Educational determinants of readiness to practice with LGBTQ clients: Social work students speak out

Written By INQYR

Craig, S. L., Dentato, M., Messinger, L., & McInroy, L. (2016). Educational determinants of readiness to practice with LGBTQ clients: Social work students speak out. British Journal of Social Work, 46(1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcu107

Highlights

Background

Health and mental health providers are increasingly called to attend to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues.

It is critical for social work education to ensure the competency of students to deliver services to these populations.

Competence can be defined by readiness to practice (RTP), the final stage in a student’s development; this involves mastery of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes or values required in professional practice.

Study Description

  • This North American online study investigated the self-assessed readiness to practice (SA-RTP) of LGBTQ undergraduate and master’s-level social work students (n = 1,018) to practice with LGBT clients, as well as their assessment of their non-LGBTQ peers

  • Participants were enrolled in Master of Social Work (MSW; 76%) or Bachelor of Social Work (BSW; 4%) programs, representing 136 schools in 52 states or provinces

Key findings

  • Students reported low levels of readiness to practice with specific subpopulations (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender)

  • Participants reported the highest (“somewhat prepared”) self-assessed readiness with gay populations and the lowest (“not well prepared”) self-assessed readiness with transgender populations.

Across all groups, higher readiness to practice predicted greater:

(1) Implicit program support for LGBTQ students,

(2) Positive handling of LGBTQ issues in classrooms, and

(3) Explicit inclusion of LGBTQ content in courses

SA-RTP is affected by:

(1) International, institutional, and program components

  • Policy (non-discrimination and inclusion)

  • Program climate (supportive of LGBTQ identity)

(2) Classroom components

  • Implicit (related to classroom culture)

  • Explicit (related to classroom curriculum)

 
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