The other night at the hospital, I got sent to a different floor than my usual one to do a one-on-one suicide watch for a patient waiting for a transfer to our psych unit.
My patient was very pleasant, and very very sad, and rather nuts.
And that experience clinched it for me - no psych nursing for me, thanks. Geropsych, possibly (I just love old people enough to overcome my aversion to the wild behavior). But regular psych, where someone is sharing their terrible childhood and depression and I just want to cry and cry for them? No thanks.
On the plus side, I learned to play Yahtzee and it's so fun!
Also, I like that we live in a world where someone very poor with no family to speak of will get round-the-clock care to keep that individual alive and stable with a goal of recovery ahead of them. And there's no profit in doing so. We just do it because it's the right thing to do.
That's a good thought to hold on to.
I used to work psych and we would have sitters come in all the time....they weren't always nurses, but anyone will do. I could only do 2 years of psych before I went back to surgical but it is an eyeopener and a great experience that is useful in all areas of the hospital! :)
ReplyDelete