Reflection Journal

During my placement, one of the incidences that happened concerned attending to a simulated patient. Danny, the simulated patient, called the healthcare facility on several occasions, raising concerns about his family members and self. Within 25 days, Danny checked in to the hospital six times. I am basing this reflection on the sixth check-in, made on the 25^th day since the first check-in. Danny explained that they had been compelled to call since their situation was deteriorating. After all, the family members had previously fallen sick and recovered, but Danny kept on feeling fatigued, having sleepless nights, and worried about their father. Dany was more isolated and drunk more beer than he had drunk in previous weeks – 5-8 beers. There was critical financial stress on Danny and worries about contracting Covid-19. However, the patient did not recognize the issues and was not forthcoming.  

As a public health practitioner in this simulation, my roles entailed revolved around, ensuring a smooth relationship between the simulated patient and the hospital staff (Elrod & Fortenberry, 2020).  I understood the internal working of the facility and the services offered. Thus, I ensured a smooth relationship by coordinating all healthcare communication between the facility and the public. That entailed connecting Danny to the relevant and appropriate departments, making inquiries, keeping client records, and making follow-ups. As explained by Elrod & Fortenberry (2020), other roles included maintaining the facility’s brand and marketing it.

Regarding my roles as the facility’s public relations officer, I received Danny’s calls and welcomed him. I then record their details, including names and address. I proceeded to inquire how they were feeling and their reason for the check-in. After that, I connected Danny with the relevant departments, including the counselling, medical speciality, outpatient, and nursing departments. I also made Danny ease his tension, by using phrases such as “do not worry; we shall take care of that.” I hoped this would make him relax and become more forthcoming.

My roles helped in the improvement of healthcare delivery, the facility’s reputation, and increased revenue. Regarding service delivery, clients were not stranded when they checked in. For instance, I recognized Danny upon receiving his call, which made him feel appreciated. I also directed them to the appropriate department, where they received immediate and specialized care. Concerning reputation, I tracked Danny’s experience and noted the areas that they were not very satisfied. I also asked and appreciated all feedback, assuring Danny a better experience in future. Besides, I acted as an informal advisor using clients’ feedback, which led to improved service delivery, more returning customers, and thus more revenues.

This position required interviewing, communication, history taking, and assessment and clinical reasoning skills. Through interviews, I used semi-structured questions to enable Danny to express themselves objectively. This also required effective communication, through which I made clear statements and inquiries. I was also able to take and understand the patient’s history and relationship with their significant others. These skills enabled clinical assessment and reasoning application, after which I would refer Danny to the appropriate department. Other useful skills included cultural competence, creativity throughout the communication process, honesty, relationship building, and multi-tasking.

I felt sad for Danny in this incident, but I was aware that he would be okay. I understood Danny’s history since the first call, and his present issues were prone to occur on any caregiver like himself. For instance, like many people in the United States and the world, financial constraints increased due to loss of jobs and businesses’ closure. A recent study has found increased health issues as among the detrimental impacts of the Covid-19 (Shah et al., 2020). As such, I was worried that Danny’s health and social misbehaviours would escalate if not helped immediately. Other family members would therefore lack support and care accorded to them by Danny.  I also thought that Danny could actually have been infected with Covid-19. He had expressed fears that Vanessa – a daughter seemed to have Covid-19 symptoms on a former incident. I thought for a while that it could be that the virus has spread among the family members.

However, I suppressed this thought to allow rationality through clinical assessment and reasoning. The family needed to undergo Covid-19 tests, which turned out negative. Also, I understood that both the loss of financial stability and all of Danny’s family members’ recent illnesses could have aggravated stress and increased alcoholism. This assessment informed me to refer Danny to the counselling departments, where his social and psychological issues could be addressed. I also referred him to the outpatient’s unit, where his illnesses would be diagnosed and treated.

This incident revealed about myself, particularly some strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I learned that my interpersonal communication is excellent, making a competent public relations practitioner. I also displayed fair emotional intelligence. For instance, I accurately encoded Danny’s concerns which were caused by his significant care on his family members and financial constraints. Also, I succeeded in building relationships with both the client and the facility’s stakeholders. Thus, I am a great regarding interpersonal relationship skills. However, I will have to build my research skills and clinical assessment and reasoning.

Besides self, I also learned more about social service work. First, social work is about improving the lives of people. In the healthcare setting, medical and nursing practitioners strive to restore or improve society’s health outcomes, but they can hardly improve the social insures such as worries. Social workers are critical for such social issues, enabling people to develop and improve their lives through humanistic approaches. Besides, I learned that social work requires practitioners to have excellent social skills, research skills, and be strategic thinkers. Social skills enable them to build valuable relationships and make clients forthcoming. Research skills enable them to understand issues in society and find solutions through strategic thinking.

I have discussed this issue with my supervisor, highlighting them as critical and should be integrated into the curriculum for a public relations course. My supervisor contends with this information and has added that my observations point out critical aspects of social work. For instance, research keeps practitioners updated about social changes, and reveals feasible programs for a positive social change.

This incident provided a great experience, but there are a few things I would do differently. First, I would ensure to conduct a detailed history of the client regarding their health, family, and relationship with the healthcare facility. That way, I would access the former sessions’ outcomes and trace areas of improvements in the healthcare model. I think this is critical since Danny’s condition would have improved after the first check-in regarding his concerns. Overall, I would conduct a more diligent clinical assessment and reasoning.

References

Elrod, J., & Fortenberry, J. (2020). Public relations in health and medicine: using publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to engage audiences. BMC Health Services Research, 20(S1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05602-x

Shah, G., Shankar, P., Schwind, J., & Sittaramane, V. (2020). The Detrimental Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health. Journal Of Public Health Management And Practice, 26(4), 317-319. https://doi.org/10.1097/phh.0000000000001200