Could someone explain psych rotations for me?

[Scrubz]

I have a general idea of what they are, but I'd like to hear it from some fellow students who've taken it. It's one of the courses I'm taking next semester.

What are your assignments like? What all do you do?

How do you approach the patients? I don't really want to go up to someone and say, "Hi, I'm a nursing student and I'm here to talk to you because it's part of my grade," or, "Hello, I'm here to practice theraputic communication with you." So how do you do it? Can you just say you're there to talk to them from a person-to-person perspective?

Anything else anyone would like to throw in about their experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any reponses!!!

[marilynmom, LPN, NP]

First of all, they know and understand your a student (well a lot of them will). Most of the patients have been in and out of the hospital many times and know how it all works.

I would just start up a conversation with a patient just like I would anyone else...."Hey what are you watching?", and "hey do you want to play some chess?"...or whatever. Most of them want to talk, they know why they are in the hospital, most are really great people!

When I did my rotation we watched tv with the patients, played games, listened to music and talked about concerts we had been to, colored, hung out, went to group therapy with them, talked about their meds and how they were feeling, etc. I had a really good time :)

[NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN]

Just be careful how much information you give out to the patients. I spoke to one guy in the State Mental Hospital that was admitted for stocking a woman for 3 years. I did not know that until later. And before you start talking to patients just ask the nurses who you need to stay away from and who is interesting to talk to. They know it best.

[Bonny619]

Listen to report, pick a patient...you'll work on therapeutic communication, maybe a process recording, psych careplans are quite different than med/surge care plans, you can't free someone from having delusional thought processes in 1 shift.

I didn't enjoy psych, but it was easy.

[MySimplePlan]

We were assigned patients and told their diagnosis. I would approach them and say, 'Hi, Jane, I'm Julie from ______College and I'd love to spend some time with you if that's OK..." Most are lonely and appreciate having someone really listen to them. They so want to be normal, and YOU represent normal. That you are talking to them, practicing active listening, and showing them compassion goes a long way, and most patients are really cooperative. The paranoid ones are not, but even so, you can learn a lot from them. Remember to always respect them and bear in mind just how ill they really are. (I always assured my patients what was discussed was absolutely confidential, and I was absolutely obligated to protect their privacy.)

After we conversed with our patient, we had to find a quiet space and complete a process recording, that is, write down the conversation as best we remembered it, and list all the defense mechanisms and blockers that were used by the patient and yourself. We then had to submit a careplan, drug cards for their meds, and a patho paper complete with nursing and medical interventions for that patient and his diagnosis.

It was a very interesting rotation and seemed like a break after the horror that was MedSurg, lol.

[meandragonbrett]

Psych clinicals are an experience you will never forget, but YMMV depending on what type of facilities you are in.