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.