This study explored the Master of Social Work (MSW) student perception of access to documentation training in their program. When a student graduates with a degree, there is an expected level of competency in regards to documentation when entering the field. Currently, there is literature available about the risk of poor documentation and the need for additional documentation training in the field of social work but the literature focusing on the perceptions of the student is very limited. The study contributed to the academic literature on social work documentation by providing awareness of the student perception of where they received documentation training in their graduate program. The research design for this study is qualitative and exploratory due to insignificant literature available. A survey was administered to graduating MSW students through a California State University School of Social Work. The findings suggested that MSW students would benefit from additional clinical documentation training from their MSW program since the student perceptions are there is limited access to training within the program. There are numerous of implications to the field of social work in regards to the lack of documentation training in MSW programs. The absence of training from students may include not having a full understanding of risk management that corresponds with documentation and will have to assume to be ethically responsible for when the student graduates from their program. This can be detrimental to the student’s professional development and can overall create a decrease in the quality of graduating MSW students.

Thesis (M.T.S.C.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. Xx-Xx).