I am teaching the psych component for an ASN nursing program as well as taking them to clinical. I did this last year and it went well but am interested in what other nurses think is important and/or ideas for learning experiences.
I have looked a bit through the older threads and found some good ideas, and I have some of my own.
-So as a new psych nurse what do you wish your instructor would have gone over better?
-As experienced psych nurses, what would you like new nurses to know more about?
-And as current psych nurses what do you think would be valuable for student nurses to learn?
The final project I will do (did last year) will be putting the students into groups (4-5) and they pick a movie from a list (A Beautiful Mind - schizophrenia; As Good As It Gets - OCD; Sling Blade - mental retardation, anti-social PD; Reign Over Me - PTSD; Girl Interrupted - several personality disorders; Rain Man - Autism; The Aviator - Paranoid personality disorder; Mr. Jones - bipolar disorder; The Taxi Driver - Paranoid personality disorder; 28 Days - alcoholism; Born on the 4th of July - PTSD; Leaving Las Vegas - alcoholism). Then the group will do a presentation, either a skit, Powerpoint, poster, etc. on the diagnosis. It went really well the last time.
Everyone has great ideas and I keep checking out this thread. Marissasmommy, one of the problems with the movie you mention, "Sybil" is the diagnosis. There is much controversy in the "Psych World" as to if "Multiple Personality Disorder" or now known as "Disassociative Identity Disorder" (DID) even exists.
I, and probably many of the psych nurses on this board, have taken care of many women like Sybil. People that were badly, ritualistically sexually abuse as a child. Most of them have Major Depression, PTSD and often Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In Fact I kind of think that many of the people that are diagnosed with DID actually have BPD. As a psych nurse in an in-patient state hospital (in other words the sickest of the sick people that could not be helped anywhere else) for 5 1/2 years, I only saw 2 case of supposed DID. One was definitely BPD and her disassociations were behaviorally driven and the other was almost catatonic depression.
Please don't think that if theses diagnosis are not considered "real" by some that it means they are not hurting and in need of help however. So much of psych is the doctor's (or diagnostician's) opinion. We can do blood tests for diabetes, and echocardiogram for heart problems and CT for strokes, etc. but mental health is often in the eyes of the beholder...........
I have another idea. It is quite possible you have already looked into this. Of course, you could search this site for ideas,etc. Are there sites geared specifically for nursing educators? Surely there must be! I bet you could find some wonderful ideas that way! Plus, you could get feedback on what works and what does not. Also, how about Googling "mental health nursing syllabus,etc.?" I just did it and looks there are lots of hits! One instuctor requires keeping a journal. I think that would be interesting as you could give feedback on each entry. You could require that each entry address certain areas,etc.
By the way, I think it is quite admirable that you are actively seeking out information your class. It shows you want to give your students the best experience you possibly can.
Specializes in Psych, ER, Resp/Med, LTC, Education.
One thing I notice are difficulties with restraints and generally with dealing with severely agitated patients. Understanding how in some situations --ie the psychotic patient--the patient may not be processing what is being said to them and the new nurse will continue to give direction after direction and continue to ask the patient questions and get irritated when he or she isn't responding. The concept of --all the questions are irritating the patient and he or she is just not processing. And keeping the verbal to a minimum is sometimes more effective. And also I see new nurses who will want to chat with a patient while he/she is in restraints. They don't seem to understand the concept of keeping the talking to a minimum... simply telling the patient what you are doing and why and the expectations. Thats it. Short and sweet! lol I see new nurses who will then sit and not understand that its not therapeutic to entertain all the questions the patient may ask and sit and chit chat.
One other thing I have noticed new nurses in this area finding difficult to deal with is the fact that they may have a patient make sexually inappropriate comments and need to understand that in psych we deal with patients who have issues with boundries and judgement. Teaching them appropriate ways to handle this situation with a gentle balance of being firm in letting the patient know that this is inappropriate and that this behavior is not acceptable but yet also doing this gently and therapeutically.
And lastly....As a prior post mentioned. Though many in a class may say they don't have any interest in psych nursing it is important that they understand that they will see patients in all settings in medical/surical, acute care, outpatient....etc......and to remember that they deserve to be respected and treated the same as any other patient. I worked on a medical/respiratory unit prior to psych and was sickened by some of the treatment I saw of patients who's medical records even mentioned a MH Dx. And reminding them that Mental Illness doesnt descriminate and it can be any one including them! So it's important not to judge.
Well I have rambled on enough......but good luck with your students and I hope you are able to get us a few newbies that will love psych nursing as much as we in it do!
I am obssessed with this syllabus. LOL I have another idea. If you choose the book route, after each chapter is read, a journal entry,etc. would need to be written. You could make an outline of sorts for what is important and also require an open-ended response such as what did you learn about so and so,etc. in this chapter and how does that knowledge apply to nursing? It would also be nice if at the end of the semester/quarter if entries were shared with the class.
When is the deadline for your syllabus? I like this thread. It makes my creative juices flow. LOL
I totally agree with the poster above who said some nurses do not fully understand the diagnosis. It is crucial to be able to know how to treat the individual. Another thing i have seen on the unit i work is how nurses talk to patients. It seems as if therapeutic communication goes out the window after many years of nursing and this shouldn't be the case. I have to say i am somewhat guilty of this myself. I think the idea of having everyone breaking up in groups and each group doing an assignment on the diagnosis you see most often in your area is a great idea. You may even have the students add what the best way to deal with that individual not just from a medicine point of view but using therapeutic communication.
ruralnurs
142 Posts
Everyone has great ideas and I keep checking out this thread. Marissasmommy, one of the problems with the movie you mention, "Sybil" is the diagnosis. There is much controversy in the "Psych World" as to if "Multiple Personality Disorder" or now known as "Disassociative Identity Disorder" (DID) even exists.
I, and probably many of the psych nurses on this board, have taken care of many women like Sybil. People that were badly, ritualistically sexually abuse as a child. Most of them have Major Depression, PTSD and often Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In Fact I kind of think that many of the people that are diagnosed with DID actually have BPD. As a psych nurse in an in-patient state hospital (in other words the sickest of the sick people that could not be helped anywhere else) for 5 1/2 years, I only saw 2 case of supposed DID. One was definitely BPD and her disassociations were behaviorally driven and the other was almost catatonic depression.
Please don't think that if theses diagnosis are not considered "real" by some that it means they are not hurting and in need of help however. So much of psych is the doctor's (or diagnostician's) opinion. We can do blood tests for diabetes, and echocardiogram for heart problems and CT for strokes, etc. but mental health is often in the eyes of the beholder...........