This week I want to use my Famous Last Words assignment to talk about someone who has come into my life and opened so many doors for me. Her name is Rita Ulman and she is my field instructor for my practicum at Calm Waters. She is a MSW (Masters of Social Work) who works at Valir Hospice and she is such an incredibly essential resource for me. She has such a wealth of knowledge and is so willing to share her stories, experiences, lessons, resources, contacts, and love of helping people. She has done so much and is truly committed to making sure I have any and all opportunities to learn about what I want to learn about. She wants me to experience as many aspects of social work as possible and that is exactly what I wanted from my practicum. She teaches in a perfect way for me to learn and gives great feedback when I ask about my performance at Calm Waters and Valir. We met this week and talked about so many things that i'm going to get to do this semester and next. She is going to try and hook me up with some other social workers so I can shadow them and see what sort of things they do in their daily work. She also is letting me volunteer with Valir Hospice. I will get to go on-call and do extended care for people who are actively dying as well as sit with clients/patients who need someone's company, someone to talk to, help with daily activities, etc. I'm going to get to see the PACE program in OKC as well as observe a psycho-social assessment with another social worker from Valir. Another learning opportunity she is going to let me take advantage of is her role in Valir's audits, finances, and statistics.
Rita is exactly what I needed in a practicum instructor. She wears so many hats and is perfectly okay with my true NEED to learn. I am a dedicated person and I have a real passion for social work. I want to learn all about it: practices, roles of social work, resources, different kinds of social work, about the populations I could be serving, specific needs of different populations, cultural differences, etc. I love learning, I mean during the summer I watch at least one documentary a day to keep my mind sharp and stimulated by new learning. Rita is just as fired up about social work as I am and she has been doing it for many years. I love that she is still dedicated to her work. She is not only a great practicum instructor, but a wonderful person. I really enjoy being around her because she just fills the room with charisma, wisdom, and positivity.
She helps inspire me to stay positive, so i'm hoping to spread that positivity to y'all. Have a great weekend and Boomer Sooner!
Good Things Come with a Positive Vibe by Danny Foo
Hi Bria, it is awesome that you get to start getting experience in your area of study. I think that social work is a very important part of society. I am glad that she is allowing you to volunteer at the Valir hospice and I hope that you have fun with it! It was nice to kind of meet you!
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