Hospital Clearance Part II

To give you the latest update on the status of my upcoming internship at the mental health clinic at a New York hospital, I finally finished the process for getting clearance for the internship position at the hospital. (yes!)

As requested during my first medical clearance appointment, I had brought with me the additional paperwork from my doctor plus the actual Rx containers of the medications that I am taking regularly and/or occasionally so that I would be covered regardless of what showed up in the drug test. It was good that I did this because one of the medications I take occasionally did indeed turn up in my urine test.

Mind you, it was still not a straightforward procedure to get the medical clearance even during this second visit. I had to ask my doctor to fax over one more document and I had to provide the date of when I had been given one more vaccine (that had not been on the original medical form).

In other words, I had to call my doctor (or my doctor's nurse, to be more accurate) twice that morning. Thankfully, my doctor's nurse was able to respond to these two requests on the spot. Otherwise, getting my medical clearance would have required yet a third visit.

After the getting my medical clearance, I went to the floor for the line to get my photo ID. This took almost an hour but I was just so happy that I had finally obtained my clearance and was going to have everything in order that I didn't mind the wait at all. Then, as luck would have it, the ID woman actually took a nice picture of me (not the usual "I want to burn this picture" variation of an ID picture).

I handed in my ID to the volunteer office (the volunteer office handles the administrative side for the head social worker) because they want to hold onto it until the day my internship actually begins. I was then asked to fill out...more forms. One thing that I have learned from this experience is that hospitals seem to be just a tad bureaucratic and require you to fill out several forms/applications at different points in the process.

If memory serves me correct, this last batch of forms (or so I hope) included: letters and envelopes to previous employers asking them for references, information about the dress code and other rules to follow, confidentiality, and a list of all the places I have lived since 1981 (for a child abuse and neglect registry check).

I wish I had been forewarned about needing to know the exact addresses and exact years beforehand. I was not 100% sure and had to guess-estimate two of the dates. Going forward, I will make sure to look this stuff up beforehand so that it will be easy to fill out such forms.

So when do things start up? School resumes on Tuesday, right after Labor Day and my internship will begin on Monday, the week after. I can't believe that the summer will be totally over in just a few more days. Time has really flown!

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts and comments. I really appreciate them!

You May Also Enjoy:
Wish List for 2nd Year Placement
Hospital Clearance
Social Work Licensing – Part I
How much do social workers earn?

Photo credit: Ibrahim Iujaz

Music as a Means of Establishing Rapport

Yesterday I listened to a Living Proof podcast from the University of Buffalo's School of Social Work. The interviewees were Drs. Raphael Travis and Anne Deepak and they spoke about Empowerment in Context: Lessons from Hip Hop Culture for Social Work Practice.

Drs. Travis and Deepak had an interesting point of view about Hip Hop culture and how it can be used in social work practice on both a micro and macro level to better understand diverse populations. They advise both students of social work and practioners to seek to understand hip hop culture so as to better understand young people.

Hip Hop culture is actually much more broad than the music itself; it includes:

• MCing or rapping
• DJing or scratching turntables to play music
• Rural art (often described as graffiti)
• Breakdancing

The biggest misconception about Hip Hop music is that it is "gangster" music, i.e., that it is only about drugs and violence and that it has no artistic merit whatsoever. Regretfully, the media tends to predominately portray such a negative image.

Drs. Travis and Deepak recommend listening for the following themes/framework when listening to Hip Hop music:

Individual Empowerment
1. Self-esteem
2. Resilience
3. Personal growth
Collective Empowerment
4. Community development
5. Social change/action

This would enable social workers to gain not only a deeper appreciation and understanding of what the particular songwriter is trying to convey but also to see its appeal to the youth or young adults with whom they are working. This, in turn, may be very helpful in rapport establishment. Teenagers, in particular, tend to enjoy sharing information about the songs they like.

Dr. Travis also referred to the 5 C's for positive youth development:

1. Competence
2. Confidence
3. Connection
4. Character
5. Caring

The better young people are able to meet their own developing needs vis a vis the 5 C's with the proper supports, the more likely that they are to make contributions to the surrounding community. Positive youth development is essentially the bridge between individual and collective empowerment.

This is because as the individual feels better, he or she is more likely to serve as a role model to others and to contribute to the surrounding community, thereby improving it.

Below is an example of one Hip Hop song Dear Mama by 2pac Shakur. I tried listening to this song within this new recommended framework. As I did, I could hear 2pac Shakur expressing his deep appreciation to his mother for all that she did on his behalf as well as the theme of resilience. His mother had gone through many hardships to raise him and he wishes he could somehow repay her for all that she has done. I think 2pac Shakur found his mother's strength inspiring as he was growing up. As you listen to this song, what key themes are you hearing expressed?




Based upon the podcast and my little experiment listening to Dear Mama with new eyes (or new ears to be more exact), I can envision using Hip Hop and/or music in general as one method for establishing rapport with youth from diverse backgrounds. However, I would feel that for it to really be an effective means for me, I would have to become well versed with the main songwriters of Hip Hop. Otherwise, I would run the risk of having no clue until I would return home and google the songwriter's name and music!

What do you think about the idea of learning about Hip Hop culture as a way of building rapport with teenage and/or young adult clients? And/or what way(s) have you used to build rapport with young clients from different backgrounds that have been effective? Please share your comments and thoughts below :)

You May Also Enjoy:
Feeling Too Much Empathy
Social Work Licensing - Part I
How much do social workers earn?
Running a Group for the First Time

Source: University of Buffalo School of Social Work
Living Proof Podcast #53

Brainstorming Ideas

Now that I have gotten into the mode of writing two posts per week for the last several weeks, my plan is to try to continue at this pace to the best of my ability.

To that end, I would like to plan out some future posts and would most appreciate getting some input on what you would be interested in reading on this blog.

Some ideas that have occurred to me for future blog posts include:

• additional helpful resources for social workers
• graduate school experiences
• placement experiences
• interviews with social work professionals
• interviews with other social work students
• book reviews
• organizing tips and 
• inspiring/uplifting type of posts.

Are there some topics that you would prefer seeing me cover more often than others? Do you have additional suggestions for posts?

I'd really like to know what topics are of interest to you.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts and hoping you have a great week :)

You May Also Like:

Social Work Licensing - Part I
How much do social workers earn?
Occupational Outlook for Social Workers 2010-2011
34 Social Work Career Development Resources
21 Additional Career Resources for Social Workers
Feeling Too Much Empathy

Photo Credit: Ibrahim Iujaz

Hospital Clearance

Time is flying... My second year at graduate school will be starting in just two and a half weeks and all being well, my placement at the outpatient mental health clinic of a New York hospital will be starting one week after that (for privacy reasons, I will not specify the hospital's name). 

Thankfully, I received background clearance. (Yes!) The head social worker had emailed the news. Now, I'm in the process of getting medical clearance. Yesterday I visited the hospital for the required testing.

21 Additional Career Resources for Social Workers

Since my prior post on resources for social workers, I found some additional career development resources that I wanted to share with you.

Below are the links to some professional associations, federal government agencies and funding sources that you may find useful for your practice.

Social Work Licensing - Part II

In the last post, I provided an overview of the licensing options for social workers in New York and shared NY's LMSW licensing requirements.

As a reminder, all states have their own social work licensing laws, requirements and titles. Therefore, if you reside in another state, please check out the Association of Social Work Boards or NASW for a complete listing of states and their respective requirements.