So far, we’ve defined what hospice social work is (you can check that out here), and the challenges surrounding how even our future colleagues may not already know (and you can check that out here). Now to paint a picture of how success looks and feels in this role:
Success is enjoying service
You are successful in hospice social work when you wake up most mornings looking forward to serving in your role. The thought of interacting with patients, their family members, your colleagues in your agency, residential care facility staff members and your community-resource network makes you feel good. You are successful when go to bed most evenings feeling calm, healthy and satisfied that you have provided good service.
Success is providing good service to patients and family members every day. Some days you get the satisfaction of knowing that you have helped solve a specific issue. Other days your satisfaction comes from knowing that your ongoing assessment and relationship-building is value.
You provide good service to your colleagues by maintaining a grounded, calming , approachable and positive demeanor, and by compassionately holding space for your colleagues to support them in processing their challenges. This is also success. And you succeed in serving your agency by influencing its reputation with your reliable and compassionate work, with diligent documentation habits that show that your agency is compliant in the areas in which you work.
Success involves feeling good
Success is when you also serve all of the above by serving yourself generous portions of compassion. Meet your needs. Drink water. Cry. Read books that either fascinate you or let you escape into a world that is completely separate from work. Eat healthy food. Eat chocolate. Keep in touch with friends who make you feel good about yourself.
Once when I was feeling a little unsuccessful because of difficulty getting on the same page with my boss about the expectations of my role, I gave a former boss a call to check in. She reminded me that I was one of the best social workers she has worked with, that she has work for me if I need it, and that she would always give me a positive reference. This made me feel good. I shared this with my spouse and that made us both feel good. I felt like I had more fuel to go out and do good.
We don’t need compliments or a constant list of outstanding Feats in order to know that we are succeeding. We need to do our jobs reliably and ethically, and remember that we are valuable in our roles and as individuals. But before we do that, we need hospice jobs. Check back in for the next post in which I get you hired for your first (or your NEXT) hospice job.