Well, it appears that I definitely spoke too soon when I said that this semester is a breeze. Things have really picked up these last few weeks with all the readings, papers, and the added responsibility that I have been given at my practicum. I have my first midterm (human behavior) next week and I am really freaking out. My professor is Peter Smith, whom I highly recommend! He gave us a very thorough review but I’m still worried that I won’t be able to remember all that material! As I’ve mentioned before, my placement is in the PICU at UMMC. I saw my first patient by myself a couple of weeks ago and since then my supervisor has been piling the patients on me! I’m not complaining though. I appreciate all the real life experience that I’m getting from it. The only thing I don’t really like about being in placement is having to turn in weekly reports. They say it’s supposed to help us, but honestly it seems more like an irritation!

I’ve been saying all along that I wanted to concentrate in the clinical aspect of social work, but after doing a little more research and speaking with a friend who is a MACO concentrator, I’m actually leaning toward the MACO side of things. Out of all the courses that I’m taking, my policy class definitely interests me the most. I’ve always been more interested in being behind the scenes and managing and organizing anyway and I‘m just not really interested in dealing directly with clients. I’ve just always heard more about the clinical or direct services side of social work and most students go that route, so I just followed. I definitely encourage all of you to find out more about the MACO aspect, because just like the clinical side, it’s very diverse and has a lot of opportunities out there.

Also, for those of you who aren’t completely sure of what aspect of social work you want to get into (and even those of you who are!), you should definitely pick up two books called Days in the lives of Social Workers and More Days in the lives of Social Workers, both by Linda May Grobman. They both include true life stories of real social workers in various aspects of social work during a typical work day.

Until next time……….