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:trout: I know this is strange but here goes I need qoutes from experienced nurses who have been in mental health promotion classes and know what's myth from fact and what to get hung-up about over the class. What is and what 's not even a brain teaser. Could you pleeease help me ?!!:uhoh21: This is going to go into a blog for our colleges nursing resource center's comfort zone. The nursing students need the comfort of knowing they are not going to lose it before they get throuh this class. Thanks
Safety first
Never back yourself into a corner. Always make sure you have access to get away should the pt start escalate.
Think before you speak when communicating with these pts.
Remember that they are human too. They are someone's child,mother, spouse, etc. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect just like everyone else.
I remember my clinical rotation through pysch. I was in the locked admissions ward. The ward was patroled by techs that really acted like bouncers, they would take a patient down to the floor if they acted out. I was told to NEVER go into a patients room, to stay in the main hallway where the bouncers could see me. Towards the end of this rotation the charge nurse gave us 4 students, several patients that they thought could go for a walk outside on the grounds. I was assigned a male pt. The charge wouldn't let us review any records and didn't give report. So, we started to take these pts for a walk. My pt started to walk a little faster and faster until he was fairly ahead of us, when another pt said "I wonder why they let that fellow out? He's on suicide precautions!" As soon as this was said, my pt started running fast. I ran after him, just to keep my eye on him. About 5 minutes of running after him and totally losing him, I looked up in a tree and saw a human body hanging in a tree. I mean this person hung himself and was dead!!! I knew it couldn't have been my pt, not enough time to do that. I ran back to the group and then to the ward and reported the body. Had to take the officials back to the body and report what happened with my missing pt. Got back late to the school bus and my instructors gave me a U for the day, not because my pt got away or finding a hung body, I got the U for being late for the bus...I wasn't real fond of most of my instructors...they didn't have a lot of compassion.
Are you serious? What a horrible experience! And then got docked for missing the freakin bus? Man, it just takes all kind of people doesn't it? And I though I had it rough in school.....Nothing compared to this!!!!
Safety first. Always.
There is no cure, it seems, only life improvement. The drugs have terrible side effects and patients quit them very quickly, sell them to get drugs, flush them, etc.
The mental health system is a big revolving door. Very sad.
Keep safe.
I agree, it's often easier and safer to play along with their delusions than to try to always be "therapeutic" by orienting them to reality. They do better with their own reality, it seems. Wow, my old Instructor would turn over in her grave if she heard me say that but there is no time or funding to really cure folks, even if there was a way to do it.
Give hope, be nice, do what you can to help. Keep safe.
Hoozdo, ADN
1,555 Posts
I also LOVED pysch nursing clinicals in school. My clinicals were done at a state mental hospital on a locked ward. My state has very few beds for psych patients.....so these patients were the "sickest of the sick".
I enjoyed sitting in the "social mileu" thinking this is better than ANY movie I have EVER watched. I was fascinated by things happening around me. I never felt threatened physically because it was a locked unit and it was staffed well.
Yes, there is an intellectual aspect of pysch nursing that I enjoyed. I found the ICU intellectual stimulation to be more interesting though, so I took that route upon graduation.