Riley Ballard

PTH 655

Difficult Conversations Journal

Prior to this activity, I was actually quite nervous. I felt okay about what was going to

happen a couple hours before starting but as soon as I walked into the classroom and sat down I

became very nervous, my palms become sweaty, and my skin felt clammy. I did not practice the

situations prior to class because I felt as if I would get in a mindset of addressing the topic in the

specific way that I practiced. Instead, I felt better going into it without a mindset of addressing in

a specific way. My activity was a stroke patient who was feeling depressed and suicidal. I

believe I handled the situation quite well and felt much better about it after I was done. Once I

was done I felt as if I was able to handle almost any situations well and handle them with a high

degree of care and respect.

The first thing I learned from this experience is staying calm. I realized when dealing

with situations like these that it is best to remain calm and level headed in order to give your best

advice and thoughts to the patient. I struggled with this today and feel as if I remained calm that I

would’ve done even better. I now have this to work towards for next time to provide an even

better experience for the patient by the time I face a real situation.

The second thing I learned was that it is important to be adaptable. I read the cases prior

to the activity and a pre-set mindset on how it would go but it actually ended up being nothing

like how I thought. I pictured the actors being very basic in the way they presented the situation

but in all reality, they each went into more depth than I presumed and played their roles with

some detail. This actually helped me and I think everyone in the long run because it gave us a

more realistic idea of what we will be faced with. I believe I was adaptable to the situation I was

given.
 Riley Ballard
PTH 655

The third thing I learned was that I am more empathetic than I thought and less stern in

these situations than I thought. I am the type of person who is stern and not let people yell at me

and such. Now, after these scenarios, I realized I handled them and would have handled them

with more empathy. This is not a bad thing, but I also realize it is also important to be stern at

times. I think it is good to have a balance of each which is what I think I have to an extent.