become more emphatic. The ability to empathize with a client’s experience is one of the essential core skills a social worker should possess because it is an effective way to understanding client’s, emotions and behaviors. I also believe I possess is the ability to actively listen non-judgmentally. As a counselor, active listening is essential in order to establish a good rapport and validate client's feelings. The simple act of listening will not only establish trust with the client, but it will help the social worker determine which specific intervention is right for the client and teach effective coping
Todays society has the ability to create a significant amount of issues for individuals and communities as a result of neoliberal, individualistic ideologies underpinning the way in which our society functions. In response to these social issues, the government has implemented a number of services, programs and social security in order to sustain the wellbeing of its citizens (Ivory Research, 2013). As the social work profession is concerned with the provision of welfare and human services, they are often the implementers of social policy interventions within society. Subsequently, social workers are often influenced by social policy in their practice, profession and the impact that they have on their clients. Therefore it is essential to understand
Prior to having the class of Professional Values and Ethics, I assumed I understood the basic concepts of what defines a professional who has competence of values and ethics. Nevertheless, by being enrolled in this course, I have gained great knowledge of which professional values and ethical principles must be held by a social worker, which I did not know before. Progressively in this class, by learning professional values and ethics, my motivation to succeed as an upcoming social worker has gotten stronger.
Social work is one type of profession. Social work profession requires specific knowledge, skills, and values. The skills that social worker can apply in their profession are listening, counseling and communication skills. The values in social worker such as the value of self-determination, social justice, dignity, and worth of the person. Like other professions, social work has their own term. Example client or service user in social work refer to the people who come to ask for help in social work. Social workers do the assessment with the clients. The term “assessment” which have the same meaning as the term “diagnosis” in doctor profession. Social workers also contain different areas such as medical social workers,
There are certain ethics that social workers must follow and is a guidance for professional standard of work. However sometimes people are not aware of their own values, though the more fully conscious someone is about their values, the more people are able to ensure that their actions are consistent with the values. As a social worker it is vital to know the dangers of not taking account of values and the ethical dimension of practice. A social worker should see their client for who they are and not just another object that is unclear by their own emotions hence why self-awareness is a key to