1:1 Vigilance is sooo boring....

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Specializes in Most expirience in Psychiatry.

I work as an MHT auxiliar in a psychiatric institution and I hate having to watch the patient 1:1. It's such a frustrating job, even more on nightshifts, where you have to watch the patient sleep through the whole night without doing anything. What bother me most is that sometimes the patient doesn't even has any suicidal or homicidal thoughts, so it's really just a waste of time IMO.

Also if a real emergency happen in the unit, you can't do a thing cause you can't move from your post cause you have to keep an eye on the patient you are watching. :o :angryfire

At daytime is not so bad cause I can talk with him and stuff, but then their medication kicks in and they just go back to sleep.

Sorry guess I had to get that out of my chest, does anybody out there have the same problem?

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Are you allowed to read or study? That's all I can think of... I think I would go bonkers.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Psych.

we have 1:1s pretty often at my facility. It is rough. As the nursing supervisor, when I am working, I will only allow the same MHT to watch a 1:1 for 2 hours, then switch with someone else. This saves their sanity, and is also safer, as being with them too long tends to lead to lax watching, sleepiness, etc.

I also insist on hourly breaks, even if for only 5 mins, and even if I have to do it myself.

Definitly take a book or something for night shifts. I've had MHT's writing bills, balancing checkbooks, writing letters, thank you cards, gameboys on silent, PDAs, all sorts of things.

Good luck

Kat

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Specializes in Most expirience in Psychiatry.

Yeah I always bring my books and stuff from college to study. I often work the nightshift so my supervisor doesn't mind, but my DON, thats a completely different story. She expects us to sit tight and watch the patient torso go up and down for 8 hours to make sure he's breathing ok. Good thing she's always on the daytime and almost never goes during the night. I hear she scolds and insults those she catch reading or doing anything else beside watching the patient, and I don't take too kindly to insults so....she probably just gonna have to fire me on the spot.

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Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.

Uggh. I'm not a psych nurse, but I worked in psych before and during most of nursing school. Horrible memories of being 1:1 with a client and having to watch the documentary "Supersize Me" from start to finish. Greasy food - not blood or vomit or sputum- is one thing that truly disgusts me, and I would have given just about anything to leave. It is boring, but in many cases, I think 1:1 is a very important job. At any rate, it often includes a lot of study time!

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Have to agree 1:1 is boring, but very necessary. We try to assign it in one hour blocks. We don't have a problem with the watcher reading or doing a cross word or something similar but we expect them to keep the patient in at least the corner of their eye at all times. We also do documentation q 5 min on pts who are on 1:1 or constant obs. Doing that helps keep you a bit focused.

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