Choose your own adventure: Come upon a person cutting

[puravidaLV]

Your walking down a hall a patient previously on 1:1 for self harm is found by you picking at her open wounds caused by themselves.

The patient is non-verbal and is not responding to ques to stop. When you attempt to stop her by removing her hand she continues to do so. Pt is cognitive, yet severely depressed.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

This brings back not-so-fond memories of my days at the psychiatric hospital. A female patient with borderline personality disorder who was a 1:1 observation for suicide risk had asked to take a shower and was granted permission. Once she came out of the shower she was a bloody mess.

She apparently sneaked a men's razor into the shower and started cutting.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

When I was in the hospital recently, a male patient was discovered hacking away at his wrists with the end of a toothbrush. A toothbrush! It's amazing what people can use as weapons when they are really determined.

[OswinOswald]

When I was inpatient in a psych unit, I used the sharp edge of a plastic spoon I broke in half. They do checks every fifteen minutes; it took me ten minutes to do it. Crazy stuff.