psychrn2008

I know that logically lol plus I work psych now the patients wander about the unit. Im afraid of an out break caused by a critter in the chair of the tv room lol. I know its unlikely but outbreaks have occured in such units before. SUPER LICE that's the thing of nightmares lol

LICE:no:.....I just can't it is almost like a phobia. When I worked medical I would offer to clean up incontinent CDIFF all night over dealing with a patient with lice. I'm so scared of taking it home to my kids one of whom has think curly hair and is 5 and doesn't like her combed anyways. We have 2 right now I begged for someone to take her. I bought lice repellant spray and tea tree oil. Im not kidding, PHOBIA

I've gotten the same thing lol. I swear I look professional and clean at work but people see me outside work and they're like omg, you're actually pretty. Im like oookkk do I look like a hideous troll the rest of the time lol. I just don't wear full make up at work, and hair is up in the least likely to be pulled style. At work I wear cc ream and benifits benetint so I dont look like an extra for the walking dead. But thats it.

Nurses are afraid, we are treated as replaceable. We have literally been told "don't like it go somewhere else" A lot of places are afraid to unionize or speak up. Healthcare in general in the US s a mess right now. Too focused on patient satisfaction scores and reimbursements instead of safety. Hopefully it will change but nurses need to unite. A few of us speaking up does nothing but get us fired and black listed. So people just stay quiet. I will say the state hospital is fighting back after that girl was raped. It was really tragic, no one had been doing rounds they were understaffed. She responded to a pt crying for help and he drug her in the room and raped her and injured her trachea, another pt saved her. It shook the mental health community here. But until staffing and funding improves it wont get much better.

OP are you trolling us???? Because you can't be serious. "Hair down and flowing" lol nope If I had my hair down and flowing one of my psychotic patients would grab it and pull it out of my head. Not to mention I come into contact with a lot of bodily fluids that I don't want in my hair. I wear clean, wrinkle free scrubs but I like to have the ability to move comfortably when I assisting in a physical hold to give and IM, same with the shoes I choose not to have my feet dying at the end of the night. I wear very light, natural makeup because I am very pale and hate when people ask me if I'm sick without it lol. I'm at work to take care of people and keep them safe not pick up a boyfriend or be ogled at lol. You're watching too many tv shows. This is real life. Plus like someone else says make up melts off, rubs off etc

Mental health in the US is awful. We are so underfunded we cant keep staff to save our lives and I actually work in one of the "safer" places as in I don't work at the state hospital. The state hospital where I live a staff member was raped by a pt recently and another was put into a coma for a week. My unit just recently started taking higher acuity patients many staff are not used to that level of psychosis or borderline. Its difficult also because we are mostly voluntary so we have no seclusion room, and for some reason doctors around here are really timid with meds so people end up in restrain to protect themselves. doesn't happen all the time. I would say about once a month some is in restraint. Most of the time we just have a bunch of 1:1s. I feel like people are getting sicker and sicker. US is rough in the mental health field. Especially when your attached to a hospital so they still try to do the whole pt satisfaction thing. It really doesn't work well in psych

I did med/surg and critical before psych and I often think of returning. To me medical was easier because even though it could be physically taxing it was often very black and white. Psych every situation is different. When that borderline breaks out the light fixture and cuts herself for the 100th time and there's so much scar tissue they cant even suture it, when you have the psychotic patient tearing apart the unit and you are technically voluntary so no seclusion room but only 4 points, having to pull patients off of staff members etc. Its considered one of the most dangerous professions. There are many nights Ive gone home way more worn out than when I worked medical. I don't know where you work but you sound lucky

LICE!!! Or scabies, bed bugs etc. I would rather clean up CDIFF on a total care pt all night long that's puking than to deal with Lice. I get itchy just thinking about it.