Mental Health Clinicals

crb613, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2005

I interacted w/patients, attended mental inquest trials,med education,group thearpy. I wore headphones for a whole day while I cared for patients....the headphones were playing all these voices to show us what it was like to "hear" voices. It was awful....the voices were so mean & the things that they said..... horrible! It sure gives you a view into how terrible this must be...scary & sad. I don't know how some of these people do as good as they do. I had a really great clinical experience & learned a lot. I did my clinicals at a state hospital.

Paleobug · Nov 6, 2005

Maybe the voices you heard were your clinical instructor. Just kidding. I actually enjoyed mental health clinicals. We mainly observed patients and we saw various settings where patients go. It wasn't all about the mentally ill. I also enjoyed the rehab facility and observing the group therapy sessions and how they helped patients recover from substance abuse.

LWildman · Nov 7, 2005

Oh, so its not like you do in Med Surge where you actually do hands on care and baths and meds? Its just going to see what you learned in theory applied?

LISAMAR · Nov 7, 2005

No, it's nothing like med surg. We didn't bring in stethescopes, do vital signs, or pass meds (you might pass meds, though... it was just the facility didn't allow that). We just talked with the patients and then analysed everything in group discussion afterwards. We were expected to talk therapeudically as learned in class. We were expected to make good observations of the patietn's behaviors and relate it to their condition or other concepts learned in class. It was fun.

LISAMAR · Nov 7, 2005

Oh yeah, no baths either. No one there needed anything like that.

LWildman · Nov 7, 2005

AWESOME! I'm super excited now! I was afraid I'd have to be watching to make sure I wasn't stabbed with a toothbrush or something.

crb613, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2005

AWESOME! I'm super excited now! I was afraid I'd have to be watching to make sure I wasn't stabbed with a toothbrush or something.

:lol2: :rotfl: :rotfl: That is too funny! I can tell I would like you!

luvmy2angels · Nov 7, 2005

We were given 3 patients to research. One with bi-polar, one with depression and one with schizophrenia. We were then to interact with each patient and ask general questions. If we were there when they had group therapy we could sit in on that as well. Then we had to write a report about each experience. I am hoping to go into mental health nursing so I LOVED this rotation!! We also had substance abuse that went along with our mental health. We got to spend an evening at a local drug and alcohol clinic. Same idea as mental health....we were given a patient to research and then we interacted with them. I got to attend their 12-step program and group therapy sessions. It was AWSOME!! I absolutley LOVED it!!!

hsieh · Nov 7, 2005

i work as a psychatric nurse. you just have to get them stable in the hospital so they can go live on the outside. the goal is as little restriction as possible. many people are afraid of the mentally ill. they are no more if not less violent than the rest of the population.

crb613, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2005

We were given 3 patients to research. One with bi-polar, one with depression and one with schizophrenia. We were then to interact with each patient and ask general questions. If we were there when they had group therapy we could sit in on that as well. Then we had to write a report about each experience. I am hoping to go into mental health nursing so I LOVED this rotation!! We also had substance abuse that went along with our mental health. We got to spend an evening at a local drug and alcohol clinic. Same idea as mental health....we were given a patient to research and then we interacted with them. I got to attend their 12-step program and group therapy sessions. It was AWSOME!! I absolutley LOVED it!!!

I am with you...I love psych! I forgot I also attended an AA meeting & wrote a paper on it also. We did careplans on our patients, had to write an interaction paper on one of them. I loved it & was offered a job at the hospital where I did clinicals then I recieved an academic award for psych! It was a great rotation & I will also probally go on to do psych nursing.

Hoozdo, ADN · Nov 8, 2005

I am with you...I love psych! I forgot I also attended an AA meeting & wrote a paper on it also. We did careplans on our patients, had to write an interaction paper on one of them. I loved it & was offered a job at the hospital where I did clinicals then I recieved an academic award for psych! It was a great rotation & I will also probally go on to do psych nursing.

I loved my psych rotation also! I graduate next month with my ADN and have been looking at psych jobs. Believe it or not, it is hard to get a new grad job in psych! They want at least one year experience. I even have a classmate that has interned at a psych hospital for about 6 months now and they won't even hire her as a new grad! Dissapointing............