(;ROUP COUNSELING I S HOSPITAL TRAISEES COJIISG FRON “CULTURALLI- DEPRIVED” BACKGROUNDS

JOHX STOUDENbIIRE

.\fatal Health Compler, Tupelo, Miss

PROBLEM The Sational Alliance of Businessmen are in the midst of promoting a job

training program calling for cooperation between the federal government and industry. The program is called Job Opportunities in the Business Sector (JOBS) and is specifically designed to provide training and subsequent employment t o disadvantaged persons. To receive a federal grant, the participating industry must provide psychological counseling to the applicants on the assumption that such persons may have more than their share of psychological problems, especially the kind of problems that interfere with work.

Such counseling was provided for the 14 JOBS trainees a t the North Missis- sippi Medical Center in Tupelo. An attempt was made to evaluate the results of the counseling and to determine what characteristics, if any, differentiated the successful and unsuccessful trainees.

AIETHOD The Ss were 14 trainees, 9 females and 5 males, 11 black and 3 white. All

were in training as aides or attendants except one in maintenance and one in the cafeteria. The therapist was a white male clinical psychologist.

The Ss were divided into two groups and seen weekly and then bi-weekly for a total of 6 sessions. One S was seen individually due to incompatibility with the group. All S s were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale@) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory at the beginning of the sessions. The personality test was readministered to all SS who successfully completed their JOBS training. Five S s were unsuccessful and were discharged from the program. X o post-training scores were obtained on these unsuccessful trainees.

The content of the group sessions varied, but was always geared to assist the Ss in psychological adjustments to their work. Discussion centered around learning how to get along with critical supervisors, unhelpful fellow workers and overly demanding patients. Difficulties in adjusting to things like the death of a favorite patient, bathing members of the opposite sex, or handling heart patients were discussed and suggestions offered by group members. Occasionally, the S s used the group to ventilate feelings about being discriminated against and falsely criticized by nurses and patients. These were usually followed by suggestions as to how the situations might be handled satisfactorily but without jeopardy to the trainee’s job. Wherever possible, rewarding experiences were shared by group members. These might include pleasure in getting to work with children, satisfaction in seeing patients get better, or finding a fellow worker or nurse who goes out of their way to assist the trainee a t work.

R ES u LTS

No significant differences on race, sex, intelligence or age were found between the successful and non-successful trainees.

The successful trainees had a slight though nonsignificant tendency to be more extraverted and more defensive than the unsuccessful group. The most significant difference was that the unsuccessful group of trainees had many more neurotic complaints than did the successful ( t = 1.92, p < . lo). With only one exception,

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the unsuccessful group had the highest neuroticism scores of the entire training group.

The successful group was retested on the personality test a t the end of their training period. No significant changes had occurred even though there were slight tendencies that this group had become even more extraverted, more stable and less defensive during their training.

The main implications of this experience is that many factors apparently do not relate to successful training in hospital work. In this light, such factors as age, race, sex and intelligence are of only minor importance in selecting trainees. The most important factor may be emotional stability. Persons with many neurotic complaints should be more carefully screened and perhaps given special counseling opportunities during their training. This should lead to better interpersonal re- lations on the job, fewer absences and more satisfaction with one's work.

SUMMARY E'ourteen aide and attendant trainees in a Job Opportunities in the Business

Sector (JOBS) program a t a hospital were given group counseling sessions. The trainees were all high school dropouts from culturally deprived backgrounds. Six group sessions were held in which discussion centered around adjusting to the pleas- ant and less pleasant aspects of their work. The group allowed ventilation of negative feelings as well as provided support to the members. Successful and un- successful trainees were compared on such factors as age, race, sex, intelligence, extraversion, neuroticism and defensiveness. Although trends were noted on several factors, high degrees of neurotic complaints was the most significant char- acteristic of the unsuccessful trainees.

REFERENCES 1. EYSENCK, H. J . and EYSENCK, B. G. Eysenck Persaality Inventory. San Diego, California:

2. WECHSLER, D. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. New York: Psychological Corporation, 1955. Educational and Industrial Testing Service, 1968.