C o n s i d e r a t i o n o f C a r e e r T i m e

in C h i l d Care W o r k : O b s e r v a t i o n s

o n C h i l d Care W o r k E x p e r i e n c e s

Beverly Sutton A u s t i n S ta te Hospi ta l Aus t in , Texas

Turnover rate of staff members is the concern of many employers. In the human services area, this is a vital concern because the quality of service diminishes with rapid turnover. By the time a staff member is trained and can deliver the service, he may resign for various rea- sons and then the process begins again. Maintaining cont inui ty and quality of care is a high priority for all children's residential services. The following observations on child care work experiences were made during ten years on a children's psychiatric residential service at a publicly supported psychiatric hospital.

Selection Process

Child care worker applicants are referred to the children's service from the personnel department of the hospital. The business admin- istrator (a former child care worker), an administrator (a member of the child psychiatry staff), and the director of child care worker train- ing interview them and send them on to be interviewed by the charge child care worker on the shift and the child care worker coordinator on the unit requesting a child care worker. The selection process for child care workers involves a search for openness, honesty, and con- cern for people. Past experiences and guided fantasy experiences are reviewed to give a general indication of style and att i tude toward chil- dren and their problems. On-the-job orientation lasts for about two

Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Sutton, Director, Children's Psychiatric Unit, Austin State Hospital, 4110 Guadalupe, Austin, Texas 78751.

Child Care Quarterly Vol. 6(2), Summer 1977 121

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weeks, and then weekly training seminars and treatment team meet- ings are held.

Cycle of Involvement

Child care workers begin their employment with eagerness to learn and give much emotional support and individual at tention to the chil- dren. They are helpful in their suggestions, very energetic, and open to learning new information that may or may not be useful in their work with the children. The child care workers reinforce the children for healthy behavior and ~ilso tend to reinforce one another for good work. From the beginning of employment , there is a tendency to take only problems to the administrator, and when problems are few, there is less interaction with the administrator. There is also a tendency to circumvent people in the administrative line and to rely on those who have been with the program longer. Frequently, this brings complaints from child care workers that unit administrators do not listen to the child care worker's concern and from unit administrators, who feel frustrated because they are not being listened to by the child care workers and because the child care workers "go around us."

After a period of time, approximately one to three years, child care workers show reluctance to come to work, a desire during the time they are working to go home early, a sense of being tired or ill, and a concern that the children are not as open in their emotional in- teraction as they were previously. There is a reluctance to discuss this change with administrators, almost as if discussing their concern about the children has more validity for the administrator than discussing their own feelings of adequacy and competency on the job. Some child care workers leave their position, obtain another position as a child care worker in another placement, and go through the same ini- tial enthusiasm, plateauing, and fatigue point.

On occasion, it appears that a child care worker, in a relationship with the child, will adopt some of the child's concerns. For example, one child who was very frustrated in placement attempts and who was very anxious to leave the hospital made a child care worker feel very frustrated with the administration, both for not placing the child and for not "listening to my concerns or my suggestions." Therefore, just as the child appeared to feel that the administrators were not meeting his needs regarding placement, frustrating his wishes, and not listening to his recommendations, the child care worker felt similar frustration in lack of at tention and concern. When the process for placement was discussed by an administrator with the child care work-

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er, the worker felt tha t a t tent ion had been given to his concerns and he could be supportive in his relationship with the child rather than add to the child's frustration.

Concerns Expressed

Personal Concerns

Child care workers have noted that they are able to get consulta- t ion for the children when it is needed but find it difficult to request assistance for themselves and of ten relegate their own concerns and f ru s t r a t i ons to another time, wi thout actually ever taking t ime to solve them. Child care workers on the 3 to 11 shift in particular seem to have limited social contacts. Occasionally, they meet outside the unit, and the topic of conversation centers on their work and the chil- dren. Child care workers are very reluctant to go to their administra- tors to discuss personal concerns for their work until after they have made a decision to terminate work as a child care worker. Sometimes at that point, they will come to an administrator and list various rea- sons for the resignation (e.g., going to school) and make recommen- dations to solve problems or to bring a problem to someone's atten- tion so it can be solved. The bulk of the problems are easily solved, have well-defined methods for solutions already in existence, or are reflections of problems that require step-by-step solution or adjust- ments.

Some child care workers have certain needs of their own that they can meet when they first come to work with the children. Eventually these needs are met and/or change as far as priori ty is concerned, so that the workers no longer view working with children as a mutual growth-producing experience. It may be that having met the needs of the children and watching the children do well activate other concerns such as separation-individuation, and these concerns accumulate as children leave the service. These child care workers remember a few of the children they originally worked with as particularly gratifying and later children as less challenging or healthier and therefore not requiring as much investment f rom the child care worker.

After two to three years of service, some child care workers seem to be able to pace themselves in such a way that they can cont inue to give direct service to the children. They appear to accept discharges and admissions more easily than the new child care workers, who oc- casionally find it difficult to accept a new child into care and have strong feelings about when a discharge should take place.

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Many remember as a highlight the top administrator's observing a period of child care work and making a comment about it. Although they find this extremely gratifying, they complain that it is infrequent but has more impact for them than an immediate supervisor's rein- forcing statement.

