BSW Field Journal Section 1

Date:

September 14, 2015

Student Name:

Corin Marshall

Agency Name:

Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital

Agency Address:

425 East First Street

Suite 201
Bloomsburg, PA 17815

Field Instructors Name:

Dr. Shelley Hosterman

Field Instructors Phone and Email: sjhosterman@geisinger.edu

Field Liaison:

Tammy Carson

BSW Field Journal Section 2

Activity Log
Your first few journals of the semester are to include this Activity Log. This is
completely separate from your Hours Log (above).
The purpose of this assignment is to help you focus on individual events and tasks rather
than issues and situations. Additionally, this chart provides information to you and your
field liaison regarding the kinds of activities you are doing during the day at your
placement.
Record each daily activity and the time spent on that project. Then, provide a rating to
each activity. The activity ratings are based on your perception of their learning value
with a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high). After reviewing the log in your first few journals
your liaison will let you know whether you are to continue keeping a time log or can stop.
Date: 9/2/2015

Total Hours: 8

Hours Worked: 9:00 am 5:00 pm

Daily Activity

Hours

Rating

Go over orientation and got tour

Made crisis cards for people who are
suicidal
Assembled ADHD packets for parents
and teachers to fill out prior to
consultation about ADHD
Observed behavioral assessments with a
couple difference families
Reviewed Disruption Behavior Clinic
(DBC) manuals because I will be
helping Shelley lead these groups. I
read the parent group leader manual, as
well as the child group leader manual.

.5

Lunch

.5

N/A

Total Field Hours (do not count lunch)

7.5

BSW Field Journal Section 3

EXAMPLE
Event Analysis
Description/Data
(Objective)
I was observing a meeting that my supervisor (Shelley) was having with a 9 year-old boy
who has Autism. The mother, boy, and his sister were in the room. The boy seemed very
happy, despite his mothers comment that he has been extremely sad lately and has a hard
time expressing his emotions. She also said he was having a very tough time at school
with making friends. Shelley asked him how many friends he had, and he said he had a
lot of friends. But when she asked him to name them, he couldnt. The mother said she
was having difficulties controlling her anger and frustration around him, and that it
wasnt intentional but she got frustrated very easily. It seemed like there were a lot of
problems to address and that they really needed help from Shelley. This meeting lasted an
hour.
(Subjective)
My heart went out to his mother because having a child with Autism is not always easy.
It made me happy though that despite his hardships, he was a very joyful boy. My
personal reaction to hearing their story was neither positive nor negative. It was
somewhere in the middle. Hearing of all the struggles this family goes through upset me.
But, I was also happy because the boy seemed optimistic about making more friends at
school.
Assessment/Understanding
In this situation, I believe the best way to work with the boy would be to look at the big
picture in order to come up with effective solutions. By using the person-inenvironment perspective, you can see what outside factors affect him and take those into
consideration. We are taught from the very beginning of our social work courses about
person-in-environment (PIE). With this, you look at the person in their surroundings and
outside forces that shape what is causing problems. We can see that the boy has problems
at school and home. So taking these environments into consideration while developing a
plan are very important.
Contract/Plan
If I were Shelley in this situation, I would develop some simple interventions to help
alleviate the problems the boy was having. The kids and teachers at school are big factors
in his problems. Some of the teachers single him out during class, so I feel like having the
parents contact the teachers about this would be beneficial. So hopefully after the parents
meet with the teacher things will improve. I would also have the boy work on making

friends at school. Even if its just talking to someone new at lunch, that would be a huge
step for him. As for home, having the mom try really hard to not yell at him so much
would be a good goal. This would help the boy not feel upset because his mom is yelling
at him all the time. I would have a goal for the mom to work on. This would be to step
away from a situation instead of yelling at him. Hopefully this would be helpful to the
mother and the son.

BSW Field Journal Section 4

Biweekly Learning Summary

COMPETENCY 1: Identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself

accordingly.
Although I have only been in my agency for about 2 weeks, I feel like I conduct myself
accordingly while on site. I understand my role as an intern, and dont try to overstep my
boundaries. I also dress according the dress code, and act professionally around clients
and other staff members. When I observe meetings with Shelleys clients, I remain
attentive and dont offer advice or suggestions past my level of knowledge. I was in the
pediatric sleep clinic with another psychologist (Tawnya) and she put me on the spot
when deciding on interventions for a specific client. Although I am not an expert, I told
Tawnya what I thought the problem was and my suggestion to fix it.
COMPETENCY 2: Applies social work ethical principals to guide professional
practice.
Its really hard to have a completely unbiased opinion all the time. A mother and son
came in to talk to Tawnya about why they thought he was having sleep problems. The
mother was extremely harsh and nasty to her son when they were answering questions for
the psychological evaluation. I was really uncomfortable listening to them. She really
rubbed me the wrong way. So when we stepped out of the room to discuss possible
interventions, I did not talk about how I disagreed with her parenting. Instead, I tried to
remain as impartial as possible. Respecting the dignity and worth of the person, even
though I did not completely agree with how she was handling her son, was difficult. But I
applied this ethical principal in this specific situation.