Ms Augerinos said there were fewer support structures in place for students getting a taste for working in the industry, and their supervisors, back in the early 1980s.

“It has come a long way since,” she said.

She said a book released at the CNV’s head office in Bendigo this week showed the progress and provided guidance for the future.

Field Education: Creating Successful Placements was co-authored by four academics from the La Trobe Rural Health School.

Social work and social policy adjunct lecturer Helen Hickson said the idea for the book was dreamed up in colleague and co-author Natasha Long’s office, about three years ago.

It soon grew, drawing on the knowledge and experiences of fellow co-authors Fiona Gardner and Jacqui Theobald, as well as a number of contributors.

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Dr Hickson said the book talked about success from a range of perspectives.

Some of the text’s chapters were written by students and supervisors.

The book was dedicated to the memory of one of its contributors, Rebecca Say, who provided a student’s perspective on generating placement opportunities.

Dr Hickson said she and her fellow authors had made a conscious effort to ensure students, supervisors and field educators were represented in the text.

She and her colleagues had noticed a gap in those voices in existing resources.

The book’s authors said Ms Say’s chapter was one of the most powerful parts of the text.

Other highlights included the subsequent two chapters, both of which addressed the challenges that might arise during placement.

It was only after the book was complete that Dr Hickson said she and contributor Tim Adam realised they had written about the same student, whom they had separately encountered.

During the first placement, the student was described as being ‘like a deer in the headlights’.

The same student seemed confident, organised and in control when Dr Hickson encountered them for a later placement.

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She said it demonstrated the complex nature of success and how perspectives on an experience could change.

As the guest speaker at the launch, Ms Augerinos said social work placements could be daunting, especially at a specialist family violence agency.

“Working in the sector is tough and rewarding,” she said.

She said the CNV considered student placements opportunities for the organisation to give back.

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