You are invited to be an expert evaluator for a set of lessons designed to integrate self-care values and skills across existing social work curricula.
You are also invited to share this post with your teaching colleagues. A diversity of perspectives, viewpoints, and experiences is very important for this research.
Who: Social work faculty
What: Review a 15-week self-care curriculum
Estimated time: 20-minute survey + flexible review + 1 hour interview
Deadline: August 7, 2026
"Self-care is paramount" to the professional functioning, education, and ethical activities of social workers. Recent academic research has found that student burnout can be predictive of professional burnout. There is very little literature around practical methods of preventing burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress for social work students. What recommendations do exist are instructor dependent and not uniformly implemented across the social work curricula. It is vital to understand what is currently being done in the classroom to promote self-care practices, what challenges and barriers are being experienced by faculty, and to facilitate sharing of best practices for self-care pedagogy!
Participation involves three (3) flexible phases:
- Phase 1: Pre-review questions focused on your experience, attitudes, practices, and challenges with self-care integration. This should take about 20 minutes.
- Phase 2: Curriculum review and evaluation using a Likert Scale. This will take several days to complete.
- Phase 3: Post-Review Interview. These will be scheduled upon completion of review of the set of lessons, throughout the summer, but must be completed by August 7, 2026.
Things to know:
- Participation is voluntary; you may withdraw at any time.
- There is no direct compensation.
- Responses are confidential.
- Non-participation has no impact on employment or professional standing.
If you would like to participate, please click the link below to complete the consent form, share your contact information, and complete the initial open-ended reflection questions.
Thank you in advance for your participation and for sharing this with social work colleagues. Please contact me with any questions!
Christy R. Collins, LCSW-S, DSW candidate
#ResearchandProgramEvaluation------------------------------
Christy Collins
Assistant Professor
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches TX
+1 (713) 689-4603
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