What Does a Social Work Intern Do at a Clinic?

What To Expect In Terms Of the Internship Interview

To give you a heads-up, prior to being placed at an internship, you undergo an interview but you need not be too anxious.

You will simply be asked to tell your prospective supervisor a bit about yourself and your supervisor will proceed to describe the agency and what you can expect.

In addition, if you are interviewing for a health clinic (of any sort), you can expect to be asked to undergo some medical tests. Therefore, if possible, try to schedule your interview and your tests as early as possible, so as to cause the least amount of delays with the start date of your placement.

What Do You Do As A Social Work Intern At a Women’s Health Clinic?

The answer to that question varies according to the type of health clinic you are interning at and your level of experience.

In my case, this is my first year of my graduate school in social work, and my women’s health clinic focuses on providing health services to women with an emphasis on family planning services.

My primary role is to provide pregnancy test counseling; that is, I share the client’s pregnancy test results with the client and then we have a discussion of the three possible options if the result is positive: parenthood, adoption or termination.

It is not my role is not to influence a woman to make one decision or another but rather to help her sort through her feelings and support her choice. To help a woman who is feeling ambivalent, I would walk her through many of the questions in the above brochure.

When a woman decides on parenthood, I would encourage her to begin prenatal care as soon as possible (at our clinic or with a provider of her choosing). Alternatively, if a woman is interested in the adoption route, I would refer her to an adoption agency that would be able to offer counseling and handle the whole adoption process. Finally, if a woman feels that she must go the termination route, I would describe the medical and surgical abortion methods to her.

In addition, I will soon be learning how to conduct psychosocial assessments and provide some case management services. Thankfully, my supervisor seems very nice and I feel like I will be learning a lot here. That about sums up what you do as a social work intern at a women’s health clinic.

I hope you found this helpful 🙂

Reference: Guide to Making Right Decision