Capella BSW & MSW Field Placement Guide

Your field placement is a structured course built on the nine CSWE Core Competencies. These are the foundational skills all social workers must possess.

The 9 CSWE Competencies

Your coursework and field tasks are designed to help you master these. The 2022 CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) detail these competencies.

• Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
• Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice
• Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
• Engage in Practice-informed Research and Research-informed Practice
• Engage in Policy Practice
• Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities (Micro, Mezzo, Macro)
• Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
• Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
• Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

BSW vs. MSW: BSW students focus on generalist practice. MSW students build on this with a specialized focus (e.g., clinical, macro), applying the competencies with greater depth.

This is often the most stressful part. Capella requires you to be proactive. Start your search at least six months early.

Where to Look

Your placement must match your academic level. BSW students need a generalist setting; MSW students need a specialized site (e.g., a mental health clinic). Look for:

• Non-profit community agencies
• Hospitals and healthcare systems
• School social work departments
• Government agencies (e.g., Child Protective Services)
• Policy and advocacy organizations

The Interview: Questions You Must Ask

Remember, you are interviewing them, too. A bad placement can be detrimental. Ask specific questions:

• “Who will be my Field Instructor? Are they an MSW with two+ years of post-graduate experience?”
• “What specific tasks will I perform?”
• “How do these tasks align with the 9 CSWE competencies?”
• “What is the supervision style? Is it a dedicated hour every week?”

The Learning Agreement is your contract, developed with your Field Instructor and submitted to your faculty liaison. It outlines how you will meet your learning goals.

For each CSWE competency, you will list specific “Practice Behaviors” (activities) you will perform. For “Engage in Policy Practice,” a behavior might be “Attend a staff meeting where agency policy is discussed and write a memo analyzing its impact on client services.”

You need one hour of supervision per 20 field hours. This is your core learning time; use it well.

How to Prepare for Supervision

Always come to supervision with a prepared agenda. A great agenda includes:

• A case where you feel “stuck.”
• An ethical dilemma you faced.
• A review of a process recording (see next section).
• A request for direct feedback.

Vulnerability is key. As a 2018 article in the Journal of Social Work Practice explains, supervision is where you learn to be reflective. This is also where you connect your field experience to your coursework, a common theme in custom writing service assignments.

The process recording is a valuable assignment. It’s a detailed, verbatim account of a client interaction, broken into columns, like a “lab report” for a session.

Process Recording Format

The goal is to slow the interaction and analyze your choices. Where did you use a skill? Where did your bias show up? This is how you develop self-awareness. It’s a complex form of case study analysis.

Your practicum will present ethical gray areas. Your guide is the NASW Code of Ethics. Refer to it often.

Common Dilemmas

• Confidentiality: When to break it (e.g., duty to warn, child/elder abuse).
• Dual Relationships: What if you run into a client at a store?
• Self-Determination: What if a client makes a choice you believe is harmful? Your duty is to respect their autonomy (within safety limits) while exploring the consequences.

Juggling classes, work, and client stories makes burnout a serious risk. “Vicarious trauma” and “compassion fatigue” are real occupational hazards. A 2024 article in Frontiers in Public Health discusses the high rates of burnout in the field. Your program requires a self-care plan. Take it seriously. It’s an ethical necessity for professional competence.