Spiritually Sensitive Professional Development of Self: A Curriculum Module for Field Education

Professional development is an expected outcome of social work field education, yet little is known about how students become professionals. This paper presents a pilot project of a curricular module for field education that explores professional development from a spiritually sensitive perspective. Students considered three areas, 1) meaning and purpose in work, 2) reflection and discernment for ethical practice, and 3) spiritually based self-care. The concept of spiritually sensitive professional development was developed as the result of a faculty mentoring program which encourages mission driven education grounded in the values of Jesuit education and Ignatian pedagogy. The feedback from the students who participated in the pilot project indicated support for the module and its relevance to professional development. Spiritually Sensitive Professional Development is defined as professional development that considers the whole student, is grounded in an understanding of meaning and purpose in one\u27s work, utilizes a process of reflection and discernment for ethical practice and emphasizes spiritually based self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR