Field Work Report

Report submitted for the partial fulfillment

of the award of
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

By
Cynthia Gomes
BA (H) Psychology
Semester VI

Under the supervision of

Dr. Shahzad Ali
Department of Psychology
Jamia Millia Islamia
New Delhi
 Contents

1 Cover Page
2 Contents Page
3 Acknowledgements Page
4 Certificate
5 Declaration
6 Course Objectives
7 About the Organization
8 About the Department
9 Basic Concepts
10 Methods of Enquiry used during Field Work
11 Training Summary
12 Case - 01
13 Case - 02
14 Case - 03
15 Case - 04
16 Case - 05
17 Log Sheet of Field Training
 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the Head, Department of

Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia- Prof. (Dr) Mohd.
Ghazi Shahanawaz and Miss Neelu Din for their
guidance in creating the framework for my field
training program.

Special Thanks to my faculty supervisor(s) Mr. Usama

Rehman and Dr Shahzad Ali for their constant help
and support and most importantly for their valuable
inputs in the compilation for my Field Work Report.

A heartfelt gratitude for the one without whom this

would have been a greatly difficult task, my Field
Supervisor, the Head of the Department of Personal
Development, Holy Family Hospital- Mrs. Baljeet
Arun for making my training period under her a great
learning experience.

(Cynthia Gomes)
 Certificate

This is to certify that this Report on Field

Training submitted by Cynthia Gomes, in
partial fulfillment of the award of Bachelor of
Arts in Psychology Jamia Millia Islamia, is a
record of her original training experience
carried out under the guidance and
supervision of Dr. Shahzad Ali.

Dr Shahzad Ali
Field Work Supervisor
Department of Psychology
Jamia Millia Islamia
New Delhi-110025
 Declaration
I, Cynthia Gomes, a bonafide student of
BA (H) Psychology Jamia Millia Islamia,
hereby declare that I have undergone the field
work programme at Holy Family Hospital.

I also declare that the present report is my

original work and the content of which has
not been submitted to any other university or
institute, either in part or full for the award of
any degree, diploma or fellowship.

Cynthia Gomes
BA (H) Psychology
Semester VI
Jamia Millia Islamia
 Course Objectives
Field work is offered by our department for academic credit and is
superficially directed to provide practical hands on learning
experiences in the field in conjugation with practical knowledge that
student learn in their coursework thus enabling them to apply
theoretical knowledge to practical experiences. It provides students
opportunity to develop organizational and interpersonal skills in a
workplace or community setting. The field work therefore is a
practice based learning experience

The purpose of the field training shall be to provide firsthand

experience of various psychological phenomena to the students
while they are placed in any field such as School, NGO’s, Special
Schools, Industry, Mental health clinics and Counseling centre. The
course intends to develop sensitivity among the students to identify
the problems/issues, develop suitable methodology to
understands/explore the problem/issue, exploring their probable
causes and devise intervention strategy to handle/manage the
problem/issue in the field where they are placed.

The students were placed in the field for a period of 30 days under a
field supervisor as well as a faculty supervisor to whom we were to
report.

The main objective of the field training program is to instill in all

students the skills of identifying and understanding Psychological
problems and the ability to devise an intervention strategy to handle
and solve the area of concern. Thus by engaging in thirty days of
field training we were expected to learn to easily apply theoretical
knowledge to real life and practical circumstances.
.
 About the Organization
As a part of my curriculum for the final semester of the
Undergraduate Program at the Department of Psychology, Jamia
Millia Islamia, we had to undertake a period of field training cum
internship in any field of Psychology to get a firsthand experience in
the practical application of various psychological concepts that we
had been studying in the previous semesters.

