dachweiler

It goes against the way I was trained too. I'm a nurse & "Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Specialist" with 17 years psych experience. I know it can appear they are "model nurses" but they are not! I have seen this frequently by my fellow coworkers/nurses and it does the patients harm in the long run. There are professional boundaries for good reason. You can be very warm and caring without crossing the line. The recovery process belongs to the patient. While occasional appropriate self-disclosure can help the patient to open up or motivate the patient by providing a role model, too much self-disclosure removes the focus from the patient's own recovery. Too much "babying" can create a very dysfunctional dynamic. These patients need to learn coping skills. The bad feelings should be dealt with by an experienced psychologist/licensed counselor. Nurses are not counselors or therapists unless they have acquired a higher degree/licensure. Nurses cannot and should not assess, test, diagnose, treat, or advise on problems beyond the level of their competence as determined by their education, training and experience. Bagwash, you are right to be concerned.

I agree with psychrn03. There is no medication that can cure problems of personality disorder. Medications can offer temporary relief of symptoms (impulsiveness, depression, etc.) The main form of treatment of personality disorders is psychotherapy. I feel for you. I work with adolescents in a psychiatric facility and those with personality disorders are challenging patients.

I just quit my dream job. My new boss was evil incarnate...I had to leave before I lost my mind. (Long story for another thread). I had an 8:00am to 4:30pm job as an office manager at a geriatric outpatient counseling program. I got to do some co-facilitating of therapy group sessions and I was doing most of the education groups (which I LOVED). Before this job, I worked over 13 yrs in a psych hospital. I'm an LPN with a BS in psychology. I'm applying for a job at a min. security facility close to my home. I was thinking my 13 years working in a psych hospital would be great experience but then, after reading several threads in this forum....now, I'm not so sure! What do LPNs do in a correctional facility? Any advice or words of wisdom would be appreciated.....

Thanks for your replies. This has escalated beyond belief!! I'm being told that I violated HIPAA by typing up the addresses -- that I shouldn't have involved myself in the address exchange. I'm okay with that.....but I don't think it is officially a "violation." I'm going to try to find someone to contact that knows about HIPAA regulations (outside this corporation). *sigh

I work flex at an outpatient facility for depressed senior citizens. They are usually in the program from 6 to 10 months. Generally, everyone in the group gets along well and many of them become friends while in the program. One of the patients was moving out-of-state and wanted mailing addresses from her friends in the group so they could keep in touch. So she passed around a handout that she had used that morning and 7 of them wrote their addresses down for her on the back of the handout sheet. She has bad eyesight and couldn't read a few of the addresses and asked me if I would type them for her in large bold print. I took her list home, typed it on my computer, printed it out on my printer, and dropped it off the next morning for her. My boss, the program director, has been written up for this. (She knew of this and saw no problem -- nor did I....or my other 2 coworkers). The regional director heard about it and reported it to corporate headquarters saying we broke the HIPAA "law". She says we gave out patient info. I did NOT get any info from charts or the patients. I just took her paper and typed it for her at home. The patients gave their own info. Any HIPAA experts out there? I feel terrible. My boss is wonderful and I think this is abit overboard!! If what I did was wrong, tell me please!!!

Thanks for all the replies. We are still in the dark. Neither the current owners. the Sisters of Mercy (what a joke) or the new owners (Vista Health) have told us anything. It's supposed to change hands in three weeks. I've heard we'll get our vacation time paid to us but that is all. They won't say anything definite about whether or not if we will be retained or get severance pay. The morale is completely rock-bottom. Every night, we just hear more rumours. BUT: I have gotten a flex position with another hospital (only 5 minutes from my house--9 to 5!) but with no benefits or a permanent position in the forseeable future. This job was offerred to me out-of-the-blue....they didn't know that my other job was in jeopardy. Maybe it will turn into something.....

My hospital has been sold. We're not sure how many of us will be hired by the new owners. We're having to reapply for our positions. All this happened very suddenly.....my head is still spinning. I work part-time on nightshift and would like to retain that. My interview is this week! I never imagined having to prepare for an interview ever again!!!!!! Any suggestions or advice? Anyone been in the same situation? Thanks.....

Are you taking all 3 caps of the Effexor in the pm? That could be why you are having trouble sleeping. In my experience, most patients take the "XR" Effexor in the morning. And 20 mg of Ambien is a lot......it is effective most of the time but maybe it's not for you. Sleep is important!! Make your doctor listen to you! Good Luck.....

Orca, I should have been more specific. The hospital I work in is located in Arkansas and is the only psych facility for a several hundred mile radius. We get the worst type of patients. Police have brought us people that have fought and injured them! (and we have NO male staff on the nightshift) Mandt would have worked with the type of patients we used to have. (it does seem to work sometimes with children) I do think the concepts are good.

I work in a psych hospital in Arkansas. All the terms of endearment are used everywhere and seem to be accepted by most people. (It gets old) However, I have found psych patients either love the "sweeties & honeys" or hate it. I try not to use them (I think it's alittle condescending and too familiar)--every now and then I slip with a very elderly or child patient. I have a few coworkers that use them with everyone and don't seem to notice that the patients aren't responding favorably. Just 2 nights ago, a 30 year old nurse called a very psychotic 42 year old patient "sweetheart" and the patient told the nurse to quit calling her that....her name was "Cher" (yes, THE "Cher")

I'm not familiar with CPI. I work in a small psych hospital and we use mandt. Nice ideas & techniques but not very effective most of the time.