Reflections

3.4.5i Reflections on completing the empirical study

Reflections highlighted in the reflective journal and through the process of bracketing are detailed below:

Personal Reflexivity

‘I have found that I sometimes become very interested in the topics people have presented to me, and I wonder whether some of these may be more personally relevant and interesting as opposed to answering the research question. I think I need to be very aware and cautious not to seek too much information about things that hold personal relevance to me.’

‘A number of participants are reporting the difficulties they experience in work. This makes me worry about the future of the profession I am only just embarking on. The sense of hopelessness and lack of control seems contagious and it makes me want to avoid re-reading the transcripts. I wonder if this reflects the nature of burnout on a wider scale within services, it seems contagious amongst teams. In my literature search I have read about the discrepancies between expectations vs. reality when starting qualified life and I wonder if this is what people experience as newly qualified’

‘The things people are talking about in interviews are very interesting. People are talking a lot about the physical environments that they work in and not having the right resources to complete their work activities. I feel that I have a sense of this as a trainee, constantly feeling like I am ‘fitting’ with the physical work environment, with limited desk space and less opportunities to see clients. For me I think this links with my sense of being valued, however this hasn’t come up in interviews yet. I will endeavor to be careful to ‘bracket’ this assumption to avoid leading participants into saying this.’

As the process of data collection developed the author began to reflect on their own experiences of wellbeing in the workplace. The author was able to understand their insider position, whilst also understanding a degree of separation. Whilst the author is completing their clinical training course they are provided with enhanced levels of supervision. This provides a reflective space and a level of containment that was not described by many of the participants during the interviews. This appears to have provided the trainee with a certain level of ‘protection’ from the difficulties experienced by many of the clinicians, which may have made it difficult to relate to some of the described difficulties. There were however, particular themes derived from the interviews that resonated with the trainee personally. This included the positive impact of personal support as well as inter-professional agents including other’s understanding of the role of being a trainee clinical psychologist. The trainee shared some of the frustrations described by participants when faced with clinicians who may not understand their role or who may minimize their previous experiences.

The nature of training to be a clinical psychologist often requires uncertainty and difficulty finding a balance between work and personal live, and this resonated with the findings from the interviews, particularly with ‘Positive and negative job aspects’. The author reflected on experiencing a struggle to find ‘balance’ between clinical, academic and their personal life. However experiences of feeling ‘valued’ in work and experiencing some ‘autonomy’ alongside ‘having opportunities to learn’ have provided some protection to the pressures of training and working within this profession.

The trainee found the theme ‘drive to improve staff wellbeing’ particularly inspiring, and felt that this theme changed the trainee’s perspective of their role as a Clinical Psychologist. The subthemes of hope and drive described by practitioners led to the author now viewing the profession of Clinical Psychology as holding a level of responsibility in advocating for staff wellbeing within organisations. Throughout the interviews there seemed to be varying perceptions as to who holds responsibility for supporting staff and their wellbeing within organisations. It seemed to the author that the profession of clinical psychology holds a unique position and understanding of such difficulties and this profession has the resources to support and enhance staff wellbeing. In addition to this on a personal level the author was struck by the response rate to the call for participants, which initially led the trainee to experience the same feelings of drive to improve staff wellbeing as described by participants.

3.4.5ii Reflections on completing the systematic review

Whilst the process of completing the systematic review proved to be a challenge for the researcher, the process driven nature of completing systematic reviews and having a structured approach felt containing. This level of rigour required when completing the systematic review enhanced the expertise of the author in terms of critical evaluation and feelings of being a ‘scientist practitioner’.

Initially the author viewed the systematic review as something that was not as ‘novel’ as when completing empirical research. However, the author came to understand the value of systematic reviews. The process helped the author to reflect on the quality of studies often included in peer-reviewed journals. The author previously held the view that articles published in ‘peer-reviewed’ journals would be of good quality.

However, the studies included in this review were of lower quality. This made completion of the systematic review feel important in that it enables overall understanding of a body of research, as opposed to relying on small pieces of research to draw conclusions.

3.4.5iii Reflections on the research topic

The topic of the research felt important to the author, and the author found it motivating to complete work that felt valuable. The lack of research in this area came as a surprise. Whilst it came as no surprise that a lot of research had been completed on occupational wellbeing and the relationship between wellbeing, burnout and quality of care in healthcare settings, the author felt that the lack of research conducted in mental health settings reflected the nature of privilege given to medical settings over mental health settings, and demonstrated a lack of parity of esteem.

The researcher found it useful to reflect on the distinction between ‘wellbeing’ and ‘burnout’ as documented in the systematic review. During data collection for the empirical study participants did not appear to be dissatisfied with their jobs or career, however a number of participants alluded to experiencing feelings of burnout.