Professional Concerns

Concern has been expressed that there is a limited ceiling toward which a child care worker can aspire both in position in the institu- tion and in salary. Another concern is professionalization of child care work wherein a highly qualified, highly trained child care work- er could earn high salaries while continuing in direct care of children.

Child care workers just out of high school or college may feel that staying with one job narrows their future too much too soon. They feel that they should try several jobs, travel, be less obligated to one particular area, and in general have more freedom from obligations, responsibilities, or future job commitment .

The child care workers who have college degrees sometimes feel that they should have a position commensurate with that degree and do not always see child care work as service delivery requiring more than a high school education. (Intellectually, they are aware that good child care for children who deviate from normal development re- requires more knowledge and skill than most people acquire by pass- ing reasonably well through childhood and adolescence.)

Some consider child care work as an interim position until they de- cide what they want to do in the future. Child care work has not had the status ascribed to it that many of the other professions hold. A few child care workers consider it not far removed from being a cari- cature of the housewife who is truly wedded to a house and cares for all things in it, centering around how much can be done and not how well.

Intervention Points

Intervention into the fatigue point/guil t /quit t ing cycle may be pos- sible through an understanding of the concerns and solutions through which a child care worker progresses.

1. To facilitate the personal development of young adult child care workers who have not firmly decided upon their future career, it is important to furnish information on human development and assist- ance in preparing the way for self-actualization both for the workers

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and for the children in their care. These child care workers are ener- getic and eager to learn and serve as good models for the children. With a good experience in child care work, many in this group will eventually choose a career in a field closely related to child care work. Others will find that they have benefited from the experience, and al- though their career choice may be far removed from child care work, they are more comfortable about their capacity to interact with oth- er people and to raise children of their own. Training programs geared to continuous growth, both personal and professional, may meet the career requirements for child care workers now in the field.

2. Support personnel and, in particular, the administrative person- nel in frequent contact with child care workers can provide clarifica- tion of various factors involved in the total work with the child and emphasize the positive aspects of a child care worker's insights and growth. Continuous exposure to emotionally intense interactions with the children may then be paced at a level that is constructive for the children and the child care workers.

3. Awareness of the emotional fatigue cycle will facilitate discus- sion of this process early in the child care worker's career and open the way for interaction with administrators and teachers before resis- tance to discuss personal growth begins. The child care worker who waits to discuss personal frustrations with his work and growth may redirect these concerns to such feelings and expressions as "some- thing is wrong with the system," "we don't get credit for all the work we do," " i t doesn't seem as important ." Temporary reassignment to another group of children, vacation time, and periodic teaching as- signments may provide time for and motivation to continually exam- ine priorities, goals, and personal perspective. Continually taking part in the design of new programs, admission and discharge of children, and hiring and training of staff members for the t reatment team may be of assistance.

4. Attempts to sustain the commitment to child care work as a profession have been carried out in several ways. Degree programs in some colleges under titles such as "Mental Health Specialist, Child Care Worker, Child Development Specialist, Milieu Therapist, and Human Development Specialist" are now available. Child care work- ers who feel that psychotherapy is an important form of interaction are being trained in these therapeutic methods with academic credit for study. Some have acquired positions with higher salaries, differ- ent titles, and little if any direct child care work. This follows the trend of many specialty training systems wherein increasing service information and skill in direct delivery results in a position of admin-

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istration and teaching. A definite career ladder within the field of child care work may retain some of these people and may entice some who have left the field to return.

Discussion

All in all it appears that the needs and goals of the child care work- er change as he continues with his child care work. In meeting the needs of the child and the program goals for the child, he may pay less a t tent ion to his own needs and goals until they are no longer com- plementary. At this point, he is less willing to seek assistance in clari- fying his own needs and goals and requests alternatives such as a change in job or shift. Occasionally, a child care worker will t ry to determine what in his role as a child care worker is gratifying enough to sustain him in that position. Some child care workers with or with- out this awareness appear to be able to continue as child care work- ers and be self-sustaining for several years or for a career. Many, how- ever, negate their goal for a career in child care work. The child care worker who continues in child care work appears to be able to relate to many children wi thout becoming exhausted and to see each child as an individual about whom he will learn a great deal. He considers his mixture of naivete for this particular child's needs and life style plus his knowledge from other children and formal seminar work to be an acceptable state of affairs that will repeat and repeat. With each new child, he will learn something to add to his store of information, and each child will be an oppor tuni ty to say goodby to the previous child and hello to another child in an interactional set that will derive new knowledge, and serve to integrate his own life style. A child care worker 's comfor t with separation/individuation and with self-actuali- zation for both the child and himself, and trust in the child's ability to continue maturat ion are essential growth components .

Summary

At present, whatever is necessary for a child care worker to be self- actualized has not occurred in the majority of the people who have been or are child care workers. For many, it appears to be a path lead- ing to a closely related field, and there is under ta inty that child care work in itself can provide a lifetime career that would be rewarding and fulfilling. Ongoing study of the career cycle can provide informa- tion for appropriate intervention steps.