Course

Wellness: Self and Professional Practice

Faculty
Applied Community Studies
Department
Community Social Service Work
Course code
CSSW 1221
Credits
1.50
Semester length
Flexible delivery ranging over 2 to 15 weeks
Max class size
30
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
This course emphasizes a developmental approach to self-care and self-awareness in professional practice. It provides students with a framework to explore and apply wellness themes. Strategies to prevent and manage workload stress will be explored. Students will learn to use reflective writing as a tool for personal wellness and professional practice.
Course content

The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

  • Maintenance of personal wellness is an essential component of competent human services practice.
  • A state of wellness (or lack of) influences the ability to deliver services to others.
  • Wellness involves self-awareness, values clarification and self-responsibility.
  • Wellness includes team building, collaborating and decision-making.
  • One builds a sense of wellness from reflective practice that integrates the theories of wellness into professional role.
  • On-going practice of wellness sustains vitality for continued work in the profession.
Learning activities
  • Lecture
  • Experiential classroom activities
  • Group presentations
  • Guest speakers
  • Audio-visual presentations
Means of assessment

This course will conform to Douglas College policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:

  • Personal Wellness Plan                           
  • Participation
  • Group Presentation                  
  • Self-evaluation

This is a mastery/non-mastery graded course.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, within the following content areas, the student will be able to:

  1. Wellness and Self Care
    • integrate basic self care into daily life
    • demonstrate understanding of wellness as an important aspect of social service work
    • design a personal wellness plan, including stress management
  2. Reflective writing skills
    • demonstrate reflective writing skills
  3. Prevention of burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma
    • identify the risks of burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma for social service workers
    • explore strategies for preventing  burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma
  4. Educational presentation on wellness topic
    • demonstrate ability to collaborate in the design and delivery of an educational presentation
  5. Self-awareness and boundaries
    • demonstrate understanding of personal and professional boundaries
    • demonstrate understanding of self-awareness at it relates to professional practice
Textbook materials

TBA