A PILOT-STUDY OF FIELDWORK ROTATIONS VS YEAR LONG PLACEMENTS FOR SOCIAL-WORK STUDENTS IN A PUBLIC HOSPITAL

A comparison of two types of fieldwork was undertaken with 26 social w ork students in a large urban hospital. The first group was assigned t o a traditional, year long placement. The second group was assigned to three successive placements of approximately 10 weeks each. The impac t of these two types of placement on students' general sense of self-e fficacy, self-efficacy regarding specific hospital social work activit ies and perceptions of the work environment, was assessed. Initial res ults suggest that both groups produce virtually no change in students' general sense of self-efficacy, yet produce positive changes in stude nts' self-efficacy regarding hospital social work. In addition, result s suggest that the fieldwork rotation used in the second group may pro duce somewhat more positive views of the work environment.