Although I have three years of hospice clinical social work, I am only six months into my career with inpatient palliative care. I learned about SWHPN (Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care Network) and quickly applied and received the scholarship to attend the conference. It was beyond any previously held expectation and I left in awe of the work that is being done from around the country and world. As I sat next to great leaders like Dr. Grace Christ, Terri Altilio, LCSW and Shirley Otis-Green, LCSW, OSW-C (to name a few) I felt humble and as Susan Blacker, MSW, RSW and Susan Hedlund, LCSW, OSW-C described during their accidental leadership presentation, I thought to myself “oops, maybe I am not supposed to be here!”The week was full of encouragement to pursue research and take advantage of leadership opportunities with strategies and words of advice to guide you. We heard from Andrew MacPherson who reminded us to stay calm, there are positive conversations in Washington and time is on our side regarding changes with the ACA. We were reassured the calls to legislators and other political leaders helps and to keep “demonstrating the hell out of it” to see change.
Myra Christopher and Susan Hedlund approached the all too familiar topic of PAD, reminding us to support our patients first and remember there are “good people on both sides of the debate.” Agreeing we all want to see changes in the way we provide care to those at end of life.
The Consensus Project and efforts to establish Hospice and Palliative Care credentialing are well under way and we were asked to send our job descriptions to Dr. Barbara Head. The theme “there’s not enough of us” kept resonating throughout the sessions, leaving an open invite for advancement in our field, but also the overwhelming feeling of responsibility.
Emerging leader Anne Kelemen, LICSW joined her colleagues Vickie Leff, LCSW, BCD and Terri Altilio, LCSW to end the conference reminding us our language has power. I desperately wished for my pen to magically absorb their knowledge as I frantically scribbled down their words. As social workers we are given the honor to hold our team members and other professionals accountable to recognize distortions, make the implicit explicit and remove the burden of blame from our patients and families. Also, don’t forget to look for the humor as the situations we deal with are absurdly difficult.I, like many others, came to this conference wanting information, a new skill or technique to help my patients or ways to connect intra-professionally. However, I left- we all left- with so much more. I will move forward with the confidence to invite myself to the table to not only provide a knowledge and skill set but also to learn and respect other perspectives. Of course this is easy when I know the supportive community of SWHPN is all in.
My notes from the week reflect numerous ideas with strategies and potential supportive contacts. Generated ideas include hospital wide bereavement protocol, social work journal club, caregiver support group, methods of teaching my student and development of a social work student handbook. Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Absolutely. Not before mentioned, however, is the unquantifiable takeaways; the things you cannot quite put into words. The way I look at patients and families on day one post-conference has changed. The way I carry myself, the language I choose, the attitude and approach to each situation has evolved in such a way that my work will never be the same. I am happy about this, but mostly because the people I serve, will benefit the most.
Abigail Latimer, LCSW is a Clinical Social Worker for Palliative Care at the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington, KY. She is currently researching the ability of case managers in a hospital setting to identify and respond to bereavement needs in a hospital setting and seeking her doctoral degree at the University of Kentucky College of Social Work. She is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and most recently had surgery to repair her shoulder following a wrestling injury. And yes, she was the wrestler. You can contact her at abbie.latimer@uky.edu.