Trauma-Informed Education and Self-Care for Social Work Students During Field Practicum

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured Trauma-Informed Education and Self-Care Intervention in reducing secondary traumatic stress among undergraduate social work students completing their field practicum. During field education, social work students may have direct professional contact with individuals affected by child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, poverty, loss, and other potentially traumatic experiences. Repeated indirect exposure to clients' traumatic experiences may place students at risk for secondary traumatic stress. A total of 80 fourth-year undergraduate social work students will participate in the study. Participants will be allocated to an intervention group (n=40) or a control group (n=40) according to the geographic location of their routine field practicum. Students completing their field practicum in Manisa Province will constitute the intervention group, whereas students completing their field practicum outside Manisa Province, including İzmir and other provinces, will constitute the control group. The intervention group will receive a two-hour Trauma-Informed Education and Self-Care workshop before or at the beginning of field practicum, followed by three structured self-help and peer-sharing group sessions during the practicum period. The control group will continue the routine field practicum process and standard university internship orientation without receiving the study-specific intervention during the study period. Secondary traumatic stress will be assessed repeatedly in both groups throughout the approximately four-month practicum period. Psychological resilience will be assessed at baseline as a supportive participant characteristic. Intervention-related knowledge and skills will also be assessed in the intervention group. The primary hypothesis is that students participating in the Trauma-Informed Education and Self-Care Intervention will demonstrate a more favorable change in secondary traumatic stress over time compared with students in the control group.

Inclusion Criteria: * Fourth-year undergraduate student enrolled in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Health Sciences, Manisa Celal Bayar University, during the Fall Semester of the 2026-2027 academic year * Enrolled in the required Social Work Practice course * Actively completing a field practicum involving direct professional contact with social work clients * Willing to participate in the study and able to provide written informed consent Exclusion Criteria: * Not actively participating in the required field practicum at the time of enrollment * No direct professional contact with social work clients during the practicum * Declining or being unable to provide written informed consent