Nursing School week #3/11
Nov. 4th, 2012 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantsheadOnward! This was my first week on the Mental Health unit, which is a locked floor of a nearby hospital. The unit can be entered by anyone with a badge, but can only be exited with a key through a double set of locked doors. This is for the protection of the patients as much as anything else. I'd say (unscientifically) that about half of the patients we saw had been admitted involuntarily (which means that they said they were thinking of hurting themselves or others--or actually tried to do so; or were unable to care for themselves because of a mental illness). In NYS, an involuntary admission must be reevaluated after 72 hours. Many patients also chose to "convert" their admission status to a formal, voluntary status, which means they wrote a petition for more treatment. The remaining half had been admitted voluntarily to begin with. Generally, we saw patients with anxiety disorders, depression, and personality disorders. We saw a couple of patients who were biploar, but none of them were in a manic state (which is really a form of psychosis--the person is completely unaware of the consequences of their actions). Treatment on this unit focuses on helping the patients get back on their medications, and also on learning and practicing coping skills within the safe setting of the unit. So, a patient who has angry outbursts can work on finding new ways to respond when provoked...rather than having an outburst at work and losing his job. Nurses and other staff on the unit (counselors, social workers) give them feedback and support.
Mental Health is interesting--and needed for all nurses, since mental illness affects up to 50% of the population--but I don't think I want to work in the mental health field. Most of the work we do is simply talking with the patients. While I recognize that it's important, it's just not something I feel very excited about doing day-in and day-out. The primary paperwork that we have to turn in for this unit is our Self Reflections, in which we need to write in great detail about how we met each of the school's 8 objectives in this area. I loathe writing these...and we all heard that this instructor was really harsh on last week's group. We'll see...
After clinical, I had class as usual on Thursday and Friday. In the Maternity/OB class, we had our first exam (which went very well), and we've begun learning about the actual process of labor. Those of us who were already on the labor and delivery floor last week are already a little bit familiar with this, but it wasn't possible to synchronize the lecture content to our clinical days. In Mental Health we learned about mood disorders and suicide.
This weekend a friend visited, and we learned he'll be moving to the area. So, that was a nice surprise! That's all the news...
Mental Health is interesting--and needed for all nurses, since mental illness affects up to 50% of the population--but I don't think I want to work in the mental health field. Most of the work we do is simply talking with the patients. While I recognize that it's important, it's just not something I feel very excited about doing day-in and day-out. The primary paperwork that we have to turn in for this unit is our Self Reflections, in which we need to write in great detail about how we met each of the school's 8 objectives in this area. I loathe writing these...and we all heard that this instructor was really harsh on last week's group. We'll see...
After clinical, I had class as usual on Thursday and Friday. In the Maternity/OB class, we had our first exam (which went very well), and we've begun learning about the actual process of labor. Those of us who were already on the labor and delivery floor last week are already a little bit familiar with this, but it wasn't possible to synchronize the lecture content to our clinical days. In Mental Health we learned about mood disorders and suicide.
This weekend a friend visited, and we learned he'll be moving to the area. So, that was a nice surprise! That's all the news...
