PRACTICE AND RESEARCH - AN INTEGRATED MODEL FOR THE EDUCATION OF SOCIAL-WORK INTERNS

The Practice Research Center is a joint endeavor between Adelphi Unive rsity Graduate School of Social Work and the Department of Social Work Services at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, This paper will descri be the work of the research center from 1983 to date. This collaborati ve effort of agency and school is focused on the students' acquiring a n understanding and appreciation of a scientific/analytic approach to knowledge building for practice. Research opportunities for social wor k staff and students contributed to the initiation of empirical studie s. The studies focused on current topics of interest that formed the d elivery of social wort, services, enhanced programming and added to th e knowledge of practice. Studies included a hunger survey; a survey of psychiatric patients' understanding of their illness following a psyc he education intervention; a retrospective study to determine the exte nt to which breast cancer information influences a woman's surgical op tions of a lumpectomy or mastectomy; a two-tier study focused on the c haracteristics of foster children and the delivery of social work serv ices; a patient and family satisfaction survey of psychiatric patients and their families. The authors will discuss the educational principl es related to this effort.