Papel del psicólogo en los pacientes terminales.

flow?

It is very difficult to know if someone has had a flow experience even if the event takes place in the present. This study documented recollections of events that happened years ago. To identify flow experiences, I documented participant descriptions of situations where challenges were successfully met during

Program 2 while the participants also indicated that the situation caused them to lose track of time and/or develop positive reactions to successfully meeting the challenges. Based on that criterion, seven participants experienced flow while addressing the challenges they experienced in Program 2, but only one indicated losing track of time. Six of the seven, Trina, Patrice, Natalie, Lola, Latoya, Donna, and Donald, experienced flow through their externship experiences and one, Donna, experienced flow in the Program 1.

Trina

Trina had a hard time “becoming an intern at the zoo because the

program did not exist”. She took the challenges and became the first intern under 18 years of age”. She was “given the same duties as other staff members”. She believed in her ideas because she could give the zoo staff “fresh insights”. One of the hardest things she did was leave the “fun of high school” to work as an “unpaid extern”. When Trina worked at the zoo, time was never a factor”. She

loved “all the hard work and difficulties” she endured because working at the zoo and being accepted by her co-workers “was worth the fight”. Trina’s time was so rewarding that it made (her) life a pleasure”.

She was dedicated to working at the zoo where she lost herself in her work and in her friends and animals. Everything she did rewarded her because she was living her dreams. The challenges that she encountered at the zoo were good. Trina spent a lot of time “learning from others” about being “as professional as possible”. She did all of the same work as the regular zoo staff members, “manual labor, traces on animals, rat problems, medical records” and many others. Trina “learned behaviors” that she didn’t believe existed. She “attained the respect of co-workers”, something that she “needed” to help bolster her self- confidence. At first, Trina’s co-workers didn’t believe that she “had what it took to overcome the obstacles they provided”. They tested Trina’s strength in the field”. Program 2 taught Trina that “hard work and enough research to back up” her beliefs could help her achieve her goals and make “anything possible”. Trina was required to devise the curriculum for her participation at the zoo in addition to scheduling her workloads. She had to find research and material to convince the zoo staff that E.B.C.E. “would be beneficial” She had to make permission slips stating that she “chose to be in a dangerous environment” which had to be signed by both Trina and by her mother.

Trina has used some of the skills she learned in Program 2 to overcome some difficulties as an adult. She has been “involved with a group of people who

listen” through her Program 2 externship experience, “has been a blessing in making things easier in helping them overcome their shortcomings”. “Trina has “set up interviews with people to help them get their lives back on track”. She has “taught them the power of persuasion and also that your dress code is important in how others see you”. Trina believes that “you can help someone see the light sometimes it helps in letting them know that there is more out there”.

Patrice

Patrice had to respond to a “sink or swim situation” while in her Program 2 externship. While working as a reporter at a weekly newspaper, she was asked to writer a story about an event sponsored by Coca-Cola. The editors asked her to write a “fluff piece” about the event but “Patrice decided to write a more in- depth piece. Patrice would have to “talk to strangers” about their reactions to the event, in order to write the more extensive piece. This was a particularly

challenging task for Patrice who was a very shy high school student. This experience helped Patrice because she was required to interview strangers in order to get the job done. She “interviewed some people at the event to get their perspectives”. The “article was completely different than what the editors

envisioned”. Patrice did feel like she was in a “sink or swim situation realizing that people can only tell you yes or no”. She had to adjust her questions quickly and ask probing questions. Patrice “felt pretty good after the editors read the story” and gave Patrice very positive feedback about the story. Patrice learned “to overcome fear in a sink or swim situation”. She learned that “sink or swim was

positive”. She also learned that she possessed the “power to do things that I would not have attempted to do”.

Donald

Donald had to prove his worth to his co-workers by “working and showing interest”. Once respect was earned, people gladly shared their knowledge of any question” Donald had. The challenge and the flow developed through his efforts to “earn that respect and indulge in ‘brain picking’”. Donald completed “tasks in a timely fashion” to earn the respect of his co-workers and then engage them in a dialogue that would help Donald “continue the learning process while in the field”. Even though Donald was a gifted and talented student, this was a new field for him and “there was a slight learning curve or plateau”. As time continued, Donald “had to think of new exploring ways to accomplish a complete understanding of the field”, he wanted to pursue. Donald also had to “acquire new ways of

developing understanding while compiling the big picture”. “Every sense” Donald had “was developing around the exposure of activities, digesting it properly was another matter”.

Lola

At Uptown Hospital II, Lola had to “overcome shyness while dealing with the general population”. She had to “talk to patients to learn more about the job” and saw “a lot of kids on a day to day basis”. “A lot of them were not able to have parents or family there on a daily basis and it was hard on them” and hard on Lola when she talked to them all the time. The children looked forward to Lola’s

remember a toddler that had been severely burned and the cries just seemed different (and you could hear them often)”. Another patient, at Uptown Hospital II, a 20-year old, terminally-ill patient, was “talking about dying” while Lola was talking about the prom”. Lola’s interaction with these young patients, and others, led her to believe that she might become burned out at a young age if she entered the health care profession because the visits to these young people had such a strong emotional effect on Lola.

Natalie

Natalie’s challenge occurred while she was working at the pharmacy at City Hospital. There were externs from St. Ignatius University also working at the pharmacy at City Hospital. A teacher from St. Ignatius was scheduled to visit the pharmacy on an evaluation visit and Natalie was asked to help prepare for the evaluation. Natalie became so involved in preparing for the visit that she failed to notice that the teacher arrived, completed the evaluation and left. Natalie was so focused on her preparatory tasks that she lost track of everything else. The pharmacist was so impressed with “Natalie’s” work that he praised her and gave Natalie a very good evaluation.

Donna

For Donna, “just to be in a class, with high achieving, goal-oriented people, is a challenge and pushes you to be your best”.

Latoya

Latoya realized that “initially, some workers (at Uptown Hospital) weren’t receptive to high school students”. Latoya realized that the key to acceptance