My Patient's Treatment Plan

When I was told to write out a plan for what I would do for the patient we were given a limited amount of time to write it in and I didn’t get to write too because I was trying to write what I thought the right answer was. I am trying to help a person at this point and every little decision will have a huge impact on whether progress is made or if I just set myself back ten steps, so I only had one initial plan instead of two. My initial plan was to get to know the Rodrigo and see what he thought he needed help with, in class we always talked about how important it is to engage with the client so that you can learn things about him so I thought this was a smart idea.

Comparing it with the team I was in, they thought we should get him a mini garden that sits on the window sill so he can feel like he can farm and/or garden like he used to and that we should get him back involved with the church any way we can since there are people like him that speak the same language as he does at the church. The strength of my plan was that I was trying to include Rodrigo in as much of his process in getting what he needed but, that could also be the weakness because if he is unable to explain to me what he wants and I am unable to understand what he wants it leaves us at a standstill. The strength in my team’s plan was that they were taking what they already knew had a big impact on his life (such as farming and church) and trying to reincorporate it in his day to day life. The weakness was they wanted no interaction with him, at the most they would talk to the family because they were at a healthier state of mind but that was it.

Originally, I was extremely nervous for various reasons: I was the youngest, there was no health service administrator so that made me the leader, and the facilitators honestly weren’t going to help us, only guide us so we had to struggle through the process. We first started introducing ourselves and what we could do to help on this team and when it got to one Nursing major she explains the importance of the client interacting with her since she would be one of the first people Rodrigo would see, but not without saying that the client would be brought to her first and obviously not someone like a social worker. It made me angry because I felt like she was making it know that she didn’t think a social worker was that important but I bit my tongue and still tried to work with her. Seeing as I was the leader I started with seeing what everyone thought were the biggest concerns to get them talking and to listen and by the end I think I changed the nursing major’s opinion of social workers.

My favorite part was hearing people say the roles they didn’t have in their group that they thought would have been important, a lot of people said social workers and although some of them might have just been saying that I feel like some of them saw the actual importance of our job. The least favorite part was hearing from one of the nursing major’s the initial dislike towards social workers, knowing social workers are the underdogs and that some people don’t like us is one thing but hearing it is a completely different thing. I learned that working with the other majors that hearing their ideas helped me have better and stronger ideas and suggestions we could work with. I thought if everyone did strictly their part and put everything together things would go just as smoothly but without communicating with them I wouldn’t have got what I needed done and vice versa. There was a MOCA (I didn’t get the proper spelling) worksheet that a nursing major had with valuable information on it that helped in what we needed to consult the on-call doctor with so I learned the importance of communicating and not just doing simply your role.

This means that we go in with open minds and listen to what everyone has to say, that we acknowledge the importance of everyone’s role and find a way for us all to work together. It means acknowledging that other majors might not see your importance and contribution to the team but that you prove to them your importance and find a way to get along with them. You go in with a plan and you prepare to discuss it with your team and see how you can improve on it and vice versa. It means to go in knowing you are working together as a team with a purpose and that you will come out with a great plan on how to best help the client.