Nickytoto

I definitely don't want to scare you, but the RNs who I have spoken to about schizophrenic patients have mentioned that it is often seems "progressive" and the person eventually needs full-time care because of medication side effects and the mental illness itself. We're talking about intimate care like helping with showering. Schizophrenic people seem often quite quirky and like unusual things... Watch out for signs that he could harm himself or others. The voices could be telling him to lay himself on train tracks, or he could want to lay on train tracks to escape the voices, for example. And keep him on the meds, the side effects may want him to stop. Make sure he keeps up with regular visits with a health professional, as the meds may not always work for him and may need reviewing. I can't look into your future and tell you if your relationship will work out, that's something only you two can end up knowing :)

Hiya, When I think about nursing in psych my mind goes back to an episode of RPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Prince_Alfred_Hospital) where a third year trainee RN was working with teen girls with eating disorders. I immediately thought, "I could do that"; this was before I even considered working in mental health. I think I might like to work in a similar setting, and I'd just like to read your experiences about working with people with eating disorders. Thanks :)

I've just had two week of hospital clinical experience at a subacute mental health ward (shizophrenic, depressed, BAD, drug-induced psychosis patients etc). Prior to my experience, all the mental health education I had was a three hour tutorial class, which primary discussed mental state examination and the class asessment. We didn't cover communication in class, but I wasn't too concerned because I figured it would be like my children's nursing prac where I would see lots of interactions between clients and staff. For the entire two weeks I barely saw the staff interacting with the patients... The main interaction seemed to come when it was time for meds. It seemed like everytime somebody was upset, nurses dished out the diazepam (Valium) and other PRN meds like it was lollies. At lunchtime there would be no RNs on the floor, both RNs took their break at the same time so I would get labile, anxious or delusional pts asking for their meds. As I hadn't seen anybody de-escalating the patients before I had no idea what to do and the patients would just get worse and worse until the RNs got to the floor. I found that time always made me feel frustrated, as I felt like I couldn't do anything. I've discussed this with my facilitator and she admitted this wasn't the best facility to have students. I'm concerned about working in mental health later to find the same sort of situation. I guess I could just be an idealist, but I had hoped meds would be a last resort and that there would be more talking to create a therapeutic environment. Is this what psych nursing is really like at most hospitals?

I've just come out nursing in a subacute inpatient mental health ward (my clinical placement for two weeks). I'd suggest paper and pencils for free drawing (it's very interesting when patients draw their hallucinations) and you can guess their mood by what colours they use. There were also plaster figurines with paints for the patients to paint, and then glue on magnets. It was something nice to give to their families. You could look up "craft activities for kids" in your local library as these don't usually need sharp objects. One of the patients mentioned they used to have cooking classes... Maybe you could make chocolate crackles or something else that sets without an oven, and things that don't require sharp knives. Again you could look up "recipes for kids". There was also a patient barbeque once a week which everybody contributed to by buttering bread, cutting vegies (with butter knives-- it was hard to do), cutting up cake, and handing out plates of cake etc. The patients seemed to love it.

I guess I only half agree with the above users. If they were cranky nurses who are resentful of you just because you're a student and they have to teach you, there is no way you can take that personally. It's not your fault. However if you didn't know how to do basic skills because your university is too lazy or underfunded to teach you, there you have a problem. I have personally heard of students transferring mid-degree into another B. Nursing course and claiming things were much more in-depth. I've emailed universities about information for their degree, only to be knocked back because the person I had sent my enquiry to was apparently new and wasn't familiar with the course yet. I've heard of university teaching being so lazy they would tell their students to "just google it".

I'm sorry to say but accomodation in Sydney in incredibly tough to find. We're talking about hundreds of people showing up to a 1/2 hour inspection at a dinky little flat... There are even tv features about the shortage. I'm not saying that you can't do it, but it won't be easy and apparently you typically need to be as fast and aggressive as a snake You could try putting signs up once you're in Syd, getting in contact with real estate agents, etc. I rather like domain.com.au http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/ http://www.craigslist.org/

I created this blog for a uni project, but maybe you would find some practical use for it; perhaps forwarding it to family members, or something for parents of her friends to follow up on. http://kids-learn-about-type1diabetes.blogspot.com/ It was made for 8 year olds in mind, so that was the language used. Best wishes for both of you, my heart goes out to both of you. I realised how all-consuming and challenging T1DM care could be when studying it :redpinkhe

I was 17. I bit young compared to my classmates-- most are 18 or 19. :)