As a student mental health nurse
I see a great deal of ouches, I even get some myself.

Just yesterday I was working working a night shift on an acute ward. (Acute = Very poorly sick people)

One of our patients, who we shall call A, decided she is not going to go to bed until she gets a 'little blue pill'. This little blue pill happens to be Lorazepam, we use this to stop people beating the living daylights out of us or each other and as she is pretty calm we say no.

Fast foreward 3 hours. This 5'4" 70lb woman is being restrained by 3 members of staff, one of which is my mentor, B. Now B is in a pretty awkward position behind A, A promptley decides to kick like a donkey who has eaten one too many carrots. B goes flying into a wall. 'Fucksocks' says I, best go get security since the police have decided not to turn up. After another hour A has been dosed with her 'little blue pill' afterall. Cue B's dinner repeating on her and a trip to A&E.

Outcome, broken schaphoid bone and a beautiful purple bruise on her back.

Also on my previous placement I was told a story that put me off Forensic Nursing (people doing their prison time in psychiatric services) for life.

Apparently one of the patients had boiled a kettle full of water and proceeded to pour it down a nurses back. Mega ouch!!




It's my first time, be gentle!
(NancyDrew Expert lurker until, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 7:25, 9 replies)

*click*
A friend of mine does mental nursing, she had a client who used to throw cups of tea if they weren't the right temperature. That was written in large letters on her file, yet nearly every new nurse who came into contact with her would end up scalded. The trick was to put it just out of arms length, and run.
( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 8:45, closed)

Or
how about giving them a fucking good kicking every time they launch a cup? Or pressure hose them into the corner of the room? Even the stupidest animal will learn the two things are linked and will stop doing whatever brings on the nasty event, so "difficult" people will very quickly get the hint. They are just being sly on the most primitive level and getting their way, so clucking about pandering to them is counterproductive, it encourages them to kick off whenever they come across a problem. Like their banana not being mashed properly or Blue Peter not being on at 9pm.

I realise that this might be going against current professional thinking, that I'm a cunt and that I'm not going to be winning any awards for care of the less able in society, but then my sister, a nurse, was attacked and seriously hurt by one of these nutjobs whose fucking porridge had not enough sugar in it or something, so fuck it, my opinion is infinitely more valid than that of anyone who sits in an office believing in "soft" care. They aren't the ones who are getting shit, or scalding water, flung at them by unpredictable, dangerous creatures. My sis, an A&E nurse, didn't sign up for that, who in their right mind would? The same people who think that mad dogs calm down when you stroke them perhaps.

The loon who attacked my sis, a huge monster of a woman, not dissimilar to Robbie Coltrane's bigger, uglier, more mental sister, happily died not long afterwards. I sincerely hope her brain is in a belljar on someone's desk somewhere, along with the twat who thought it would be a good idea to let her roam about unfettered. (She had attacked several nurses before, shopkeepers, pharmacists, people minding their own business etc) Personally, I'd advocate adopting the T4 Program in hopeless, dangerous cases like hers, but then I'm an unpleasant extremist. At the very least we should be keeping them all in places where they can be looked after by people more human and caring than myself, like asylums. Oh, hang on, we can't, they've been turned into luxury apartments.....doh!
(Rsoles, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 16:17, closed)

I'm surprised
Mental health patients would even have access to such things as a kettle and boiling water
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 8:54, closed)

Don't know how it is with mental health
But I'm taking a guess that it's pretty similar to LD - basicaly any potential hazard (I.E people hurting themselves or others intentionaly or accidentaly with boiling water) will have a risk assesment written up and planned for each patient. If the risk is too high then the risk (kettle) is removed. If it's deemed an unlikely or acceptable risk then it's the job of the risk assessment to inform staff of the appropriate steps that need to be taken to minimise any potential risk. Of course that's in theory.....
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 11:48, closed)

I'm sure the poor nurse who probably needed skin grafts would be happy to hear that!

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 12:25, closed)

Well yes that is an utterly horrible thing to happen
And with the right safeguards in place, it shouldn't have happened. Like I said, that's how it's supposed to work in theory. In practice (and again going from what I know of the sector I've had experiance with) either the person responsible for writing the risk assesments was lazy and/or incompetant or understaffing and underfunding lead to a situation that allowed the accident to happen.
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 13:16, closed)

funnily enough
Secure services generally don't allow patients in the kitchen for obvious reason. Yet the male medium Ward decided they couldn't be arsed making the Guy a brew. Woops.
(NancyDrew Expert lurker until, Thu 5 Aug 2010, 18:27, closed)

I take
my hat off too you, must be a difficult job.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 8:55, closed)

*click*
For doing a pretty hard job. Working with challenging behaviour myself at the moment, though not for much longer. Not so much the job as the company I'm working for to be honest.
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Wed 4 Aug 2010, 11:50, closed)