Ten-Finger Exercises

Second leg of the journey

When we came back from our trip to California two weeks ago, I had a day to do the laundry and then to re-pack for a conference in Albuquerque. This was sponsored by the NHPCO, the national hospice and palliative care organization, and was a first for them. This was the first national conference they've held that was designed specifically for social workers, chaplains and other therapists instead of concentrating on the medical model. It was stimulating and refreshing.

Arlene, the 71-year-old social worker whose house burned down last summer, and who lived in a tent most of the winter, went with me. We had a grand old time running around in a town new to both of us and surrounded by people whose values and skills we shared.

One of the nine breakout sessions with 8-10 topics for each one, and wished we could have gone to many, many more. A few of the topics were not particularly relevant to us, living in this area of the country with this population, but there were plenty we would have attended if we could. Several were on spirituality at the end of life; one on the ethics of hydration from various religious perspectives. There were sessions on music therapy, using mandalas with patients, touch therapy, the labyrinth, all sorts of things, familiar and exotic.

At a session titled Beyond Emotional Support: Taking a More Assertive Approach to Care, the speaker began by talking briefly about the many complaints common to people in our vocation. She handed out the following Assessment Questionnaire.

Please respond to each of the following statements with an answer of T for true or F for false.

1. _____ People do not value or appreciate me or others in my discipline.
2. _____ I understand my job and have practiced for years and resent continuing education that is not advanced enough.
3. _____ There is not enough time to accomplish much.
4. _____ Team meetings are generally a waste of time.
5. _____ Documentation is a waste of time.
6. _____ I don't think I, or others in my discipline, are as important as those in other disciplines.
7. _____ I think what patients/families really need most is someone who listens.
8.______I don't feel a connection with my team, and that is okay.
9. _____ My agency does not understand who I am and what I do.
10. ____ I know my role better than anyone and don't need to be asked or told what to do.
11. ____ I often see mistakes other team members make but feel it is not worth while speaking up.
12. ____ I feel overwhelmed and under paid.
13. ____ I tend to keep quiet unless someone asks me specifically for my input.
14. ____ I sometimes feel set up by not being given necessary information.
15. ____ My problem is that I care too much.
16. ____ I often feel left out of conversations.
17. ____ I often feel underutilized.
18. ____ Patients and families are usually not open or willing to talk about dying.
Etc.

She asked us to fill this out for ourselves, and to know that any place we marked the answer as "True", we had a problem. The problem was our own, not anybody else's, and we needed to find a solution to it. If people don't value what we do, then maybe we need more education, more skills. Or maybe we need to explain our goals and interventions better, contribute more to the discussion in team meetings, chart more descriptively, etc.

In other words, quit whining about it and do something about it instead.

Since you all have heard me whine about some of these same issues, I thought I'd share this with you. Maybe you'll find it relevant to your own jobs as well.