Prof. Lampen Essay Example For Students

Prof. Lampen Essay For my Social Work interview, I interviewed Professor Lampen. She is a social work professor here at Cornerstone. She is no longer in the profession right now. Before she came to cornerstone to teach she worked as a social worker for about sixteen years. Professor Lampen started out her schooling by getting her bachelors degree in Psychology. Then, she went on with her schooling and became a Registered Nurse. She decided that she wanted something different so she went back to school and got her Masters in Social Work at Western Michigan University. For her first job she worked at a hospice. There she made home visits to patients. She worked there for about four years and then went on to work at Mary Free Bed Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. At Mary Free Bed she worked mostly with spinal cord and brain injury patients. She said with her back round in nursing that it helped her in the unit. With her medical back round she was able to understand the patients more and help them better with their problems. She worked there for twelve years and now here she is at Cornerstone teaching. My next question for if she had any advice for someone entering the field of Social Work. She told me to make sure that the field fits you. There are so many different fields in Social Work. Whatever one you choose you have to make sure it fits you and youll enjoy working there. She also said that you really have to care about your work. If you dont love your work and care about it then you wont be able to put your whole heart into it. I also asked her about some of her likes and dislikes about the profession. One of her likes is that she knows that what she does matters. As a social worker she makes great impacts on peoples lives. She loves being able to help people and the interaction with people. One of her dislikes is that its not a very prestigious occupation and that social workers dont get enough respect. One of the discouraging things she said about social work is the resources are very limited. Some of the things that help her with the stress of the occupation are friends. She always makes sure she has something fun to do on the weekends with her family or friends. She also makes sure that every night she has something relaxing to do whether its watching a particular TV show or spending quality time with her family. My next question I asked her was if she kept her moral and spiritual issues separate form her work. Both of the places she worked were not Christian organizations. She said that she thinks soci al work is important to her because of her spiritual values. She doesnt try to keep her values from her work but she doesnt express them as much as she would usually. My last question for Professor Lampen was, what were the characteristics she thinks a social worker should have. She said that a social worker should have a high energy level and be able to focus on the positive side of things instead of the negative. She also said that it was important to really want to be able to help the needy. If you dont have the passion to help people then you wont be able to do your best for people. I thought that Professor Lampen was very interesting to talk to. My talking to her it makes me even more excited to get out there and help people. I thin I have finally figured out that this is the field of work that God has called me too.