I undertook my period of field work and training at the Holy Family

Hospital, New Delhi through the reference of the Director of the
Hospital- Rev Father George PA under the guidance and supervision
of my supervisor, Mrs. Baljeet Arun who heads the Department of
Personal Development, along with the other two members of the
same Department- Sister Maria Therese and Mrs. Zahida Khatoon.
The Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, is a 326 bedded multi-
specialty Hospital run by the New Delhi Holy Family Hospital
Society and managed by the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese. It is
registered as charitable Non-Profit Organization under the Societies
Registration Act XXI of 1860.
The Holy Family Hospital in New Delhi, India, was founded by the
Medical Mission Sisters in 1953. The foundation stone was laid by
Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Vice President of India in the presence of
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, India’s Minister of Health.
Subsequently the running of the Hospital was handed over to the
Delhi Catholic Archdiocese in 1990.

At present His Grace, Rev. Anil J.T. Coutto, Archbishop of Delhi, is

the Chairman of the Governing Body of the hospital. Rev. Father
George P.A. is the Director and Dr. S. Warsi is the Medical
Superintendent.
 About the Department
Unlike in other hospitals where one extensively engages in Clinical
Psychology, the Department where I had been interning that is, the
Department of Personal Development, seeks to provide
psychological support to both the admitted patients who are being
treated for physiological illnesses as well as their family members as
and when the need arises as many a times physiological illnesses
tend to render individuals anxious stressful and often in serious and
chronic cases, depressed. And all of this is done free of cost in
accordance to the Hospital’s mission to provide “holistic” treatment
to all its patients irrespective of their caste, creed, race, sex.

The Department of Personal Development largely functioned in the

field of Health Psychology, Patient Counseling, Grief Counseling, as
well as also in cases of patients with psychiatric disorders although
such cases were considerably rare since the Hospital also provides
services by Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists.

The Department also seeks to provide a session of pre-operative

counseling to those in patients who are to undergo surgical
treatment. Apart from this the Department provides counseling to all
staff members, employees, students and those brought in on referral.
 Basic Concepts
Health Psychology
Health psychology is a specialty area that focuses on how biological,
social, and psychological factors influence health and illness Health
psychologists engage in many different tasks related to health and
wellness. The specific type of work that a health psychologist does
on a daily basis may depend on work setting or specialty area. Many
health psychologists work directly in clinical settings to help
individuals or groups prevent illness and promote healthy behaviors.
Others conduct research on health-related issues or influence public
policy on health care issues.

Patient Counseling
Patient counseling refers to the process of providing information,
advice and assistance to help patients use their medications
appropriately. According to USP, medication counseling is an
approach that focuses on enhancing the problem solving skills of the
patients for the purpose of improving or maintaining the quality of
health and quality of life.

The information is usually given verbally, but may be supplemented

with written materials. During counseling, the counselor should
assess the patients understandings about his or her illness and
treatment, and provide individualized advice and information which
will assist the patient to take their medication in the most safe and
effective manner. To provide accurate advice and information, the
counselor should be familiar with the path physiology and
therapeutics of the patient’s disease.

Grief Counseling

Grief counseling is a form of psychotherapy that aims to help people

cope with grief and mourning following the death of loved ones, or
with major life changes that trigger feelings of grief (e.g., divorce, or
job loss).
Grief counselors believe that everyone experiences and expresses
grief in their way, often shaped by culture. They believe that it is not
uncommon for a person to withdraw from their friends and family
and feel helpless; some might be angry and want to take action.
Some may laugh.
Grief counselors know that one can expect a wide range of emotion
and behavior associated with grief. Some counselors believe that in
all places and cultures, the grieving person benefits from the support
of others. Further, grief counselors believe that where such support
is lacking, counseling may provide an avenue for healthy resolution.
Grief counselors believe that grief is a process the goal of which is
"resolution". Grief counselors also believe that where the process of
grieving is interrupted, for example, by the one who is grieving
having to simultaneously deal with practical issues of survival or by
their having to be the strong one who is striving to hold their family
together, grief can remain unresolved and later resurface as an issue
for counseling.
 Methods of Enquiry used during
Field Work

