I was previously on an acute mental health psychriatric ward. It was a 16 bed inpatient ward which caters to a variety of mental disorders, the most common being schizophrenia. Around 99% of patients on the ward have been sectioned either under section 2 or section 3 of the mental health act 1983. Here is a link providing information on these two acts >>> http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a-z/8052_mental_health_act
In brief, a client can be held on a psychiatric ward against their will under section 2 or 3 of the Mental Health Act as long as the policy is adhered to, the duration of section 2 is usually 28 days but can be extended until the client has been formally assessed by the appropriate health professional, however this hardly ever happened as patients are assessed quickly and often moved to section 3.
Section 3 is to commence treatment, once the client has been appropriately assessed by two doctors confirming that treatment is necessary. Clients can be admitted directly under section 3 if this is necessary. Take a look at the above link, it will answer all your questions.
My first thoughts about this placement was quite negative because you always hear horror stories about other peoples’ experiences on Mental Health (MH) wards. Although, I had a feeling that I’d be fine I still ‘stressed out’ a day before starting placement. I was afraid of what I might see, experience and hear: basically I was afraid of what placement staff will expect of me as a first year general student nurse on her THIRD placement.
Prior to starting placement I asked my fellow mental health student nurses for advice, I wanted to know what they had experienced. I was given some good advice and I wasn’t discouraged about attending placement, the only thing that did make me a bit weary was when a friend said “make sure you always have an alarm with you”, I guess it’s for security but it did make my knees shake a bit.
As I got to my fourth long shift (730am – 800pm) I must say my experience up to that point was good. Student nurses generally have more time on their hands than staff nurses so we are able to give patients the time of day, rather than focussing on paperwork. To give you an example of this – On many occassions I played scrabble with a fellow student and inpatient, we were surrounded by other patients watching television, on one occasion out of nowhere a patient began to cry. She was upset about not being able to go home because she knew she was dearly missed but as she began talking to herself she was stating some very valid facts.
Interacting with patient in this way gave me the opportunity to get to know the patient rather than reading about them on the medical documentation system. My fear with MH clients is that I am uncertain oh how to communicate with them, actually I was uncertain – I feel a lot more confident communicating with MH patients now than I did 2 weeks ago.
The variety of MH disorders did shock me on arrival but compared to the variety that I haven’t seen it was nothing. The main MH problem on this acute ward was schizophrenia of many levels such as paranoid schizophrenia, some patients even have more than one MH diagnosis or rarely an undiagnosed one.
My placement lasted for four weeks which was equivalent to 150 hours. I thoroughly enjoyed this placement because I was able to understand what mental health nurses deal with on a day to day basis and how they develop the skill to deal with patients with mental health issues on a day to day basis.
If I was asked to move to mental health nursing the only reason why I would do it is because the team work was almost perfect, adult based nurses can learn a lot from how mental health nurses work.
THERE IS NO ‘I’ IN TEAM
Care & Compassion 