2nd Day - Mental Health placement
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I have been paired with the facilitator for most of my placement, and she is quite interesting, so I am happy with that. She has Wednesday's and Thursday's off each week, so I will be with another nurse on those days :-(.
Today we had a busy day. We had to swap one of the men's and women's wings over, so it was a case of moving all of their gear out of one room and into another. Some of the clients became quite distressed with all of this, and that contributed to an already hectic day.
We had one man, who we had been keeping sharp objects away from, got hold of a razor and slashed his left wrist. I don't know how many times he did it, but it was all up the forearm. Deep slashes too. He then sat on the edge of his bed and watched the blood dripping onto the floor. It was not a true suicide attempt, as he knew we were coming to his room to get him, and he did it just before that. So it was noted that he was self-harming, but that it wasn't an actual suicide attempt. When asked, he said the 'voices' told him to do it.
We had another woman, with anxiety, who we spent some time calming her with breathing techniques because she isn't coping with a recent miscarriage very well. Unfortunately, the miscarriage has brought to the surface alot of feelings of guilt from an abortion she had many years ago. I feel for her and her family, as her husband does not understand what she is going through (she hadn't told him about the previous abortion) and he has not brought her 3 kids (all under 6) to visit either. He has visited, but not the kids.
I have also been learning very quickly to tell clients to find their nurse to ask for things. They ask for cigaretts, coffee, biscuits etc all the time, and if I spent my time fulfilling all of their requests, I wouldn't get any of my own work done.
Now I spend Wednesday, Thursday & Friday on late shift - which means starting work at 2:30pm and finishing at 11pm.
On a side note, I found out that one other girl I know DID get a grad position, but three that I know DIDN'T. So it was sad, as two of them are on placement with me, so I didn't really feel I could be happy knowing they don't have a job yet. There are another three that I can think of that I don't know if they have a job as yet.
~
I have been paired with the facilitator for most of my placement, and she is quite interesting, so I am happy with that. She has Wednesday's and Thursday's off each week, so I will be with another nurse on those days :-(.
Today we had a busy day. We had to swap one of the men's and women's wings over, so it was a case of moving all of their gear out of one room and into another. Some of the clients became quite distressed with all of this, and that contributed to an already hectic day.
We had one man, who we had been keeping sharp objects away from, got hold of a razor and slashed his left wrist. I don't know how many times he did it, but it was all up the forearm. Deep slashes too. He then sat on the edge of his bed and watched the blood dripping onto the floor. It was not a true suicide attempt, as he knew we were coming to his room to get him, and he did it just before that. So it was noted that he was self-harming, but that it wasn't an actual suicide attempt. When asked, he said the 'voices' told him to do it.
We had another woman, with anxiety, who we spent some time calming her with breathing techniques because she isn't coping with a recent miscarriage very well. Unfortunately, the miscarriage has brought to the surface alot of feelings of guilt from an abortion she had many years ago. I feel for her and her family, as her husband does not understand what she is going through (she hadn't told him about the previous abortion) and he has not brought her 3 kids (all under 6) to visit either. He has visited, but not the kids.
I have also been learning very quickly to tell clients to find their nurse to ask for things. They ask for cigaretts, coffee, biscuits etc all the time, and if I spent my time fulfilling all of their requests, I wouldn't get any of my own work done.
Now I spend Wednesday, Thursday & Friday on late shift - which means starting work at 2:30pm and finishing at 11pm.
On a side note, I found out that one other girl I know DID get a grad position, but three that I know DIDN'T. So it was sad, as two of them are on placement with me, so I didn't really feel I could be happy knowing they don't have a job yet. There are another three that I can think of that I don't know if they have a job as yet.
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posted by Ra'Phil | 4:10 pm
2 Comments:
Oh boy, that placement does not sound so good Joann but oh well, the bad comes with the good I guess. You take care of yourself.
Visions of that awful episode of Noah Carter and that girl he was keen on and that mental patient *shudder deeply*. The show E.R. I mean. I loved watching that show but that epi. scared the bejesus out of me, truly. I had nightmares as I recall after watching that one. Carter survived the attack but the girl med. student didn't :( Very sad and very, very traumatic!!!!!!!!
lol - I guess I forgot to mention in the post that I am enjoying it so far. The type of 'experiences' I am having is what I have been trained to expect, so nothing has surprised me so far.
It is good - I need to see how the staff react to instances such as someone slashing his wrist, to have an idea of how to react myself. I would have thought it was an emergency, but the staff were very relaxed and calm about it all.
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