ABSTRACT
In training for any role in the field of human services and long term health care, both learning opportunities must be viewed as complementary. There are three basic components of the field experience, and each of these is complex in itself. First is the student: a person with individual learning needs, goals, experience and talent and a mixed constellation of personal past and present, all of which affect his/her needs and expectations in the practicum. Second is the university: a complex of requirements, expectations and relationships, all of which affect and direct the student. The third component is the agency itself, with its own goals, purposes and commitments to clients, regulating agencies, and whatever other powers control its existence. The learning program itself must be individualized for each student and is determined by the three principals involved: student, field instructor, faculty advisor. An assessment is made very early in the relationship and shapes the student’s individual assignment within the agency.
