Stating that he started professional practice in a social service center affiliated to the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, Fatmanur İskender stated that the late arrival of the approvals for professional practice by the Ministry due to the Covid-19 epidemic has occasionally caused feelings of despair and pessimism about his desire to go to the field. Fatmanur İskender continues his words about this as follows:
“During the pandemic period, we are living a stable life with the transition of schools to distance education. Since professional practice is more important in Social Work, which is an applied profession, I wanted to get into practice and get to know the field.”
Stating that being in the field sometimes has its disadvantages, Fatmanur İskender stated:
“Due to the measures taken within the scope of coronavirus measures, professional staff were working in a flexible working model. Due to the flexible working days and hours, working between 10:00 and 16:00 3 days a week, there were either no professions on the days I started my practice, or the days on social study did not coincide with the days I came into practice. I had to follow them closely in order not to miss these opportunities. I also think that home inspections are not effectively within the scope of coronavirus measures. Because we went to the residence addresses to invite the applicants who applied to the institution for social economic support, but we could not make a home inspection or interview in the household. Only in the child unit in need of protection, we could have interviews with the child client who could not leave the house and had fears such as leaving the house.”
Fatmanur İskender adds that the disadvantages of professional practice in the Covid-19 Period are not only discussed, but also the advantages are valuable in terms of observing the human interactions inherent in the profession and the importance of social work in global problems:
“It was good to experience professional practice during the pandemic period, to see the services performed in the field when the coronavirus, which is a global epidemic, was dominant, how people were affected by the pandemic, how they developed their defense mechanisms, and what negative consequences they applied to the institution with the pandemic. However, unfortunately, I have observed that unemployment intensifies due to the pandemic and the poverty problem brought about by unemployment, with the increase of applications to the institution where I applied one-on-one.”
In this respect, Fatmanur İskender continued her words about making observations in professional practice as follows:
“The most important thing for me in professional practice was to "observe". I have constantly observed the professional staff, clients, and the functioning of the institution. I have observed the approach of the professional staff to the clients, the stances of the clients, their problems and their demands at the point of solving the problems, including the work of the professional staff such as writing a social review report and some filing works, and the professional activities related to the factors that cause the client to apply to the institution as a whole.”
While observing, Fatmanur İskender added the following regarding the emergence of some problems related to the value of the bilateral relationship between social work theory and practice in professional practices:
“While observing, I realized with regret that there are deep gaps between theory and practice. Most of the time, the services performed in the field of practice and the relations with the clients may progress differently than in theory for some reasons. The insufficiency of the number of professional staff in the center where I am in practice causes the workload to be high, which causes the sensitive and disadvantaged groups in which professional practices are not to be dealt with adequately and as a solution to this, ensuring that more professionals are appointed may be important for better execution of the practices. In addition, when I observe how the "physical structure" of the institution is, the absence of separate interview rooms for professional interviews with clients worries me that the clients can express themselves clearly and effectively.”
Stating that despite all this, implementation in the Covid-19 Pandemic period has expanded her professional vision, Fatmanur İskender concludes her words as follows by making some recommendations for those who are considering starting professional practice:
“Students who will be put into practice should prove that they want to learn the profession. Let them participate in professional negotiations with the professional staff. Let them conduct social studies and write a social review report about it. Finally, they must make a request for social examination.”
