Week 15

There isn't much to blog about this week. Most of my activities have been dedicated towards wrapping up my work with the patients I have been working with. It feels both good and sad to be finishing the semester. I am glad that I have successfully completed my work but a part of me will miss the patients I have become familiar with the last four months.

Activities -

• Finished up last minute learning plan details
• Started the termination phase with patients
• Attended rounds
• Attended treatment team meeting

Practice/micro: How have you experienced successful endings? What do you already do now to help your clients experience successful endings?

Prior to this semester, I hadn't worked with patients in a clinical settings. As a result, I didn't anticipate how it would feel to bring our time together to an end. However, I did get the chance to terminate a relationship with a patient in February, which helped me come to terms with what it feels like to move beyond the relationship with a patient.

Towards the end of February, one of the patients I was working with was suddenly transfered to another unit. As a result, I had to bring an end to our time together and deal with the emotions of ending a relationship that I had become fond of. The patient was someone who I got to know quite well, and she and I spent many hours discussing her problems and feelings. When I was told I would have to end my relationship with her, I was saddened. I hadn't realized that I had grown comfortable with our relationship and enjoyed working with her.

My first question to myself was "How will I successfully end our relationship?" I thought back to the readings I had done and made a list of appropriate ways to terminate our working alliance. With that information, I was able to truthfully explain to her why we had to end our relationship and we discussed how this made her feel. Even though I was saddened by our time coming to an end, I didn't allow that to influence how I ended the relationship. I focused on her feelings and we discussed some future goals that she might work on with her new treatment team.

I believe that I ended our relationship together appropriately. I truthfully explained why we had to discontinue working together, was concerned about her feelings, and helped her to make a few preliminary goals for the future. We also discussed some of the progress she had made since entering the hospital. In doing so, I believe I helped her to reflect on what we had accomplished together as well as facing her feelings about moving forward. Furthermore, I feel that it was a good learning experience as I will have to end my working relationship with the three other patients I am currently working with. I now have a better understanding of what to do and say to bring closure to a professional relationship.

Total Hours this week: 17 hrs
Total Hours to date: 220 hrs and 30 min