Service learning experience at a local psychiatric hospital

Service Learning Observation of Psychiatric Patients

Patients with normal health problems behave in a different manner as compared to patients with psychiatric problems. It has always fascinated me that psychiatric patients have an ability to look normal as compared to the patients with other health problems despite the fact that they are suffering from what can be in a longer term a fatal mental disease. My interest in psychiatric patients encouraged me to voluntarily work at a local psychiatric hospital to observe these patients and identify their attributes to develop better understanding of how they would react to certain situations. The paper aims to elaborate on my experience of work there and also elaborates on my observation of the psychiatric patients in the observed local hospital.

The Experimental Dimensions of Service Learning

It is human nature to associate certain expectations and develop certain feelings with a certain situation before experiencing it. Similarly, before actually going into the hospital and experiencing the service learning via observation of actual psychiatric patients, I had associated certain expectations and developed certain feelings with the forthcoming experience. I had associated "retarded behavior" with psychiatric patients.

Although retarded behavior is carried out by some of the psychiatric patients but not all of them. Many of them act normal and but still have psychiatric problems. With regards to my service learning experience, I expected to be able to work directly in contact with psychiatric patients. The authorization to work at a psychiatric hospital had automatically led me to develop feelings of sympathy for the psychiatric patients.

Expectations related to site of the organization were not that positive as the common notion towards psychiatric hospitals is not very positive. With respect to environment, colleagues and patients, my expectations were neutral. As I expected the colleagues to be friendly in terms of helping me with dealing with the duties that I was assigned while I expected the patients to be extremely challenging to handle. As far as the environment is concerned I expected an overall friendly but tensed environment as the special attention that psychiatric patients need, requires a friendly environment due to the need of gentle and loving treatment for the patients.

While I was at the psychiatric hospital, I had a mixed set of feelings. As on one hand I saw patients who were severely disturbed mentally, some of them appeared to be normal despite the psychiatric problems they had and on the other hand I saw each patient being treated differently according to the nature and severity of the problem he/she had. My interaction with the patients enhanced my sympathetic feelings for them however, at the same time they made me feel frustrated as some of the patients required to be told the same thing over and over again and some of the patients refused to take whatever advice was given to them. Hence, my feelings associated with the service learning there were a combination of frustration, sympathy and motivation to work to bring a difference in the life of the psychiatric patient.

I performed the service of assistance. I worked as an assistant for a local psychiatrist in the hospital and also had a chance to work with other volunteers for other work tasks. As an assistant, my duties included noting down the meeting minutes in terms of the diseases diagnosis, patient symptoms, any tests prescribed by the psychiatrist, and also additional notes based on my personal observation of the patient while the psychiatrist continues to examine the patient. Part of my duty was to interact with other volunteers if required e.g. If the patient was assigned with some medical tests, I would be responsible for assisting the patient in getting the tests done. This would require my interaction with the volunteers working in the related laboratory or department.

After my visit, I felt more sympathetic towards the psychiatric patients, more than I have ever felt before. The reason for that probably is that I was able to witness the helplessness and innocence of the patient more closely. I also had a feeling that the hospital requires improvement in terms of the facilities provided for the in-ward patients. The staff dealing with psychiatric patients sometimes lost their patience dealing with them. This usually led to anti-social behavior from the patients. Thus, I felt that the hospital's environment needs substantial amount of improvement which can be carried out by providing training for the staff and training for the hospital's management.

The service learning experience was great for me because not only did it enhance my working capabilities, it also enhanced my learning and my understanding of the subject in consideration.

The day ended up well as I was able to accomplish what was assigned to me. I assisted the psychiatrist in three of his patient consultations, I also managed to get the required tests done for a patient. I also had a chance to observe the in-ward patients and interact with them personally. Some of the patients that I interacted with actually seemed happy which not only enhanced the effect of the treatment that they were getting but also enhanced my level of satisfaction.

Understanding Diversity in Our Society

Diversity exists everywhere, even in the psychiatric hospitals. During my limited time there, I observed cultural diversity majorly in terms of gender, race and physical appearance. There were transsexual patients as well as male and female patients. Also each patient had a different physical appearance, since physical appearance can be affected by a person's race, both these components of diversity are over lapping.

Some of the patients were African-American while some of them were Asian. There were many other races as well. Some patients had a very sophisticated physical appearance while some patients had an extremely disturbed physical appearance.

Again, diversity prevails strongly in our society but emerges in a different way in case of psychiatric hospital. As the psychiatric disease affects the components of diversity strongly. Physical appearance, for example, is affected strongly by the nature and severity of the psychiatric disease. Diseases such as depression will make the physical appearance of the person disturbed and "unhappy," also the person will appear to be lost, i.e. having no or little clue of what's happening or where to go.

Diversity was also present in the hospital staff and the volunteers working in the psychiatric hospitals. People from all religions, ethnicities and races were working in the hospital. The fact that there were Indians, Americans, and Chinese working in the same hospital together is the proof of high level of diversity in our society over all.

Colleague & Patient Analysis

I was serving both the patients and a local psychiatrist. While some of the patients were trying to adjust in their environment, the others were delineating somewhat a violent behavior to express their non-adjustment within the environment. The adversity in terms of changes in the patient's normal routine was reluctantly accepted by some of the patients while unaccepted by the others. The local psychiatrist however depicted an extremely adaptable behavior due to the nature of his job.

The difficulties faced by the patients are usually the difficulties posed to them by negative and non-cooperative staff behavior. Sometimes the staff gets frustrated and deals the patients harshly due to which it is difficult for the patient to adapt to the environment and accept the prescribed treatment. The psychiatric patients are not making any extra effort to cope with these problems. They just react to it.

The difficulties faced by the psychiatrist were in terms of hospital arrangements and synchronization of the medical procedures. The psychiatrist used volunteer assistants like me as a means to cope up with such difficulties. As a result, the volunteer deals with the synchronization problem for him.

The Cause

My tasks did not relate to an external environmental cause, but they did relate to the internal environmental cause. The core beliefs of the hospital were basically related on having a gentle, loving and qualified staff in order to determine the well being of the psychiatric patients while giving them affordable solutions to their problems. The hospitals understand the need to have a sympathetic staff as it caters to psychiatric patients who require special attention. Voluntary cause of working in psychiatric hospital also addresses the issue of diversity. Working as a volunteer enables a volunteer to serve people that includes patients and staff members from different cultures thus in a way, serving the humanity as a whole.