Kathy Lay

Building a Lens for Critical Reflection and Reflexivity in Social Work Education

In order to fulfill the mission of the profession, social work educators are challenged to assist future practitioners to build a critically reflective lens for social work practice. This article presents a journey in utilizing reflection as a teaching tool in graduate social work education. A theoretical framework for utilizing critical reflection as a pedagogical strategy is presented. Specific tools for structuring reflection and enhancing critical thinking are offered. The authors discuss the process in moving from reflection which utilizes critical thinking skills to reflexivity which relies on critical social theory.

Teaching Students to Deconstruct Life Experience with Addictions: A Structured Reflection Exercise

ABSTRACT Students come to the classroom with life experience that may reinforce stigmatization of those who struggle with addiction. Educators must address this dynamic directly if addiction practitioners are to move beyond their personal experiences and come to understand the neuroscience of addiction, evidence-based practices, and the human potential for recovery. This article provides a structured reflection exercise that challenges future practitioners to deconstruct dominant narratives that foster stigma while making space for emerging possibilities of new learning.

Changing Characteristics of Drug Use Between Two Older Adult Cohorts: Small Sample Speculations on Baby Boomer Trends to Come

ABSTRACT This retrospective chart review of 2 cohorts of individuals 55 years and older (n = 116) suggests that the aging population entering addiction treatment today may no longer be a homogenous group of mostly alcohol-dependent individuals. Whereas the 1992 cohort is primarily alcoholic, the 2002 cohort of baby boomers included individuals with illicit drug use, prescription drug abuse and dependence, and co-occurring disorders.

If you teach it, they will screen: Advanced practice nursing students’ use of screening and brief intervention in the clinical setting

BACKGROUND In the United States, approximately 30% of adults drink at risky levels or meet the criteria for harmful or dependent alcohol use. Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) in primary care settings is indicated. This study assessed whether knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about SBIRT, evaluated after a three-part, mixed-methods training, predicted whether 21 family nurse practitioner (FNP) students screened for alcohol use during clinical patient encounters. METHOD After training, students completed a survey and documented implementation of SBIRT during their clinical practice-specific management courses. RESULTS FNP students who reported higher levels of perceived competence in their posttraining surveys were more likely to screen for alcohol in the clinical setting. CONCLUSION Screening for alcohol misuse and identifying patients engaged in hazardous drinking meet important nurse practitioner competencies. Further research is needed to explore training programs that specifically emphasize activities to increase perceived competence, knowledge, and comfort regarding SBIRT.

Vigilance: The lived experience of women in recovery:

Recovery from addiction is an individualized process and necessitates understanding the phenomenon from the perspective of the individual living the experience. This qualitative study seeks to understand women’s lived experience of recovery. Data were collected through participant interviews of women self-identifying as in recovery and interpreted from a phenomenological lens. The overarching theme is vigilance—a way to maintain recovery from addiction through remembering, being careful, and seeking community.

Training future clinicians: An interprofessional approach to treating tobacco use and dependence

ABSTRACT The high prevalence of smoking among persons with mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders has not changed in the past decade despite a decline in smoking among the general population. Interprofessional collaborative care offers clinicians the opportunity to engage their patients in tobacco cessation treatment that is coordinated and comprehensive. Investigators applied a 1-group, pre/post-test design with qualitative and quantitative descriptive analyses to estimate the impact of an interprofessional tobacco education program on perceived self-efficacy and self-reported counseling abilities of graduate nursing, social work, and pharmacy (PharmD) students (N = 36; nursing, n = 13, n = 9 PharmD, n = 14 social work) to treat tobacco dependence among this subpopulation of smokers, and to assess their perceptions of interprofessional education. All participants completed a 2-h web-based module, a 3-h classroom training, a simulation with a standardized patient, and a group audio-recorded debriefing session with faculty. Emergent themes from qualitative analyses were valuing simulations, demystifying disciplines, reflecting on and critiquing practice, and lessons learned. Participants’ perceived self-efficacy, self-rated counseling ability, intention to ask about tobacco use, and intention to provide counseling for tobacco cessation increased significantly. Teaching students an interprofessional team approach appears to be effective in enhancing counseling abilities and self-efficacy and may positively influence health professions students’ perceptions of interprofessional education. Larger studies are recommended to validate the results of this pilot study.