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Flying beyond Gray's Anatomy: A psychologist's experience in palliative care and psycho-oncology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2014

Casey L. O'Brien
Casey L. O'Brien*
Affiliation:
Psychosocial Cancer Care, St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia St. Vincent's Mental Health Service, St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Casey L O'Brien, Psychosocial Cancer Care, St. Vincent's Hospital, P.O Box 2900, Fitzroy, VIC 3065 Australia. E-mail: casey.obrien@svhm.org.au
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Abstract

A clinical fellowship provides opportunities for health professionals to learn specialist skills from experienced mentors in “real-world” environments. In 2010–2011, I had the opportunity to complete a palliative care and psycho-oncology clinical fellowship in a public hospital. I found ways to integrate academic training into my practice and become a more independent psychologist. In this essay, I aim to share my experience with others and highlight key learnings and challenges I encountered. In providing psychosocial care, I learned to adapt my psychological practice to a general hospital setting, learning about the medical concerns, and life stories of my patients. I faced challenges navigating referral processes and had opportunities to strengthen my psychotherapy training. In the fellowship, I engaged in educational activities from the more familiar psychological skills to observing surgical teams at work. I also developed confidence facilitating groups and an interest in group psychological support for young adult offspring of people with cancer. I was able to engage participants with haematological cancer in qualitative research about their experiences of corticosteroid treatment. In this process, I came to understand the complexity of chemotherapy regimens. Overseeing my development were multiple supervisors, offering unique insights that I could take in and integrate with my personal practice and worldview. Throughout this process I became increasingly tuned into my own process, the impact of the work, and developed self-care routines to help disconnect from my day. I also reflected on my experiences of loss and grief and developed a deeper understanding of myself as a person. I use the metaphor of a parachuting journey to illustrate various aspects of my learning.

Keywords

PsychologyPalliative carePsychosocialFellowshipEducation
Type
Essays/Personal Reflections
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 13 , Issue 6 , December 2015 , pp. 1803 - 1808
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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