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PHD Social Work Doctorate, Gerontology

I have reached a point in my professional career where I feel I have exhausted every path of opportunity and challenge at my current academic level.  Moreover, I have seen distinct and growing concerns in specific areas of Social Work and particularly Gerontology that need to be fulfilled.  Indeed, it is my strongest desire to bring about sustainable change in these areas, but first I need to increase my depth of understanding and appreciation of these and related issues, building a thorough Social Work foundation.  Turning to a quality Ph.D. Social Work program is only logical, and XXXX is a natural choice for my career and the people I aim to go on to serve.

XXXX is my sole choice for academic development and doctoral research, and has highly recommended by people that I truly respect in the field, people that have expressed their belief in the breadth and autonomy of curriculum as well as the atmosphere of ethics and values that comes with a faith-based institution.  Moreover, I have been impressed by the faculty’s reputation for teaching excellence and access to resources particularly such facilities as the Center for Aging.

XXXX’s ability to deliver an incomparable research and educational experience gives me the confidence that I can bring my goals, ambitions – my dreams – to fruition.  Earning my Ph.D. from XXXX will thoroughly prepare me for a research and professorship, ideally with XXXX University, teaching Social Work/Gerontology, and increase my body of research on the causal relationships between nursing home residents’ quality of care and organizational structure, on the one hand, and MDS utilization and social worker and nursing unit relationships on the other.  I completely embrace the fact that there is ample room in my existing skill set, and am eager to increase my abilities in quantitative and conceptual skills in analyzing organizational structure.

In addition to these research and career ideals, the application of them is of equal import, particularly with regards to altering systemic barriers to equal opportunity that society has built, furthering the cause of social justice and aiding in the amelioration of lives for all, not just some, particularly within elderly populations.  What is more, I feel that my goals, the ideals of quality nursing home care are highly attainable.  I feel that through active participation and in concert with prominent community members, leaders, social institutions and governmental agencies, sustainable, positive systemic change is possible.

Given my area of professional expertise, exposure and tireless work, it is little wonder that I have followed my heart to researching nursing home organizational structure and its overall impact on the quality of nursing home care.  I suspect and would enjoy examining further the causal relationships between social workers and nursing unit managers, how this relationship affects social worker longevity and the impact of social worker turnover rates in the nursing home.  Additionally, I am interested in evaluating the effect of nursing home organizational structure on the overall quality of patient care rendered.  Along similar lines, I am wanting to studying nursing home quality of care policies, and how the minimum data set (MDS) is utilized in practice concerning Medicare reimbursement.  Furthermore, current economic issues morally and scientifically require researchers to investigate such areas as the portents of financial crisis on the placement decisions from one nursing home to another.

For over a decade, I have maintained a conceptual continuity in my professional, co-curricular, internships and volunteer careers.  From my humble beginnings, three years of direct patient care, I enjoyed an outlet for my desire to assist patients at a time when they are so vulnerable, whilst building my maturity, and interpersonal and team skills.  I took these skills and abilities with me to XXXX University, where I spent three years in a lead student-mentoring role, an excellent position for further refining and solidifying my interpersonal, interview and assessment skills as well as my ability to identify need and find appropriate resources to fit specific student needs. 

After earning my graduate Social Work degree, I accepted a position in which I was able to put my sixteen-month Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) internship to excellent use.  My internship had exposed me to the more technical aspects of a non-profit, assessing training policies, information systems data, and evaluating the organization’s ability to make management decisions.  It was with BBBS that I worked on community service activities, grant writing, accountability with an advisory board, fundraising and working with community groups and businesses for recruitment and sponsorship purposes.

Bringing this exposure to my Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care Unit Social Work case manager and discharge planner positions, I was still unprepared for what awaited me.  Social services documentation records were in disarray, rampant quality of care complaints, and a caseload of over 100 residents demanded my immediate attention.  Couple with this situation was the high Social Worker turnover rate, with many Social Workers only staying less than three months on average.  On-the-job training was non-existent, so I took the initiative, taking steps to increase facility communication, logging complaints, performing following-up investigations, and patient advocacy.  The upshot included a focusing of my raw passion for my work, a centering of my attention on optimizing nursing home care quality, in addition to political actions that affected long-term care.

Overall, I would describe my academic, volunteer and professional experiences as exposure on micro, mezzo and macro Social Work levels.  Working with aging populations has allowed me to continuously use and refine my skill sets in order to operationalize my philosophy of practice.

My humble beginnings in undergraduate research, literature reviews, passing out surveys/interviews, analyzing data, and writing up my findings were all activities I thoroughly enjoyed and I looked forward to each new project with great eagerness.  As an undergraduate, I was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, and focused my research on the Filipino-American elderly in San Diego, examining how socialization among their peer groups influenced their community health/social service choices.

During my second year of graduate education, I was selected as Minority International Research Trainee, and spent four months in Beijing, China participating in Cross Cultural Investigation research between US and Chinese pre-school.  Additionally, I was involved in researching the relationships between parental marital conflict and satisfaction to the emotional reputation of Chinese pre-school children.

Additionally, I was a Research Assistant with Privilege, Oppression, Diversity, and Social Justice (PODS) at University of XXXX’s School of Social Work where I performed data entry, matching survey, qualitative analysis and focus group facilitator

I plan to continue my research concerning nursing home organizational structure and its overall impact on the overall quality of  nursing home patient care being rendered. I will focus on the relationship between Social Worker and nursing unit manager and how this is related to Social Worker longevity and the impact of Social Worker turnover rates in nursing homes, the effects of financial crises on the placement decisions of nursing homes, nursing home policy and the quality of care delivered, and the utilization of the Minimum Data Set for Medicare reimbursement

Go Back

For almost two decades now, I have supported myself and my family by helping applicants to graduate school draft eloquent and highly effective admission statements for degree programs BSW, MSW, DSW; and PHD. I am convinced that I have talent in this area as a bleeding heart, myself, a militant for healing and a lifelong learner; it is the stories of social workers that most intrigue me. Working on behalf of social workers keeps my heart engaged as well as my brain. 

With My Son Davy!

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