Probably the last one..

It's hard to believe, but I have not written a blog since last July and it is now April.  I have missed writing the blog and feeling a connection with all those who followed my adventures thru the blog.  I have spent most of my time since returning, traveling around the country and Mexico, visiting family and friends and thinking about what else I might do besides just living.  Although I have some ideas, I have made no definitive decisions and thought I should somehow at least finalize my Sri Lankan experience.  I recently received the formal evaluation of my job performance and thought it would be fun and concluding to share it with you:

DETAILS OF SERVICE

State your relationship with the volunteer, length of time known and frequency of contact : 

Nancy Shamban was a VSO volunteer in Sri Lanka from December 2009 to June 2011. I have known Nancy in my capacity of a VSO Programme Officer for 4 months and as a Programme Manager for 14 months. During this time, there were many occasions where I made contact with Nancy in a professional and social setting. The professional contact was the result of VSO’s project implementation, which ensured that I interacted with Nancy in a professional capacity while also giving me insights into her professional skills & abilities.  During the length of her placement in Sri Lanka, I got to know Nancy as a professional and flexible person, sensitive to the needs of the different communities, and committed to learning and helping others learn.

This has been completed in consultation with the mental health team of the Provincial General Hospital (PGH), Badulla including the Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. Pubudu Pandithasekara, Medical officer Mental Health Dr. Sisira Bandara, Psychiatric Nurses Ms. Lakshmi and Ms. Samanthi, Development Assistant Mr. Nilantha Ratnayake and Support staff member Mr. Sunni. Nancy Shamban was known to most of them for her entire duration of service as a Mental Health Development Worker to PGH, Badulla. Especially the Nursing Officers had the opportunity of working very closely with Nancy.

Describe the main duties undertaken by the volunteer, the level and breadth of responsibility and the specific skills and experience required for the job:

The main duties undertaken by the volunteer included the training and support of Psychiatric Ward PGH-Badulla staff. She also supported doing some trainings in Moneragala which comes under the same partnership and VSO partner, Regional Department of Health Services, Hambantota. 

During Nancy’s  placement at PGH, Badulla, her duties included:

• • Support in capacity building, training coaching and mentoring staff in providing clients centered mental health care to service users and their families. 

                 e.g (a) Mentor Consultant Psychiatrist and MOMH two times a week and as needed especially on    the need for counseling for distressed, suicidal, depressed, anxious patients in addition to or instead of medication.

                  (b) Mental Health training program established and ongoing for all Psychiatric staff PGH, Badulla every Friday 

• • Supervision and mentoring 

e.g (a) Given to psychiatric nurses on an ongoing basis

     (b) Informal supervision given to support staff 

                 (c) Given to Psychiatric Social Worker in general and specifically around counseling patients and their carers. 

                   (d) Mentor and supervise Occupational Therapist around group activities for patients.

              (e) Supervise and mentor all staff going into the community to visit patients and carers and all    staff on the need to focus more on community care and involvement.

• • Supervision of the booster training on prevention & management of aggression & violence conducted by nurse/support staff to all staff.

To accomplish above tasks, one needs professional training in management with at least 5 years of experience. Planning and organising skills together with good leadership qualities, communication, with motivation and adaptability would be essential.  

SKILLS, ABILITIES AND PERSONALITY TRAITS

Please rate the volunteer in the following areas, in each case using the space below the boxes to provide evidence and/or examples:

     

