Field Directors

According to the new 2022 CSWE EPAS, universities with BSW & MSW programs can have the same field education director for both programs:

This might fall under the category of just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean you should. We just finished the first year of a new MSW program. I was the BSW Field Ed Director for the previous 7 years and thought I could manage it and start the MSW field program. Honestly, it has been a brutal year. It might have been different if we had slowly ramped up, but we had 39 students enrolled for our first semester of the MSW program and the structures that had been built around the BSW program were deficient for handling the complexities of the MSW side of things. I do think that maintenance would be different and could see a single person directing both BSW and MSW programs when both are established. But there are so many moving parts that, no matter how prepared you think you are, are unexpected.  

Hi Katharine, I think this is a great question and it is really interesting to see the wide range of how different schools structure the staffing of their field offices. I am the field director at West Virginia University. We have a BSW program and an MSW online and on campus program. As the director, I oversee all of our field education programs, however we have 2 field coordinators who do the bulk of the placements. I oversee our processes, am on most of our school's administrative committees so am involved in our policies and curriculums, I am involved in all of our field education scenarios that become more problematic, and we all teach field seminar courses. Our field coordinators have their work divided between our online program and our on campus program, so one coordinator does the placements for online students and the other coordinator does placement for on campus BSW and MSW students. We have approximately 200 students in field each year with a pretty even split between our online students and campus based students.

I will say this is the system that somewhat developed over the years, we began our online program about 4 years ago which resulted in hiring an online coordinator. At that time, we had a different field director and I was hired as the online coordinator, we have since shifted a bit and are continuing to evaluate our systems but this division is working fairly well for the time being!

I am the Field Director for our BSW and MSW programs. Our BSW program is small currently (around 200 students, with about 40 in field each year) and our MSW program is larger with about 250-275 students in field each year.  We just launced a small (20 student) online MSW cohort, but we are requiring that their placements be within our state currently.  I have a full-time field education administrative assistant and 3 full-time field placement specialists who do the majority of student placements.  Similar to Lindsey, I have a more administrative, programming, planning, problem solving role.  I manage all high level student field problems and also teach an MSW field seminar.  I think it is only manageable becuase I have such a robust team to support the student placement work.  I will say, it seems like every other year I lose a field specialist and am rehiring, so often I end up taking on a caseload of students to place while doing all of my other work and the hiring and training process and it's a LOT at those times.  When we're fully staffed and everyone is trained, things are much easier, but I know that only seems to last a short time unfortunately.  I think if you are starting a new program, now is the time to ask for adequate resources to grow the program because we all know how easy it is to take on more and more and more until it becomes impossible/miserable and how difficult it is to get resources allocated after the fact!

Hi,

I am finding this discussion so incredibly helpful as we are starting our MSW program this fall and have to make some of these staffing decisions.  I am curious about how many seminar classes you and your field education staff teach--and do you also conduct the advising or are there other MSW staff or professors that take on that role?  Thanks so much!

Staci

I am the Field Director for our BSW and MSW programs. Our BSW program is small currently (around 200 students, with about 40 in field each year) and our MSW program is larger with about 250-275 students in field each year.  We just launced a small (20 student) online MSW cohort, but we are requiring that their placements be within our state currently.  I have a full-time field education administrative assistant and 3 full-time field placement specialists who do the majority of student placements.  Similar to Lindsey, I have a more administrative, programming, planning, problem solving role.  I manage all high level student field problems and also teach an MSW field seminar.  I think it is only manageable becuase I have such a robust team to support the student placement work.  I will say, it seems like every other year I lose a field specialist and am rehiring, so often I end up taking on a caseload of students to place while doing all of my other work and the hiring and training process and it's a LOT at those times.  When we're fully staffed and everyone is trained, things are much easier, but I know that only seems to last a short time unfortunately.  I think if you are starting a new program, now is the time to ask for adequate resources to grow the program because we all know how easy it is to take on more and more and more until it becomes impossible/miserable and how difficult it is to get resources allocated after the fact!

I am the Field Director for our BSW and MSW programs. Our BSW program is small currently (around 200 students, with about 40 in field each year) and our MSW program is larger with about 250-275 students in field each year.  We just launced a small (20 student) online MSW cohort, but we are requiring that their placements be within our state currently.  I have a full-time field education administrative assistant and 3 full-time field placement specialists who do the majority of student placements.  Similar to Lindsey, I have a more administrative, programming, planning, problem solving role.  I manage all high level student field problems and also teach an MSW field seminar.  I think it is only manageable becuase I have such a robust team to support the student placement work.  I will say, it seems like every other year I lose a field specialist and am rehiring, so often I end up taking on a caseload of students to place while doing all of my other work and the hiring and training process and it's a LOT at those times.  When we're fully staffed and everyone is trained, things are much easier, but I know that only seems to last a short time unfortunately.  I think if you are starting a new program, now is the time to ask for adequate resources to grow the program because we all know how easy it is to take on more and more and more until it becomes impossible/miserable and how difficult it is to get resources allocated after the fact!

Katharine,

It's a heavy lift depending on the potential growth expected for the program. Both are nuanced in the ways you attend to student learning and prepare agencies. If an option, I'd say hire someone for one of those arduous positions and share the load.

Best, Warren Graham, Asst Dean of Practicum Education