Silence hurts: a scoping review of workplace bullying of social work students on practice placement

This paper explores peer-reviewed literature regarding social work students’ experiences of workplace bullying during practice placement. While workplace bullying is a concern for qualified social workers, less is known about the experiences of social work students on placement. Students undertaking placements are required to navigate complex organisational and interpersonal dynamics that may heighten vulnerability to adverse experiences of workplace bullying, including intersecting experiences of physical, verbal, sexual, discriminatory and other forms of abuse and harassment, with consequential implications for workforce development. To establish what is known about workplace bullying during placement, a scoping literature review was conducted, yielding 11 studies for descriptive and qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed that most studies took place in the United States of America (n = 7), and the most frequently reported forms of bullying were sexual harassment and verbal abuse, with clients (n = 11) and colleagues (n = 8) featuring as the main perpetrators. Five themes highlighted how workplace bullying was often sustained by sociocultural and organisational contexts that normalised abusive behaviour and contributed to under-reporting. The themes also identified systemic recommendations for universities and organisations, to better prepare students and field supervisors and respond in timely ways that prioritise safety and perpetrator accountability.