Headings	Excellent	Good	Average	N/A
Level of professional /         technical competence	X
Comments:  Nancy’s experience and skills in psychiatric nursing helped work with the staff and clients of PGH Badulla  and to develop and strengthen a more multi disciplinary approach to working among staff and greater role clarity for the psychiatric nurses at the psychiatry ward.   eg. She helped the multi disciplinarily teams in the ward rounds and shared experiences at the counselling sessions.
Ability to work as part of a team	X
Comments:  Nancy’s role involved interacting with various stakeholders within PGH Badulla. This ranged from Psychiatrist, Medical officers, Development Assistants, Psychiatric nurses and support staff with varied educational background, training and experience. Her sensitivity and maturity enabled Nancy to work with all of these groups and ensure that they were able to work together to achieve objectives.  Nancy understood the context in which she worked by gradually building an understanding over the 18 months she worked on her placement.  e.g. During the community visits to give medications, she worked with the team. She also actively engaged in mental health day celebrations and supervisions with the other team members.
Ability to adjust to new tasks, situations and challenges		X
Comments: Nancy has coped well, adjusting quickly to living and working in a completely new culture.  e.g Nancy wanted to start staff training on psychiatric illnesses.  It was difficult due to the nurses’ duty roster. However finally she could start Friday training and activity programme.
Ability to accept personal responsibility and work on own initiative	X
Comments:  Nancy was good on working on her own initiative and sets her agenda and structures to suit the partner organisation. For example, planning the training around the nurses and other staff shifts. Nancy took a great initiative in networking with other stakeholders. E.g She explored the possibilities of getting people from Alcohol Anonymous (AA) to do some alcohol prevention programmes in Badulla. VSO Shared the contacts made by Nancy with the Director, Mental Health Services, and Ministry of Health at a planning meeting of an Alcohol prevention programme.
Ability to lead and motivate others	X
Comments:  Nancy has always supported all initiatives taken by the PGH staff and encouraged them in all their activities. Nancy was always ensuring that all levels of staff were represented in decision- making using participatory methods and always spoke up with the management to include staff and patients where possible. She did motivate the Development Assistant all the time saying ‘You can’ and pushing for that.
Ability to communicate effectively		X
Comments:  Communication in Sri Lanka is different to communication in other developed countries. It has been quite challenging for Nancy to communicate with her Sri Lankan colleagues especially when people are not very open and direct and don’t say what they really mean. For instance, people in Sri Lanka will never tell if they can’t do something. They will say yes to everything and after that nothing will happen. Nancy has learnt how to cope with these situations by understanding the differences in communication.  Using the combination of good communication skills and a great sense of humour Nancy, in communicating with a wide range of people including medical staff, nurses, administrators, support staff, residents, families and colleagues with minimal English knowledge.

Headings	Excellent	Good	Average	N/A
Ability to negotiate and persuade		X
Nancy is good at negotiating and persuading others. I have experienced this skill of her at one of the volunteer quarterly sector group meeting. She played a big role in bring some volunteers from negative attitude to a positive attitude.
Comments:
Commitment, enthusiasm and positive attitude	X
Comments:  Nancy always thinks about the patient’s rights. It is a challenge that we face because we are a developing country. But she tried very hard to achieve that. Nancy had a very positive approach to work, was culturally sensitive and committed to equality and equal opportunities for everyone.
Resilience and determination		X
Comments:      She adapted well to a new cultural setup and work environment and handled disruptions to work with a positive frame of mind. E.g Most of the time she did home visits with the staff. She walked with the staff members to those houses.
Reliability	X
Comments:      Nancy has not only been reliable in her tasks and meeting targets but has also helped the staff become more reliable and accountable team members.

   

KEY STRENGTHS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Please use this box to highlight the volunteer’s key strengths and achievements in and beyond the placement including, for example, notable areas of personal and professional development, significant changes brought about by the volunteer and areas of real impact. This will help a prospective employer gain a clear sense of who the volunteer is and why they should consider employing him/her. Life of a volunteer worker in a developing country is rife with challenges. These range from the professional, such as challenges of working in a foreign language and cultural differences within a work setting, to the personal, such as social isolation.  Nancy had to deal with the entire gamut of these challenges and she did so with a unique willingness to stand back and critically view her own role within this environment. Nancy’s key achievements in this context include, supervising and coaching the mental health staff members on a regular basis, trainings for staff,  networking with other organisations etc.,  Nancy has impressive personal qualities; she is resourceful, highly motivated, shows considerable perseverance in difficult circumstances and is an effective and supportive volunteer. She adapted quickly and effectively to the considerable personal and professional demands of working in Sri Lanka and I believe she is very capable of adapting to any future local or overseas role. I recommend Nancy for any future employment. Well, I guess that's all folks!!  From my heart, thank you all!  xx Nancy