Clinical Week 1

I hadn't had much experience with working with patients with mental illnesses prior to my first day of clinical so I didn't know what to expect. I felt nervous and anxious when I first stepped on the milieu but the more time I spent with the clients the better I felt. It turned out to be a very positive experience and I realized that I learned more from the clients then they could ever learn from me.

Week 2 blog

I do not participate in any type of blogs. The only experience I have with blog is in this class. I have found different website which offers opportunity on various mental health topics for members who registered to their site. One of the site I visited was http://www.healthyplace.com/ and their blog website is http://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/. At HealthyPlace.com, you will find comprehensive, authoritative information on psychological disorders, psychiatric medications, and other mental health treatments. Here is a welcome note from the site “Welcome to HealthyPlace.com HealthyPlace.com is the largest consumer mental health site, providing comprehensive, trusted information on psychological disorders and psychiatric medications from both a consumer and expert point of view. We have an active mental health social network for support, online psychological tests, breaking mental health news, mental health videos, a live mental health tv and radio show, unique tools like our "mood journal" and more. We're glad you found us”.

This website is very easy, fascinating and really informative. There are tabs located at the top of the page that helps the viewer with easy site maneuver. Before any articles or comments are posted, Dr. Harry Croft, who is the medical director of the San Antonio Psychiatric Research Center reviews all of the articles and comments. I was able to find one sponsored resource from healthy place website and it was AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. This company produce the drug (quetiapine fumarate) SEROQUEL XR. This drug is used to treat schizophrenia in adult and children who are at least 13 year of age or older.

Reference

http://www.healthyplace.com/

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: Week 2 Blog

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: Week 2 Blog: I don't have any prior experience on blogging. I never blogged before but I came across some bloggings written by others on the web for...

I have never blogged before , this is my first blogging, but I have been to the blogging site sponsored by the American Psychiatric Nursing Association,  The bloggers seems to have vital information that are  interesting and educational, they love what they blog. I found the site very interesting too. The bloggers expressed their  experiences and opinions freely for people to learn from.

Week 2 Blog

I don't have any prior experience on blogging. I never blogged before but I came across some bloggings written by others on the web for different reasons. The blog that I found on the web is sponsored by Healthy Place America's Mental Health Channel. One of the published blog written by Becky Oberg talks about the myths and the truth on PTSD, which I thought was interesting because the she included her personal experience and others resources to support the her point on the issue. Moreover the cite includes several other interesting blogs on mental health subjects and I think it is inviting to readers and bloggers because of the several information's that are included on website.

The link is http://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/page/2/

week 1

In the country I was born, there are some people who are mentally ill.  Although I have no prior experience or direct relationship with them, but I can say I see them in my community.  Believes of people including me when I saw mentally ill people was that they are possess with evil spirit or supernatural power. The cure of mentally ill individuals involved ritualistic exorcism to purge out unwanted forces. These people are beating, deprived of food or separated from other people in the community. They are neglected.  Nursing school especially this course ( psychiatric nursing) have enlighten me  and now I know that mentally ill is a disease process just like any physiological illness. More so, now that I am in the nursing field, I have more empathy toward mentally ill individuals. My assumption about the mental health setting in which I am assigned was to see mentally ill individual who are not reliable, don’t know what is happening to them, acting like babies disrespecting staff members and continuous violence act. My expectation form this clinical is to have more knowledge on how to take care of the mentally ill. Be able to use therapeutic communication to relate to them. Know how to show empathy during nurse to patient interaction and be able to mention about seven side effects of each psychiatric medications. At this moment I have no concern about my clinical experience. My personal goal is to be able to restore or build hope for the mentally ill individuals. Majority of the mentally ill individual have lost hope. Their life has been a series of crushing disappointment, repetitive failure or losses stigma and discrimination. I will engage the individual in social activities that are pleasurable, helping them to develop friendship or meaningful relationship and activating spirituality or faith are some ways to help individuals restore their hope.

