Introduction

How should social workers be prepared for the complex roles and functions of practice in health care settings? How is a fine educational balance maintained between what is core and relatively unchanging in social work’s knowledge, skills, and practice wisdom and the pressing need to prepare students and beginning workers for the pace and challenges of practice as it evolves in a rapidly changing environment? Earlier chapters of this book have noted the impact on patients and institutions alike of changes in technology, demography, and fiscal planning that require rapid and creative responses from social work practitioners. Discussions between practitioners and teachers about education and training of social workers frequently ring with concerns that schools are behind the times, out of touch with current practice, and still teaching old methods for new tasks.