Lisa Chee

N360 MH Clinical
Professor Chat
September 13, 2014
WK03 Clinical Reflective Journal
Kekela Makai
Objectives:

To communicate effectively and to maintain a calm composure during psycho-education

presentation

To converse with different patients and to correlate their speech and behavior to their
diagnoses

To observe the dynamics, structures and activities offered at Kekela Makai

Today was my second day on the unit and I was assigned to work at Kekela Makai for the
first time. The major highlights for me during this clinical was conducting a psycho-education
presentation about coping strategies related to depression and participating in the community
meeting.
It was the first time that my colleague and I led a group on the unit. I felt extremely anxious
and disorganized. I was anxious because it was my first time, and I did not know what to expect
in terms of the number of participants, their level of cognition, or their willingness to participate.
Additionally, I did not know the dynamics of leading a group (e.g. clearly stating the topic,
objectives, expectation and assigning a colleague to be our point person in case situations were to
arise). Our methods of teaching the topic of coping did not go as planned; however, we were able
to improvise with what we had and it went all right. During the group session, an incident that

that frightened me was when one of the patients started acting out and raised his voice. It scared
me a bit, but he excused himself from the group and the rest of the teaching went well. Lastly,
one thing I learned from teaching a group is that instead of using words like coping, I should
work on simplifying it by replacing the word coping with ordinary terms, such as, to deal
with. Now that I understand the dynamics of leading a group and have experienced it once, I am
more confident in leading a psycho-social group with the adolescences in the following week.
Today was also the first time participating in a community meeting on the unit. During the
meeting I observed the nurses and PAs handle an incident where two patients were having a
conflict, in which one was instigating the other when he wanted to be left alone. I observed how
well the nurses handled the situation through offering the patient quiet time or sitting aside. I
also feel that setting goals for the day at the end of the meeting is also a very positive approach.
Overall, I learned a lot today. I conversed with several patients, attended a community
meeting and lead a group. I need to work on speaking up and organizing my thoughts when
holding a group session; however, I am confident that I will be able to perform better at my next
group leading session!