BSW Field Journal Section 1

Date:

September 28, 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: 9/22/2015

Total Hours: 8.5

Hours Worked: 9:00 am 5:30 pm

Daily Activity
Come in and gather info and questions
for supervision
Work on lit search for ACT project

Hours

Rating

.5

Supervision with Shelley

GOALS Training

Make Biographical Sketch for research

.5

Intake meeting for process recording

Type up and complete process
recording

Lunch

.5

N/A

Total Field Hours (do not count lunch)

BSW Field Journal Section 3

EXAMPLE
Event Analysis
Description/Data
(Objective)
I was observing an intake meeting with Shelley of a new client. She was meeting a 12
year-old girl and her mother. The school referred them to come talk to Shelley because
the client was showing signs of gender confusion. The client was very into anime comics,
and kept changing her name on her schoolwork to a boys name from a comic. When
Shelley asked why she did this, she didnt answer. This was in front of her mom. When
her mom left the room, she opened up and told us that sometimes she wished she was a
boy. This is what she told the school, which is the reason they referred her. She was
uncomfortable discussing this in front of her mother. She told us to not tell her mom that
she said that she considered herself gender fluid and also has friends who feel the same
way. Other concerns brought up in the meeting where about how the client was very
anxious in school and also argued with her mom a lot.
(Subjective)
The way that the client was talking, it seemed like she really did not want to become a
boy. She told us that she didnt like being a girly-girl all the time. In my and Shelleys
opinion she is just exploring gender. We didnt think there was a problem. We even
asked her if she knew the difference between masculinity/femininity and physically
switching genders. She said that she likes being a girl and wouldnt want to physically be
a boy. We decided that the gender fluid tendencies she claimed to have were normal. I
did feel badly for the girl because she felt like she was truly hiding something from her
mom. It was hard for me not to pass judgement because its something thats pretty
uncommon for me to experience. We thought her anxiety was more of an issue than the
gender concern.
Assessment/Understanding
In Individuals and Families, Dr. Evans taught us specific skills when interviewing clients.
Those include normalizing, empathy, not minimalizing their problems, etc. Here, Shelley
and I tried to normalize her experience. We did not want to make her feel like her
concerns werent important, but we did tell her that it was normal to not want to be a
girly-girl all the time. We leveled with her and told her that we werent 100% feminine
all the time. We assessed the situation and decided that as of right now this was not a
huge issue. We were more concerned with her anxiety and placed more emphasis on that.
Contract/Plan
We scheduled a follow up meeting in order to develop a treatment plan. Since the mom

also had concerns about her anxiety, thats what the treatment plan will revolve around.
The gender fluid worry mom had would be put on the backburner and well focus on
the clients anxiety instead.

BSW Field Journal Section 4

Biweekly Learning Summary

COMPETENCY 3: Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional

judgements.
Under this competency there is a practice behavior that addresses effectively using oral
and written communication skills when working with individuals, families, groups,
organizations, communities, and colleagues. Every day at my agency I verbally
communicate with my supervisor and other colleagues. Also, almost every day I am
engaged in written communication through email. Being able to communicate well with
colleagues and supervisors is really important for treating clients, as well as getting tasks
done. With my senior project and all the different people involved, its really important
that I have written communication skills in order for everybody to be on the same page. I
am constantly emailing everyone about data and information I found and keeping
everyone up to date. We also had a research meeting in Danville with all the
psychologists and post-docs, as well as the psych professor from ECU via phone. I
verbalized my project idea and proposed the possible measures and next steps to take.
Everyone pitched in and collaborated to narrow down the options. This open dialogue
and communication between everyone was great. It made me feel like I had a lot of
people to help me if I needed it. Communication between colleagues is crucial to problem
solving and most effectively working with clients.
COMPETENCY 6: Engage in research informed practice and practice informed
research.
I believe that I am able demonstrate the practice behavior Student uses
placement/practice experience to formulate research proposal and inform scientific
inquiry through my senior project. I will be involved in the ACT adolescent group
throughout the semester. When developing a proposal to evaluate the outcomes of this
group, I did extensive literature research in order to come up with measures and ideas. I
sent these to the psychologists at all the clinics, post-doc fellows, and the man from East
Carolina University. I never expected to be involved in research during my placement.
By evaluating the outcomes of this group (even only as a pilot study) Ill be engaging in
evidence-based interventions. The clinic doesnt specifically know that this type of
intervention works with adolescents. By proving that this intervention is (or is not)
effective, that will allow Geisinger Pediatrics to decide whether to continue or
discontinue the program. I am helping provide the evidence that theyll need to decide
this. To them, their practice experience allows them to think this is an effective
intervention. But having hard facts about the programs efficiency will better allow them
to engage in research informed practice.