Week 1

I have unconsciously dealt with people with mental health before. I work at a correctional facilities and among where I am assigned to work is a unit called IMHU meaning “inmate mental health unit”. In this unit we have inmate whom have mental illnesses. But prior to my attending lectures on NURS 432 I always look at them as inmates who just want to get out of general population, although I still give them all that they are supposed to have based on the institutional policies and procedure. But now I have a better understanding about how they acted the way they acted and I have a clear picture about their behaviors now.

Although, I have an unconscious experience on mental health prior to taking NURS 432 but now my expectation lies beyond just understanding what the course content of the classes but also to have the know-how on how to actually apply the concept[t of mental health into patients whom really need the care. I am also expecting that I get the best exposure in taking care of individuals with mental health issues.

My personal goal as of this course is to understand the concept of mental health and be able to apply the learned concepts in providing safety to patient, staff, and the community in its entirety. And also part of my goals is to achieve the knowledge required to make the aforementioned goal possible.

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: week 1

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: week 1: I have a brief experience working with a small population of people with mental illness in an assisted living facility and a group home. But...

I actually do not have or have never worked with mentally ill person before, but I have seen people who are mentally ill. I was surprised when I got to the clinical site, the patients were different from what I have seen, I am looking forward to exploring this clinical experience, and very anxious to speak and ask my client some questions, and try to know what is like to live with this illness. I don't really have any concerns, but my personal goal is to be safe at all times, been mindful of my environment, by making sure that I stay at arms length and provide the best possible care I can for my patient.

Week #1 Blog

1. I have dealt with the mentally ill though my work as a home health aide and nurse extern. Many of the patients I work with are from the geriatric population. Most suffer from Alzheimer's and/or dementia. 
2. I have been assigned to Spring Grove Hospital in Catonsville, MD. From my initial visit to the campus and the things I have seen on TV I expect to see patients resemble what I see on the Investigation Discovery Channel. Spring Grove has majority forensic patients, thus they have criminal charges. I am not afraid of the patients, yet I am apprehensive about the unknown. Patients who have mental illness have struggles internally that we cannot physically see. Anything can be said, perceived, or interpreted as a threat and trigger and negative response or disruption in the milieu. I weary of what could happen if one patient becomes upset because there they could potentially become violent or upset other patients and they become violent. 
3. I am expecting to learn a lot about the mentally ill. I am hoping to apply things learned in theory to the clinical setting. I also want to improve my therapeutic communication. Much of what nurses do on a day to day basis, in every specialty, is effectively communicating with patients to gather pertinent assessment data. If a nurse plans to fully assess a patient and be therapeutic, the way in which he or she communicates is vital. When working with the mentally ill is crucial that nurses are therapeutic because non-therapeutic creates a dilemma in working with the patient effectively. Moreover, a non-therapeutic relationship can block the efficacy of interventions implemented by the nurse. I believe, if you can therapeutically communicate with a mentally ill patient, you can therapeutically communicate with anyone. 
4. I am concerned about potential aggression from the patients. The mentally ill often have cognitive difficulties, thus their comprehension and/or interpretation could be skewed. Any perceived threat to the mentally ill patient could cause an issue between me and the patient and/or within the milieu. 
5. My personal goal for this clinical experience is to learn how to assess a mentally ill patient and be therapeutic in communication. 

week 1

I have a brief experience working with a small population of people with mental illness in an assisted living facility and a group home. But, I have never been in a mental facility or had the opportunity to be in the midst of a large number of individuals with mental illness.

Upon entry into my assigned clinical facility, I must confess I was really scared for my safety when I encountered individuals at very close range on my way to the conference room. When I was eventually assigned to a patient, it took a lot of courage for me to walk up to him and introduce myself, and throughout my stay at the clinical site I kept looking over my my shoulders.

I hope to be able to exercise the skills I have learned in communicating effectively with the clients, and I know I would get used to being around this population during the course of the clinicals.  My goal is to learn and understand more about caring effectively for this population, but I do not this Psych nursing is for me, but one can never say never.

NURS 432: Blog #1

I have worked with many adverse population of mentally illed individuals for over 10 years now. My deverse experiences includes working with those diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Major Depression, ADHD, to Sexual abuse. I have done case management, community resources coordination, as well as have over 5 years of clinical inpatient experience at my current employment. I truly enjoy my work and feel empowered to help those without a voice.

