Assignment Task:
Situation 1: Mrs. Smith is a 32 year old mother of 3. You have been sent in by your agency to help her with her twin babies. She also has a 2 year old. You notice she spends all her time with the twins and is not giving any time to Jenny, the 2 year old.
Discuss in you group how you would handle this. What approach would you use?
Situation 2: You are the PSW for Mrs. Fiddle, an 85 year old widow who lives alone in a supportive housing unit. You come in 3 times a week to help her with her personal care, light housekeeping, meals and shopping. You have been doing this for 5 months. When you arrive you notice that Mrs. Fiddle is limping. You know that she values her independence and when you ask her about the limp she states that it is nothing. For the next 3 visits the limp gets worse.
Using therapeutic communication what would you say to get Mrs. Fiddle to talk about why she will not have her leg looked at.
Situation 3:
You have come for your weekly visit to Mrs. Brown to help her with her bath and do some light housekeeping and shopping. Today she is very angry. She yells at you to leave as you do a rotten job.
How would you handle this situation?
Situation 4: Mrs. Jones has just been admitted to the nursing home where you work as a PSW. This is her first night and when you enter her room to help her get ready for bed you notice that she has been crying.
What would you say to Mrs. Jones?
Situation 5: You are working on a chronic floor at the local hospital. Your supervisor asks you to get Mrs. Targanali out of bed. Mrs. T. has surgery three days ago for a broken hip. She is Italian and speaks very little English. Standing on her hop is very painful and does not want to get out of bed.
Discuss in your group how you would communicate with Mrs. T to get her out of bed.
Situation 6: You have arrived at Mr. Telfords home to help him with his bath and to do some light housekeeping. Fr. T does not want a female to help him with his bath. He lives alone now since his wife died 2 months ago and is very angry.
Discuss which therapeutic communication techniques you would use while communicating with Mr. T.
Situation 7: You are a student PSW assignment to assist Mrs. Smith with her lunch. When you sit down beside her she states, 'I do not want any of this garbage. It tastes awful. I would rather be dead then eat any more of this.'
What do you think is going on with Mrs. Smith? How would you find out? What communication techniques would you use?
APA Style and citation from Sorrentino's Canadian Textbook for support worker Elsevier ebook on VitalSource, 5th Edition