Case study

Case study refers to the use of a descriptive research approach to

obtain an in-depth analysis of a person, group, or phenomenon. A
variety of techniques may be employed including personal
interviews, direct-observation, psychometric tests, and archival
records. In psychology case studies are most often used in clinical
research to describe rare events and conditions, which contradict
well established principles in the field of psychology. Case studies
are generally a single-case design, but can also be a multiple-case
design, where replication instead of sampling is the criterion for
inclusion
Interview
Interview refers to a one-on-one conversation with one person acting
in the role of the interviewer and the other in the role of the
interviewee. The interviewer asks questions, the interviewee
responds, with participants taking turns talking. Interviews usually
involve a transfer of information from interviewee to interviewer,
which is usually the primary purpose of the interview, although
information transfers can happen in both directions simultaneously

Observation
Observation is one method for collecting research data. It involves
watching a participant and recording relevant behavior for later
analysis. One example of a study using the observational method
would be when a researcher wants to study how children manage
sharing of toys. He could observe a group of children playing in the
classroom, and record what things they say or do that determine who
gets to play with a coveted toy.
The observation method has the advantage of providing direct
evidence of the phenomenon that is being studied

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of

questions for the purpose of gathering information from
respondents. Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written
interview. They can be carried out face to face, by telephone,
computer or post.

Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way

of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of
people. Data can be collected relatively quickly because the
researcher would not need to be present when the questionnaires
were completed. This is useful for large populations when
interviews would be impractical
 Training Summary
I interned at the Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi for thirty working
days from the 3rd of January 2018 to the 8th of February 2018 in the
Department of Personal Development under the supervision of my
field supervisor-Mrs. Baljeet Arun, the Head of the Department of
Personal Development. I was the only intern there during that time
and was therefore able to gain maximum knowledge and training
throughout my field work. My shift timings were from 8:30am to
5:00pm and I was initially given the task of observing under my
supervisor and in the later phase was allowed to meet some patients
on my own.

The first task would be to provide a pre-operative counseling session

to the patients who were to be taken for any surgical treatment on a
given day who were prescribed such in the latter half of the evening
and were therefore not visited during the evening pre-operative
counseling session. Pre-operative counseling session would involve
a brief introduction of the counselor with the patient after which the
counselor would explain to the patient about the surgical treatment
that s/he was going to undergo-the entire procedure, why it was
being done and how it was to be done every query of the patient was
answered and the patient was made to feel comfortable and
reassurance was provided to them however avoiding giving them
false hopes. The pre-operative counseling benefits the patient in a
sense that after this session s/he is aware of the medical procedure
that is going to take place thereby killing the feeling of uncertainty
regarding what will happen to me?

After completing this task we would break in for breakfast which

was followed by Morning Prayer and daily reporting where
everyone in the department would report about the patients that they
had visited the day before. This was also the time when various
duties were assigned and the entire day’s schedule was laid out.
After this I was assigned the task of visiting the OPD of the Hospital
where I was required to visit at least 8 to 10 patients daily and
record their responses for Patient Satisfaction Index- a questionnaire
that was used for recording patients’ level of satisfaction with the
services of the hospital. This task was very tedious as many patients
after hearing that I was from a psychology background would often
engage me in conversations seeking advice on various issues that
they were facing (not of psychiatric nature). In all I was able to
manage to get approximately 100 forms.

After getting these questionnaires filled I would accompany my

supervisor for ward visits, in the ,later stage of my field work I was
allowed to go for daily visits to one general ward comprising of 8
patients. These visits were usually made as a health and wellbeing
counselor who would try to help individuals maintain a good and
healthy lifestyle after being discharged. Moreover it also provided
to the patients, a medium of catharsis, to vent out their emotions and
feelings of anxiety and stress due to their physiological symptoms.
Another questionnaire was administered to the in patients who were
to be discharged that day to record their levels of satisfaction with
the services of the Hospital.

