Competency-Based Education

Generation Description
The HPPAE model is grounded in a series of geriatric social work competencies developed by social work and aging experts from across the country and field-tested at demonstration sites. These competencies are fully aligned with the Council on Social Work Educations (CWSE) new Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS).

Graduate field education programs are already guided by a set of general competencies that reflect each programs philosophy, theoretical base, and structure. The HPPAEs field-based competencies build upon this foundation by deepening students expertise and experience in geriatric care. The HPPAE competencies are also used to guide and evaluate both the program and student learning, including the selection of agencies as field sites and the learning assignments in those sites.

Benefits of Geriatric Social Work Competencies
An important characteristic of these competencies is that they address practice at both micro (direct service) and macro (policy, research, and advocacy) levels. Most MSW students focus on only one of these areas of practice. Social workers who demonstrate leadership in aging, however, need to be proficient in both areas, due to the complex and fractured nature of aging-care services and resources.

• Geriatric social workers who provide direct service must become proficient in identifying service gaps, assessing community needs, and developing programs to help older adults and their caregivers cope with aging.
• Macro practitioners cannot be effective in their work without firsthand knowledge of the challenges that older adults face, as well as this populations considerable assets.
• The HPPAE fosters students to think about systems at both levels. It also encourages them to come up with ways to improve services across multiple settings.

The HPPAEs Geriatric Social Work Competencies fall into four general categories. For a full description of each competency, see the Appendices.

1. Values, Ethics, and Theoretical Perspectives:
   Teaches students how to assess values and biases regarding aging and address the cultural, spiritual, and ethnic values of clients, as well as the ethical principles involved in making decisions, including end-of-life issues.
   
   
2. Assessment:
   Covers developing interviewing skills and conducting geriatric assessments of older adults needs, strengths, and limitations, including their cognitive, physical, and social functioning. Students also learn to assess the needs and stress level of caregivers.
   
   
3. Intervention:
   Develops competency in establishing rapport and effective working relationships with older adults and family members, from helping caregivers reduce their stress level to educating families about wellness issues and disease management.
   
   
4. Aging Services, Programs, and Policies:
   Covers outreach to older adults and their families to ensure the appropriate use of services, including budgeting, evaluating service effectiveness, and advocating and organizing with service providers, community groups, and others on behalf of older adult needs and issues.

Implementation Guidelines
The Elements of Competency-Driven Approach
In an HPPAE, the geriatric social work competencies described above are integrated into a competency-driven approach to graduate geriatric social work education. This approach, developed and refined by a working group of national experts in aging and social work, requires the following five elements:

1. Adopt HPPAE competencies for geriatric social work education
2. Identify individual student learning goals
3. Select field sites, rotations, and assignments
4. Integrate class and fieldwork learning
5. Assess student skill level and progress

Below are guidelines for implementing these five elements:

1. Adopt HPPAE competencies for geriatric social work education:
   One of the university-community partnerships first tasks is to review, agree upon, and implement the HPPAE competencies. To be truly effective, this commitment should be shared by all faculty, field instructors, and student advisors in aging, including those who may not participate formally in the partnership.
   
   
2. Identify individual student learning goals:
   Using the competencies as guidelines, students must work with field educators to identify and tailor their learning goals, which are drawn up as a formal Learning Agreement. These goals provide the basis for:
   
   
   • Structuring learning assignments
   • Selecting agency placements
   • Facilitating assessment of student progress
   
   Field instructors, field directors, faculty advisors, and field liaisons should all use the same set of competencies to provide students with a comprehensive, integrated educational experience.
   
   
3. Select field sites, rotations, and assignments:
   Identify and engage field sites that can provide students with practicum experience developing expertise and leadership in geriatric social work. Field site rotations should develop core competencies, including:
   
   • Expertise in aging carethe knowledge and skills that are specific to the older adult demographic across the spectrum of aging
   • Skills in comprehensive geriatric assessment using standardized assessment instruments
   • Experience working with older adults of diverse backgrounds, including different levels of independence, need, and ability
   
   
4. Integrate class and fieldwork learning:
   Using the same set of competencies across both classroom and field learning is essential to an effective HPPAE educational program. To ensure that there is class and field integration, we recommend the following steps:
   
   a. Identify course content that relates to competencies. Review syllabi of aging courses against a list of the competencies. Also, talk to faculty and students about how much aging content is discussed in class.
   
   b. Identify areas in which the course content is adequate and areas that require improvement. A number of strategies can help integrate competencies into classroom instruction:
   
   
   • Meet with faculty to discuss ways to include more content
   • Survey faculty to determine what they might need to strengthen the curriculum
   • Develop teaching modules and distribute to faculty
   • Develop educational resources and distribute
   • Develop and advertise a speakers bureau in aging
   
   c. Create seminars to link competencies with classroom and field learning. Seminars are common vehicle in field education; they integrate classroom learning with field learning. The seminars are designed to:
   
   
   • Be enrichment opportunities with a focus on didactic presentation of aging topics that might not be covered in the classroom or by field instructors
   • Foster critical thinking about the relationship between theoretical learning in the classroom to practice learning experiences in the field
   • Rotate among the field partners so that students have the opportunity to learn about different agencies, their clientele, and services
   • Be attended by field instructors and agency staff, thus fostering partnership between the sites as well
   • Encourage a shared sense of professional identity among students through contact with other professionals in the field
   
   Guidelines for Designing Seminars
   Most social work programs already have field seminars in place, which can be modified to include HPPAE seminars. Below are best practices from HPPAE seminars that were well-received by both students and field instructors:
   
   
   • Balance the format.
     Strike a working balance between didactic and interactive. Be attuned to the preferences of each cohort of students.
     
     
   • Dont overlap content with other classes.
     This will require some advance coordination with faculty and perhaps more creativity in identifying topics for seminars that are both highly relevant to practice and not already covered in courses.
     
     
   • Be sensitive to busy schedules.
     Schedule seminars and other meetings with an eye not to overburdening the field instructors. Poll instructors for the timing interval that works best for them and their students.
     
     
   • Location matters.
     Ideally, seminars should be held at agencies within the partnership to give students the opportunity to learn about different services, populations, and practitioners. Geographic challenges, however, should be taken into account. For example, traffic in heavily populated areas or remote rural areas may discourage participation.


5. Assess student skill level and progress:
   The last element of the HPPAE competency-based field education is assessing students progress in meeting their learning goals and the skills necessary to work with older adults. Students are evaluated before beginning their internship and upon completion.
   
   Students use the HPPAE Geriatric Social Work Skill Competency Scale II to rate themselves on each program competency on a 04 scale (0=not skilled, 4=expert skill). We have found that the scale did not produce what is known as a ceiling effect. That is, students did not rate themselves at the top before or after their internship, yet the scores showed that the students made considerable progress.
   
   Educators and field instructors can use the scale to assess students skill levels, as well as to:
   
   
   • Assess the strengths and challenges in the education program itself. You can enhance your seminar planning and address curriculum changes with base knowledge of where your students skills are strong and where they need improvement.
   • Help students plan their learning experiences. For example, after students took a pretest in certain initial sites, field instructors discussed the results with them and planned their learning experiences according to areas where they needed to improve their skills.