Alive and still kickin'
Wow, I was looking at my blog, and am stunned by how fast time flies. However, I have a good excuse for being away. :-) For the first portion of the summer, I spent my time in the various units of a psychiatric ward in a local hospital. One of the major assignments was to do a journal/blog of sorts about your thoughts and feelings on the events that happened during clinical during the semester. After completing each entry, I felt weary of writing and felt that maintaining two journals was redundant. So, now that the semester is over, here I am again.
I really enjoyed my clinical time this summer, even though I will admit it was probably the most physically and mentally grueling semester I've had this far. In six weeks, we were taken from newbie status to a point where we were literate in psychiatric drugs, able to do a good job at client teaching, and possessing a reasonable knowledge about a huge range of psychiatric illnesses. On top of that, we had to complete several large projects, read 8-9 chapters of our textbook per night, complete reams of paperwork for clinical, and find time to attend various support groups for the mentally ill. Needless to say, absorbing such a large amount of data in a short semester lead to many sleepless nights in a week. Some of my classmates with less stamina actually broke down mid-semester, so we ended up a few people shorter than what we started with.
Despite the demanding nature of the course, I did enjoy it and I learned a lot about myself in addition to mental health nursing. I found out that out of all the units that I spent time on (day treatment, acute, geriatric and overflow, drug rehab, and groups), I actually like working in the acute unit with the clients who are the most seriously ill and actively psychotic.
Anyways, I just wanted to post an update showing I'm still here and hanging in there, so I'll probably continue on in another post about my experiences this summer.
I really enjoyed my clinical time this summer, even though I will admit it was probably the most physically and mentally grueling semester I've had this far. In six weeks, we were taken from newbie status to a point where we were literate in psychiatric drugs, able to do a good job at client teaching, and possessing a reasonable knowledge about a huge range of psychiatric illnesses. On top of that, we had to complete several large projects, read 8-9 chapters of our textbook per night, complete reams of paperwork for clinical, and find time to attend various support groups for the mentally ill. Needless to say, absorbing such a large amount of data in a short semester lead to many sleepless nights in a week. Some of my classmates with less stamina actually broke down mid-semester, so we ended up a few people shorter than what we started with.
Despite the demanding nature of the course, I did enjoy it and I learned a lot about myself in addition to mental health nursing. I found out that out of all the units that I spent time on (day treatment, acute, geriatric and overflow, drug rehab, and groups), I actually like working in the acute unit with the clients who are the most seriously ill and actively psychotic.
Anyways, I just wanted to post an update showing I'm still here and hanging in there, so I'll probably continue on in another post about my experiences this summer.