Topics About 'Psychiatric Nursing'.

It had to be a full moon. While getting report, I overheard bits of other reports. Looked like the cardiac floor I was working had suddenly changed to a psych ward. In room 9 was a dying patient. Unfortunately, half the family wanted us to "do everyt...

The alarm jolts you awake as it does every morning after yet another restless, short night's sleep, throwing your systems into fight-or-flight mode as you groan inwardly: "Oh, lord....not again". Your mind fills with dread in anticipation of yet anot...

For these reasons, rehabilitation often fails service users, leaving them in bed blocked and 'warehoused' situations. Society-centred care moves the focus from individual problem-solving to the demands of social life as a whole, using the institution...

After thirty years psychiatric nursing experience in various roles, locum tenens is perfect for me. When I want to work, I sign up with a few agencies, tell them my availability and hope something will come through. This time I can only work in 2 mon...

Many years ago there were insane asylums. Some were so bad that we even got a new English word to describe mental illness based on the facility, Bedlam. When I was a child we had State Hospitals. They were filled with people who did not fit well into...

The purity of water can bring wonders to a parched soul, a dirty wound, a needy plant. I happen to know of a way in which water can bring solace to the heaviest of hearts and even the most entangled minds. I met him during my Psychiatry clinical and ...

When one of the patients came in for his appointment I went downstairs to greet him and introduce myself. He smiled and hurriedly put out his "roll you're your own" cigarette by rubbing it aggressively on the pavement in the parking lot and placed th...

ETA: Some people have reported they found the context of this story unclear. To set the scene a little better: I was a member of the second last group of hospital-based student nurses; in Australia tertiary education was introduced in the 1980s and c...

The evening shift usually stayed rather busy, and often went by quickly. Then would come the night shift. Night shifts were often slow, unless a patient.. Or two... Decided to wake up and act out because we didn't have any apples, or we couldn't let ...

Currently we have jails to provide a majority of mental health services. In other words you may have to get into the penal system in order to get any mental health care. Is this really mental health care? Do we find skilled treatment savvy individual...

"...found the road to nowhere"....addiction, a road that crumbles underneath you and isolates you more the longer you stand on it "Hold me now"...a cry for help, an acknowledgment of fear, a realization what one must face "I'm six feet from the edge"...

I've only been a nurse for a few years now. I was hired as a new grad to work full-time nights on an inpatient psychiatric unit. I am the only nurse on my shift, and the long-standing mental health worker is reticent and sleepy and barely there, so t...

My car rolled to a stop at the curb about a half-block from Bev's group home; soft instrumental music filled the interior and cool air blew softly on my face as enjoyed the peacefulness of the moment. I was pleasantly lost in thought and busy scribbl...

I knew even before I walked onto the unit that it was going to one of those nights. The looks on my coworkers' faces when they saw my assignment told me more than I wanted to know. Why me? I wondered, but I already knew why. As the mother of three ad...

I drive on long, winding, country roads. The roads are paved here--always a shock when I come to the United States from my expatriate home in Costa Rica. I am in the first world now: it is early spring, still chilly from winter, no leaves on the tree...

Dementia is not a specific disease but it is a general term for describing a decline in cognitive abilities (Alzheimer Association 2017). Dementia depicts a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interrup...

Back then, divorce wasn't as common as it is now and her demand caused a lot of controversy in her community. No one could understand why a woman wouldn't want to be with the nice man who wanted to provide for her and many dubbed her a strumpet. But ...

Many of us may have prior experience of someone close to us dealing with their own psychiatric issues. Many of us may have had psychiatric issues ourselves before walking into this field. As a result, this may often be our first contact with psychiat...

So you graduated, eh? Now you're in the big leagues. Maybe you're getting ready to graduate and on the brink of your journey into and onto the field. The only thing in your way that separates you from those sweet, delicious fruits of your labor is th...

Matua is not his real name, it is a Maori term meaning father, used for a Maori gentleman who is 50+ and respected in the eyes of the community. A lot of the staff call him that, whether they are Maori or New Zealand Europeans. Matua believes that I ...

Eliminating the Stigma Associated with Mental Health Nursing through Education and the Implementation of an Enhanced Clinical Experience for Student Nurses Don't be deluded by the L.I.E.S. : Limited Learning Experiences for Students --> Increased ...

1. Focus on the here and now, not yesterday or the past. The present is all that matters and where it leads to in the immediate future. The present is what placed the person on the unit in the first place. The future allows a way out. 2. Focus on cau...

Whenever I tell people I use to be a psych nurse, I usually get one of two reactions. "That's so interesting--tell me more." Or, far more often--"Yikes! Psych freaks me out. I could never do that." It's no wonder. Very few of us had more than a brief...