2).
I must say, although I am not afraid to work with individuals living with mental illness, I am a bit apprehensive about going into a State Institution and on to a unit where Long Term care is the goal. I have worked with patients locked inn at the hospital but have never been to a mental illness institution. I get a little nauseated when I think about it. The truth is, "This is where the real criminally insane go to spend the rest of their life taking medications under close supervision". That is a hard pill to swallow. However, I know that there is a very fine line between a healthy mind and mentally illed mind. So with that insight, I feel very blessed for the opportunity to work closely with patients in the next coming weeks.

3)
My expectations for this clinical experience is very sample. I pray to encounter especial individuals  who will allow me the opportunity to sit and talk to them in order to gain some insight into their world and experiences. I hope to learn more about psychotherapy, psychotropic medications and their major side-effects. I look forward to conducting a Mini Mental examination, as well as to observe the many dynamics of mental illness while at the facility.

4).
I can not say that I have many concerns beside Safety. I plan on keeping in mind my aggressive management training techniques, and to remember to be firm, give personal space, be kind and respectful, and to ask my clinical instructor for directions if feeling uneasy or unsure about anything while at the facility.

5).
Personal goals: To learn from a primary source how it is to live with mental illness.

To discuss the day to day management of taking psychotropic medications.

To observe how it is to manage a milieu of chronic ill patients.

To assess my own assumptions about those living in a mental institution after our clinical time is over.

Week 1 Blog

I have worked with the Geriatric population at Sheppard Pratt for a little over a year and during that time I have been exposed to patients with eating disorders, Obsessive compulsive Disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorder, depression, Dementia and Alzheimer’s. 

 

My experience at Sheppard Pratt is a little different from my experience at Spring Grove. I assumed that all psychiatric institutions were the same and that they would be a lot like the ones I had experienced at Sheppard Pratt.  I was wrong, but I decided to keep an open mind. The population that I would be working with are diagnosed as having schizophrenia and I had little experience with working with patients with this illness so I really didn’t know what to expect. 

Upon entering I found that there was very little distance that I could put between myself and the patients. As a result I immediately became concerned about my safety and the safety of the staff. However, I found that as long as I enforced boundaries and watched how the staff interacted with the patients, I felt at ease. During this clinical I expect for it to hopefully improve my nursing skills when it comes to communicating therapeutically and being effective when interacting with patients. One personal goal is to play the role as the charge nurse and therefore, gaining an understanding of what it means to be competent, a communicator and flexible while also providing high quality patient care.

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: Week One

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: Week One: Students are usually apprehensive about going into a psychiatric facility for the first time. My own experiences were actually pretty tame. ...

I have work with the mentally ill patients especially, the
geriatric population for over 5 years. I really enjoyed working with the elderly.
Their diagnosis were mainly Alzheimer, dementia, bipolar, depression, and a
very few schizophrenic patients. I never heard about Spring Grove Hospital
Center until starting this course therefore, I am very limited with my
assumptions. However, I volunteered at Shepard Pratt few years ago so; I
assumed it was going to be the same. To my amazement, I was in total shock when
I arrived at the unit for clinical today. The unit was very small, rooms were
shared, the yard was small, the activities and groups area was small and limited,
and the unit appeared to be the patients’ residence since they live there so
long (meaning 9, 10 years for the few that I asked). I am looking forward to
exploring this part of my clinical rotation, exploring the insight of people
living with mental illness, learning to build and terminate therapeutic
relationship, and organizing and leading groups with the patients. I am curious
to see the different aspect of how people live with mental illness since I am on
a chronic mental illness unit with court ordered forensic patients and regular
patients. How it is to live with mental illness all your life? My personal goal
is to learn as much as I can and explore mental health as a field to work in or
not work in upon graduation. This clinical experience is essential and my
experience will determine my career exploration. I look forward to having a
great clinical experience.

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: Week One

NURS 432: Mental Health Nursing: Week One: Students are usually apprehensive about going into a psychiatric facility for the first time. My own experiences were actually pretty tame. ...