After lunch I would spend an hour preparing my daily reports and

then would set off to conduct the interview and orientation of the
employees of the Hospital on their rights and responsibilities as
workers of this institution, a task assigned to me by the Human
Resource (Personnel) Department of the Hospital. I was able to
interview around 138 non medical staff of the Hospital and have
submitted my final report to the HR Manager Mrs. Gina in the
Month of March. The last task was to accompany my supervisor for
a session of pre-operative counseling for the patients who were
prescribed a surgical treatment in the morning visit by the doctor.
On Wednesdays I would accompany my supervisor for antenatal
counseling sessions for expecting mothers.
All the case studies that are being mentioned have been done by me
individually and from the perspective of a Health and Wellbeing
Counselor and not of a clinical psychologist. I have witnessed
several psychiatric patients but wasn’t able to gather enough
information to compile a case study because of privacy issues of the
patient and the psychologist.
 Case Study-01
Socio-Demographic Details-

Name R. K.
Age/Sex 16/F
Marital Status Unmarried
Educational Qualifications Currently in class XIth
Socio-Economic Background Urban
Religion Hindu
Family Structure Neutral family; Consisting
of four people-the parents,
the patient and her younger
brother.

Chief Complaints-

Poor eating habits of the patient, marked by starvation and refusal to

consume food very often, leading to an alarming weight loss in a
short span of time.

Showing early symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa of the restricting

typology. (DSM-5)

Name of the Informant-

The patient’s mother

Identified Area of Intervention-

Eating habits of the patient along and working on her self-image.

Promoting other healthier forms of weight loss.
Report-

The patient was initially reluctant to talk to me however with a

successful rapport formation, she eventually became comfortable
and began to reciprocate in the conversation.

While talking to her about her impoverished eating habits it was

found that she was excessively conscious about her physical
appearance and weight which had caused her to eat minimum
amount of food that had not only led to an excessive weight loss but
also had rendered her weak and lethargic.

The main reason behind this, as it seemed, was the innate drive of
the girl to look desirable to others that is usually common in many
adolescents.

Scarce eating was essentially a result of negative self-image as the

girl mentioned during the session that she had often been made fun
of her weight.

She was motivated to accept herself with her flaws. Moreover she
was encouraged to try other healthier alternatives for weight loss
like regular physical activity and well balanced and proper eating
habits.

Her mother was asked to regularly encourage her daughter and try to
maintain the girl’s positive self image but avoiding negative phrases
and remarks.
 Case Study-02
Socio-Demographic Details-

Name C.M.R
Age/Sex 19/F
Marital Status Unmarried
Educational Qualifications Pursing B.Sc (Nursing) First Year
Socio-Economic Background Sub-Urban
Religion Christian
Family Structure Neutral family; Consisting of three
people- the patient and the parents
latter being settled in Kerala.

Chief Complaints-

Occasional physiological distress, usually in the form of high

temperatures accompanied by fainting spells

Showing apparent signs of being unable to adjust to the current

location both physically and emotionally.

Presence of anxiety due to separation from parents

Name of the Informant-

The patient herself

Identified Area of Intervention-

Working on the patient’s adjustment problems focusing specially on

separation anxiety which may be a factor for occasional
physiological symptoms like fever and dizziness.
Report-

The patient was quite and didn’t speak much initially, just giving
details about her problem. She said that she was facing problems in
settling down in this new environment which was completely
different from her home town.

She said that she often skipped meals because she was reluctant to
try them and was therefore falling sick every other day. She said that
she missed her parents terribly and this separation anxiety may be a
cause for the frequent occurrences of fever.

As the patient was the only child of her parents, it is only valid that
she was the object of their utmost affection thereby making the
patient cling onto them emotionally.

The patient was motivated to accept this new change in her life in a
positive manner by integrating aspects of both the culture that
appealed to her the most.

