Social workers have a mandate to evaluate policies, programs, and interventions (National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2021), and the role of the evaluator is important in their practice (Dudley, 2020). The new knowledge gained in this

course will provide the student with a solid foundation when working as a social

work practitioner and can be utilized in micro, mezzo, and macro environments.

The mission of the profession is to improve the well-being of others (NASW, 2021)

and evaluation allows us to ensure we are providing effective interventions.

This course provided the knowledge to understand evaluation can be provided

during the planning, implementation, and outcome stages (Dudley, 2020). It

informed me of the importance of stakeholder involvement in every stage and the

ethical responsibilities to clients when performing research (Dudley, 2020). It also

provided me with an enthusiasm to evaluate programs in my own organization.

The skills obtained from this course include critical thinking, observation,

communication, problem-solving, technical, and documentation. Critical thinking

skills will help me identify the needs of clients, what interventions are evidence-

based and effective, and how to link the interventions to outcomes. Dudley (2020)

argued critical thinkers are naturally skeptical, which may help me to continually

question whether interventions are truly effective. These skills can be applied to

every area of social work practice.

References

Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford

University Press.

National Association of Social Workers. (2021). Code of ethics of the National

Association of Social Workers. Retrieved

from https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English