The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork.

SOCW 6530 wk 9 peer responses

Respond to the blog posts of three colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

· Expand on your colleague’s posting.

· Make a suggestion to your colleague’s post.

MUST RESPOND TO EACH ONE SEPARATELY CITE EVERYTHING AND FULL REFERENCES

PEER 1: Alicia Simpkins

Termination

Termination in field is important to address. According to the text, “terminations also evoke a range of emotions as you contemplate closing or transferring client cases, wrapping up projects, and saying goodbye to people who have influenced your development as a social worker” (Birkenmaier & Berg-Weger, 2018). It can be difficult to terminate services, especially as there tends to be attachments formed between staff/clients and field practicum students. Termination also allows for a chance to see any professional development within the field practicum student as well.

In my field placement, I tend to give all my clients a heads up as far as when I am leaving. I’ll tell them that I will be turning over the IOP session to someone else soon, just to prepare them for the upcoming weeks when they will no longer be seeing me. With the staff of my field placement, they are all aware of course that I will not be with them forever. I have also given them a heads up that my time there will be over soon, and everyone has expressed how much they will miss me. Termination is never easy but it is part of the process.

References

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork.New York, NY: Pearson.

PEER 2 : Audri Kaufman

According to Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2018), the sixth step of the generalist intervention model (GIM) is termination which involves the professional end to the client-worker relationship. In hospice care, there are a number of reasons that can lead to one’s termination of services. According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizations (NHPCO, 1996), hospice patients can be terminated from services for extended prognosis, refusal of care, lack of participation in services, and when the patient passes away. Although Valley’s Best Hospice does provide one year of aftercare services to the family members of the deceased, termination and end-of-services is typically concluded after what is called a death call. After a patient passes away, the family members or caregiver contacts hospice who then come out to call time of death, contact the mortuary and discuss aftercare services. If a patient is being discharged due to extended prognosis, this means that they are no longer provided with a prognosis of six months or less to live. Often times the doctor and supervising home nurses report improved health conditions leading to an extended prognosis. In these cases, the patient is notified of an upcoming discharge date due to extended prognosis and an appointment with the social worker is scheduled two weeks before discharge to go over the discharge paperwork, schedule an appointment with the transferring physician, order any necessary medications and supplies, and explain process of appeal should they disagree with the decision to discharge.

During my time interning a Valley’s Best Hospice, I have assisted in discharging several hospice patients due to extended prognosis and a few palliative patients due to refusal of care or lack of participation in services. Sometimes we discharge due to too many missed or canceled appointments with our nurses. This is more often the case with palliative care patients rather than hospice patients. Either way, participation in services is one of the leading causes of termination of the client-worker relationship says Kirst-Ashman and Hull (2018). Social workers are encouraged to work together with the client to prepare for termination and acknowledge that endings are near before they abruptly end (Holosko et al, 2013).

Reference

Holosko, M. J., Dulmus, C. N., & Sowers, K. M. (2013). Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hull, G. H., Jr. (2018). Understanding generalist practice (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). (1996). Hospice code of Ethics: Volunteer training manual. The Hospice Journal, Vol 11(2), 1996.