‘Don’t panic’: reframing early-career child protection practitioners’ ‘panic’ as a pedagogical resource

In child protection practice, newly appointed practitioners are frequently told ‘Don’t panic’ in response to the intensity and complexity of early professional work. Although intended as reassurance, this commonplace workplace expression may inadvertently frame early-career panic as an individual emotional difficulty to be overcome, rather than as an expected aspect of learning to become a practitioner. Taking this everyday phrase as its point of departure, this article examines how ‘Panic’ can be more productively understood within processes of professional learning and identity formation. Drawing on an autoethnographic account of the author’s early practice in the Western Australian child protection system, the article reconceptualizes ‘Panic’ not as evidence of professional inadequacy but as a pedagogical resource through which professional learning becomes visible. This article demonstrates how ‘Panic’ emerges when practitioners negotiate professional judgment within institutional expectations, documentation practices and culturally situated relationships. Rather than constituting learning itself, ‘Panic’ reveals moments in which existing knowledge and assumptions become insufficient, prompting practitioners to reconsider their developing professional judgment. The article concludes by discussing implications for social work education and organizational support, arguing that educational programs, supervision and workplace induction should create structured opportunities for recognizing and working with experiences of ‘Panic.’