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.
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.
I have worked with mentally ill patients in my last clinical rotation. Initially, when I think of mentally ill people, I think of people in a dark corner without recovery but now I understand that mental illness can be controlled and the patients can live a normal life. Then, I was scared but at the end of our clinical rotation I had a better understanding of how to work with people that are mentally ill. Presently, I am very confident working with them because I am no longer scared but know how to use therapeutic communication technique to interact with my client. Another thing that is different is working with children and adolescent that look innocent but sometimes display some abnormal behaviors. I am looking forward to having a great clinical experience by positively interacting with my client and other team members.
ReplyDeleteI do not have much experience working with mentally ill patients. While completing my Med Surg clinical rotation I did have the opportunity to work with a patient diagnosed with dementia. That was my first and only experience working with a mentally ill patient. I was I uncomfortable at first because I did not know how to communicate with the patient and she was displaying some aggression but it turned out to be a great learning experience.
ReplyDeleteSome assumptions I have about the mrntak health settings I will be working on is that the patients will primaruky have a dignosis of schizophrenia. I really didn't know what to expect but I know I will experience and be exposed to a lot.
I expect to get a lot of experience to improve my nursing skills during this clinical rotation. Mentally ill patients can be found throughout every unit and it is very important for me to learn how to work with mentally ill patients. Also, it will help me out with learning to communicate with all patients.
I am honestly concerned about being able to properly care for and communicate with mentally ill patients. I also have a natural fear or the possibility for a patient to become aggressive but I have been told that it is not likely that it will happen.
Week 1
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Nigeria, west African, the believe that mental health illness is an ailment that is inflicted on someone due to supernatural powers as a result of their bad attribute towards other individual. Coming to America and having been exposed to different areas in patient care, as a GNA, LPN, I now know that mental illness is much a disease process just like any other physiological illness. It has made me more empathetic towards clients with mental illness, and it could happen to anyone, either close relative or close friends.
Before getting to my client setting, R.I.C.A, I was not aware that the clients will be adolescent population, from my experience, I walked with adolescent in group home setting rather than a big facility like R.I.CA.
My expectation from this clinical is to understand and appreciate my client in their self-actualization and in-cooperate the faculty expertise to support my passions across a wide range setting of mental health and illness across the lifespan, from young children and families to adolescents and adults to facilitate my specialty during my future career as a nurse.
My concern for this clinical experience is safety, because many clients have different ways of dealing with anger management.
My goal for this clinical, is to acquire more learning from my clients, the clinical environment and my instructors personal experience with the prior knowledge and experience that I have, as my long term goals is to be a psych nurse.
ReplyDeleteThe little experience I had with psych before this class was doing homecare with an Alzheimer’s patient four years ago. It was extremely difficult at first because I didn’t know anything about the disease process. It was very frustrating somedays because I felt like I could never please my client. It was not only till I got to medsurg and learned about alzheimer’s before getting a hold of why my client used to act the way she did.
When I heard my facility was going to be Baltimore Crisis Inc, I thought the patients there would be going through their worst. But surprisingly they were very calm, welcoming and open about their mental disorders.
Perhaps, my greatest expectation in this course is to be exposed to as much learning as possible through a hands on experience while working with my clients at Baltimore Crisis. To see the effectiveness of therapeutic plans to improve health and mental stability in a controlled setting. I expect to witness how and why clients are restrained and to observe the reaction of clients to restrains and seclusion. Furthermore, I will like to have a comprehensive insight of how the unit is ran.
Where there is mental instability, there are uncertainties nearby if not in the mix. This brings me to a few concerns around the unit which includes but not limited to client and staff safety. Most of the clients that I talked to were suicidal, so my biggest concern is their safety and that of the staff and students
My personal goal is to break through my client in terms of gathering information about his entire condition and mental, social and medical history and to develop a well-balanced report on my client. This is to enable me exit this course with the experience and to prepare me to be a well-rounded nurse in the future
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ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteLove what you're doing here guys, keep it up!.. www.ecemedical.com
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