For the anxiety part she was referred to the Counselor who took up
the case from there-after.
 Case Study-03
Socio-Demographic Details-

Name S.R.
Age/Sex 23/F
Marital Status Unmarried
Educational QualificationsGraduated, Currently
pursuing MA in
International Relations
Socio-Economic Background Urban
Religion Muslim
Family Structure Neutral family; Consisting
of five members, parents,
two younger siblings
(brothers) and the patient.

Chief Complaints-

Frequent Fever caused by extreme amounts of stress usually around

the time of examination of the patient. Sleeplessness and Palpations
occur occasionally.
Symptoms for Panic Attacks also seen usually around the time of
examinations

Name of the Informant-

The patient’s roommate

Identified Area of Intervention-

Panic attacks and general anxiety and stress apparently caused by

Examination Fear.
Report-

The patient was a cheerful and talkative girl but said that she
experienced great amounts of stress during examinations that causes
sleeplessness and palpations before and during the exam.

The patient informed that she prepared well for her exam but went
completely blank while attempting the paper.

Moreover, this anxiety causes the patient to fall sick often during
exams specially being down with fever.

The patient was asked to practice certain relaxation techniques like

deep breathing and meditation regularly especially before studying
and preparing for any examination.
She was also asked to get at least seven hours of sleep before
appearing for any examination as it helps in maximum retention of
the brain that would also help to cease her anxiety.

The patient was asked to come for an in depth counseling session if

these techniques did not work and the symptoms persist.
 Case Study-04
Socio-Demographic Details-

Name J. K.P.
Age/Sex 16/M
Marital Status Unmarried
Educational Qualifications Currently in class XIth
Socio-Economic Background Urban
Religion Christian
Family Structure Neutral family; Consisting
of three members- the
parents and the patient,
however the father doesn’t
stay with the child and is
settled in Dubai because of
his job.

Chief Complaints-

Moody, prefers to stay alone unlike before. Gets irritated on very

minuscule issue, stays angry all the time doesn’t enjoy doing much
activities.

Name of the Informant-

The patient’s mother

Identified Area of Intervention-

The apparent melancholic mood of the patient while also working

on anger management techniques.
Report-

The patient had met with a severe accident a few months ago that
had severely damaged his left leg that had left his leg temporarily
disabled. The patient had been a footballer prior to this accident and
this trauma of not being able to play had made him excessively
moody and irritable. Because of his accident he also had to miss his
finals and had to repeat a year which made him feel even worse as
due to his disability he wasn’t able to make new friends.

The patient was asked to practice relaxation techniques for his

moody behaviour especially to meditate every day with soft music
in the background that would create positive energy around him.

He was motivated to give his life another chance and was

encouraged to take up new activities that would not only engage his
time constructively but would also ensure new skill development.

The mother too was asked to be emotionally strong and not do

anything that negatively impairs the patient’s self esteem.

The mother was also asked to refer to a Counselor for further help.
 Case Study-05
Socio-Demographic Details-

Name A.D
Age/Sex 56/F
Marital Status Married
Educational Qualifications 2nd Class Pass
Socio-Economic Background Rural
Religion Hindu
Family Structure Joint family; consisting of
eight members - the patient
and her husband their three
sons, two daughter in laws
and one grandchild.

Chief Complaints-

Very high levels of Blood Pressure.

Has a serious temper and gets angry at very little things.

Name of the Informant-

The patient’s elder Daughter in Law

Identified Area of Intervention-

Promoting a healthier life style along with aiding anger management

techniques in the patient.
Report-

The patient appeared to be very dominant and bossy in nature and

thus I found it rather difficult talking to her because of her air of
superiority. However after much reluctance the patient did agree to
talk after being motivated by her daughter in law.

The patient was urged to give up on salty food and maintain a

healthy lifestyle by doing light exercises and brisk walking a least
once a day for a minimum time of 45 minutes.

The patient was also asked to practice deep breathing exercises and
meditation that would help her to be relieved of stress. The patient
was also taught various techniques to manage anger.
Log Sheet of Field Training