One of the major ‘tools’ of the trade is reflection. Reflection in its purest form is about looking back at an event and evaluating it. Gibbs (1988) is a reflection model widely touted by tutors, however my preference is for Driscoll (1994) which simply asks: what, so what, now what? The reason I bring this up is that the nature of the course is that the NMC requires 2300 placement hours, at City you often do in excess of this requirement. In this setting you will come across situations you have not covered in the classroom or simulated practice and this is where you apply reflection in order to achieve the greatest learning outcome.
Ok, boring so far? I remember when I was introduced to this whole concept, I was “Yeah, yeah, yeah!” but reflecting (see, got that term in again) on it I now realise how invaluable this has been for my mental health practice and maintaining my personal equanimity. On a mental health ward you are often presented with the raw emotions of the patients which can range from sadness, to elation, to anger. And sometimes these could be directed at you. As someone to whom mental health issues was a foreign concept, until recently, this could prove overwhelming. Thus your lifeline, for your personal mental health, is often deconstructing the ‘incident’ using the reflection model. On countless occasions it has allowed me to take away my personal emotional response and bring it back to where it matters – how can I best help the patient? At the end of the day we need to remember that we are here to support people getting back on track with their lives even when their behaviour to us would not be acceptable outside of the ward.
The second lifeline that you have as a mental health student at City is the PPD. Officially it’s Personal Practice Development, but we all call it “the PPD”. Some of us in the cadre hate it and some see its merits – I’m in the latter category. So what’s this PPD stuff about? A PPD group comprises up to 10 fellow students with two lecturers acting as facilitators. What do we do? During placements we primarily discuss our emotional responses to different situations which present themselves on the ward. Part of the problem with working in mental health, especially if you are new to it, is that you are often holding onto emotions which are often not yours. PPD has often provided me with that opportunity to offload what could become a debilitating response or one which I could take home to the detriment of my loved ones.
So what am I getting at in this entry? Working in mental health is not to be entered into on a whim. It is a serious proposition which not only has an impact on those we care for but also, on you as the practitioner. Overall, don’t fear it as like me part of the process is equipping yourself with the ‘tools’ to become an effective practitioner – something City and ELFT do quite well.
I hope you have enjoyed my entries thus far if you leave feedback or questions I’ll try to orient the next post as a response. Barring that my next post will cover controversial practices – covert administration of medications and ECT (look it up or wait for the next post).
Leave a Reply