Following identification of the skills required for effectively serving older persons, the Hartford Practicum Partnership Program (PPP) proceeded to develop a tool, The Geriatric Social Work Competency (GSWC) Scale, for measuring geriatric skills with the purpose of evaluating aging enriched field education. The Scale proved effective in measuring student outcomes and has now been further tested to develop a valid and reliable tool for competency based education and evaluation (CBE) in geriatric social work.

METHODS

The first phase was the identification of geriatric social work competencies through such efforts as the CSWE SAGE-SW survey of practitioners and faculty (Rosen, Zlotnik, & Singer, 2002) and the GSWEC focus groups of stakeholders (Naito-Chan et al, In Press). The six PPP demonstration sites cross- validated 58 specific skills for incorporation into the GSWC Scale. The second phase was to test the Scale's ability to measure changes in skill of PPP MSW student's pre and post training across 11 universities. The third stage was to examine and refine the instrument. The fourth stage pilot tested the revised instrument after review by geriatric social work faculty and field instructors.

RESULTS

In phase two, PPP students (n=323) had a mean of 5.4 at pre-test and 7.9 at post-test. There was a wide range of ratings and no ceiling effect. Overall and in each domain student's competence rating improved significantly (p=.001).

The resulting revised version of the instrument demonstrated improvement through a reduction of items from 58 to 38. The scale was reduced to a 10 point to 1-5 measurement. A more detailed description of the skill level rating was provided. The time in completing the self-assessment was reduced by half.

The new instrument was piloted with a convenience sample of social workers (n=41) participating in geriatric post- graduate education. The mean overall competency score was 3.2 on a 1 to 5 scale with no ceiling effect. Internal consistency of Scale II was excellent with Cronbach's alpha of 0.97 in total 38-item and 0.92 through 0.96 for each dimension.

Finally National Center for Gerontological Social Work Education reviewed GSWE II for adoption and added two competencies resulting in a 40-item instrument.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE OR POLICY

PPP has measured self-efficacy with regard to specific geriatric social work skills relevant to the field, (Damron-Rodriguez et al, In Press). A limitation of this research is the small sample size. . Next steps require a more behavioral oriented competence measurement methods are needed.

REFERENCES Damron-Rodriguez, JA, Lawrance, F.P., Barnett, D. & Simmons, J. (In Press) Developing geriatric social work competencies for field education. Journal of Gerontological Social Work. Naito-Chan, E., Damron-Rodriguez, J.A., & Simmons, J. (In Press). Identifying competencies for geriatric social work practice. Journal of Gerontological Work. Rosen, A. L., Zlotnik, J. L., Singer, T. (2002). Basic gerontological competence for all social workers: The need to “gerontologize” social work education. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 39, 25-36