| According to R. Wayne ("Legal Guidelines for Dismissing Students Because of Poor Performance in the Field," 2004), there is a widely accepted assumption in social work education that field placement provides the best opportunity to evaluate students' goodness-of-fit with the profession and is therefore used to weed out unsuitable students. This study examined factors that result in premature termination of bachelor of social work (BSW) students' field placements. The study was quantitative, non-experimental, correlational research. The study instrument was a self-administered web-based survey that was sent to respondents via e-mail. The relationship between variables that contribute to premature termination of field placement for BSW students was investigated. The findings indicate that termination-from-field placement policy is considered important and the policy is communicated to departmental faculty, social work students and field placement agencies/organizations. The study also revealed the students who have experienced premature termination/disruption from field placement are reinstated into field placement the majority of the time. |
