1st Day, 2nd Week - Mental Health Placement
~
I saw ECT today. For those that don't know, that is electro-convulsive therapy. So now I am about to detail what happens - if you don't wish to know, please stop reading now:
The client comes into the room and lies down on the hospital bed. An anaesthetist, an anaesthetic nurse, a Doctor and a MH nurse greet them and takes their Blood Pressure, Oxygen Saturation, Pulse etc and makes sure they have emptied their bladder. The client then has an IV cannula put in and the Doctor puts the electrodes on while they are given gas/oxygen. Once they have taken enough gas/oxygen, they are given 2 anaesthetic drugs intravenously and by then they are under. Then the Doctor flicks a switch and they go into a seizure. The MH nurse times how long the seizure occurs visually, while the Doctor times how long the seizure occurs on the machine delivering the therapy.
Once they have finished their seizure, the anaesthetist starts bringing them out of sedation, and they are transferred to recovery. Then their Blood Pressure, Oxygen saturation, Pulse and consciousness levels are monitored every 10mins for the next 30mins, after which they are usually fully awake and able to eat a sandwhich.
That is ECT. Nothing like the old days, where the person was not anaethetised and they had the seizure fully awake.
There are many arguments for and against ECT, but for some people, it has worked wonders. One woman was catatonic - and after even her first ECT, she was moving about which was unheard of beforehand.
One person who received ECT today, the team were going to recommend they discontinue the treatment, as they had not improved at all, so it was a waste.
Last week, we had two clients go missing from the ward (ie, they absconded). Today, I stopped one more from occurring. I was sitting by the window, waiting with a client who was about to go into ECT, when I spotted one of the regular absconders in the carpark, ambling along - backpack on her back. So I alerted a couple of nurses, who went and brought her back :D.
That was Day 1, 2nd Week.
~
I saw ECT today. For those that don't know, that is electro-convulsive therapy. So now I am about to detail what happens - if you don't wish to know, please stop reading now:
The client comes into the room and lies down on the hospital bed. An anaesthetist, an anaesthetic nurse, a Doctor and a MH nurse greet them and takes their Blood Pressure, Oxygen Saturation, Pulse etc and makes sure they have emptied their bladder. The client then has an IV cannula put in and the Doctor puts the electrodes on while they are given gas/oxygen. Once they have taken enough gas/oxygen, they are given 2 anaesthetic drugs intravenously and by then they are under. Then the Doctor flicks a switch and they go into a seizure. The MH nurse times how long the seizure occurs visually, while the Doctor times how long the seizure occurs on the machine delivering the therapy.
Once they have finished their seizure, the anaesthetist starts bringing them out of sedation, and they are transferred to recovery. Then their Blood Pressure, Oxygen saturation, Pulse and consciousness levels are monitored every 10mins for the next 30mins, after which they are usually fully awake and able to eat a sandwhich.
That is ECT. Nothing like the old days, where the person was not anaethetised and they had the seizure fully awake.
There are many arguments for and against ECT, but for some people, it has worked wonders. One woman was catatonic - and after even her first ECT, she was moving about which was unheard of beforehand.
One person who received ECT today, the team were going to recommend they discontinue the treatment, as they had not improved at all, so it was a waste.
Last week, we had two clients go missing from the ward (ie, they absconded). Today, I stopped one more from occurring. I was sitting by the window, waiting with a client who was about to go into ECT, when I spotted one of the regular absconders in the carpark, ambling along - backpack on her back. So I alerted a couple of nurses, who went and brought her back :D.
That was Day 1, 2nd Week.
~
posted by Ra'Phil | 9:14 pm
1 Comments:
ahhh that's very interesting. Thanks for discribing that it's not the horror film image we know. Very interesting. Good on you for stopping that wanderer as well!
Post a Comment
<< Home