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Summary of Experience Yale Child Psychiatric Inpatient Services I have been blessed with the opportunity to be an intern of milieu support at Yale's Child Psychiatric Inpatient Services of the New Haven CT hospital. This is a place for children ages 4-14 with severe psychological, behavioral, and developmental problems. It is often thought of as a “last resort” for the children because their disorder(s) has become so severe at this point that their parents can no longer care for them and they need to be hospitalized. Luckily, it is very short term and the kids can go back home or to a residential facility within two weeks and further participate in an outpatient or partial hospitalization program. My time spent on the unit has been exceptionally valuable to me, as it has provided me with so much knowledge and experience. I truly believe that it has given me a good portion of the clinical training necessary to be able to succeed in a future career.I began my internship with four objectives. One of these objectives was to be able to fulfill the roles of an effective counselor on the inpatient unit. I was able to successfully achieve this objective by first shadowing a person
called a preceptor. After I was able to get an idea of
what this counselor does there on a day to day basis, I began to
help out with the children on hands on activities such as games, sports,
and therapy sessions. I also assisted the children's morning
routines such as waking up and having breakfast, essentially helping
them start their day. I had also attended meetings with the counselors
every morning to discuss diagnoses and treatment plans for each
individual child, and sat in on team meetings to discuss discharge plans and future placements for the children. After a couple of months of simply assisting this counselor with the children, I was given the opportunity to "act" as a counselor for a day. This counselor and I essentially switched roles and I became a true milieu counselor for that day. I was assigned to the children this counselor would have been, and I took over her role completely while she observed. This was an amazing opportunity for me because I was able to learn whether or not this type of job would be something I would be interested in or not. From this, I have learned that yes, this career is something I would be interested in. I have learned the day by day struggles as well as the many successes of a milieu counselor, and have discovered that it is something I truly enjoy.
Another one of my objectives was to learn how to chart the daily follow- up of the children's progress on the unit. I first began this process by watching my preceptor chart on the children she was assigned to for the day. I would offer input if I had any, asked the children how their day had been, and if they had any concerns about anything. After a couple of weeks, my preceptor allowed me to chart on one of the children by myself while she charted on another. Once I felt like I was done, she would review my notes with me and offer her suggestions if anything needed to be changed before I saved the document. It was so important for me to learn how to chart because the document that is produced from my notes gives the staff on the next shift an idea of how the children's days are going. Charting is also important for the doctors as well because they can see the children's progress from our documents. This way, they can determine how much longer each child needs to stay on the unit, or if any of them needs a change in medication. I definitely feel as though I have completely learned the charting process. This not only benefits me in terms of knowledge on the unit, but in future positions when it comes to documentation as well.Following this internship, I have realized that I would really like to work with children. I now have the clinical experience necessary to know how to work with children in a future position. Through assisting, observing, and talking with several staff members including counselors, doctors, and social workers, I have discovered that I would love to work in a hospital. This way, I can
assist with the immediate assessment and diagnosis of psychological
disorders as the patients are admitted into the hospital, and then
further discuss treatment plans for them and start them. I believe that
this internship has provided me with extensive clinical experience and knowledge I need to
succeed in this type of career, and it has definitely steered me in the right direction towards achieving my goals. |
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