Help me help my clients!

[gratefulmama]

I am a newly licensed LPN, and I got hired right out of school at a residential tx center for women with eating disorders. It is a very lovely house, but for the most part, I don't know how to help these women. This nursing position is fairly new here, so the staff and clients aren't sure how to utilize us either. I am also green when it comes to this disease, let alone mental illness. My job consists of med passes, doing observations after meals and snacks,and various charting when I can get away from the milleu. Sometimes the women come to me with questions, and I don't always have the answers. It is frustrating. Any suggestions?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Knowledge is power. The more you know about their disease processes, the better equipped you'll be to assist your clients and answer their questions.

Become self-educated on the disease processes and addictive behaviors that most frequently occur in treatment centers for eating-disordered women such as compulsive eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, food addiction, binge eating disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Try to correlate your readings with what you see while working on your unit.

Good luck to you!

[BlondieNH]

Research the meds they are taking and read and research all that you can on the diseases and treatments and be sure to document on your clients, over time, you'll "get the hang of it." The hardest part of anything is always getting started.

Good luck.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

As a newly licensed nurse, you will feel sort of green in the beginning. This will also happen if you move on to another position. I started off working in the medical clinic in my hospital and stayed there for close to 2 years. I knew it backwards and forwards. Then, I asked to be transferred to OB/GYN and while I thought I remembered much of maternal child care, I realized that I had to go back to my textbooks and revisit forums here in allnurses to interact with nurses that had more experience. I purchased a pocket guide to maternity nursing, took all of the teaching material I could get my hands on and within a few weeks, I mastered enough to feel comfortable. Then, by about a month to 6 weeks, I felt even better, and was even able to correlate much of what I learned previously to what I do now.

Always feel free to say that you will get back to them (and then, make sure that you keep your word) to provide them with accurate information. Research information on line and follow the suggestions mentioned here. Nursing is a never ending process for learning...be patient with yourself and become armed with as much literature as you can. Good luck...you can do it!