Forensic Psykaitry

Felixa · Mar 24, 2006

I work in a medium secure unit in the UK. Our patients may have commited violence, murder, sexual crimes or arson, or some combination.

Most of the patients I work with have schizophrenia or bipolar, and many of them have a history of abusing drugs or alcohol as well. Quite a few also have a personality disorder of some kind.

I work on a rehab ward with all males, and although I am trained in control & restraint (where we might have to bring someone down to the ground and back up to move them to another room), I have never had to use it in the year I have been trained.

Our patients are usually there for a minimum of 2 years. We had one guy who has been in the system 40 years. If someone needs to go to maximum security, it's usually about 10 years before they make their way back down the system and are discharged to the community. Otherwise it could take 2-5 years.

When people go, they are often conditionally discharged, which means they can be readmitted swiftly if they break the terms of their agreement, e.g. taking medication, keeping in contact with the community team.

If someone is agitated, a nurse may choose to administer 'PRN' (can't remember what it stands for - it means 'as required') medication, if a doctor has authorised it on the prescription chart. There are certain medications that nurses are allowed to give without a prescription. And they don't have to give it, it's all considered part of a nurse's professional judgement.

We don't use non-human physical restraints - no strait-jackets or strapping people into bed. There is a seclusion room on the higher security wards, which is a last resort. If someone does need restraining, the UK tends to favour chemical restraints, giving an injection of Haloperidol and/or lorazepam.

How's that for starters? What kind of ward do you work on?

extrakul · Apr 1, 2006

I work at the forensic clinic i malmö. And my ward is the most secure one. We do evaluation for the courts and thats manly the reeson why it´s secure. So halv of the beds are fore evalution patient and the other half are for inpatients att the clinick that fore some reason have temporarily been transford to us from our sister wards. In the evaluation ther are 4 parts The doktors look from ther angels and so do the psykologist and the (socialworker) Dont realy know wat the term is in englis but the follow the paper trale. What scools the persons went to, army psykologi test. pryor contakt with the psykaitry and so on. Our part at the ward is to see how thy behave in contakt with other patient, how thay sleep and eat and so on. We also coordinate examination at other lokations like MR, Spect and so on.

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN · Apr 1, 2006

extrakul...not meaning to sidetrack, but I just love your accent....very cool.

OK.

Thread moves forward.

HM2VikingRN, RN · Apr 7, 2006

Extrakul,

I work in the Security Hospital at St Peter MN. It is definitely challenging work.