another day at the office

I was called in last minute for an evening shift on an adult psych unit that I have never worked before so I was eager to take it. I have heard a lot of good things about this particular unit. The only things I knew about it was that it was basically a long term unit, technically its called a rehabilitation unit but the patients who are there never really leave. One client has been there since he was about 13, and he is now 38. When I walked onto the unit the staff was very pleasant and willing to show me around and tell me about the clients before I got working. I was told that this unit is actually quite active and violent, after reading a few of the patents charts I noticed that most, if not all are either Schizo affective or bipolar affective, affective meaning mood and Im sure that most know the vague details of bipolar and schizophrenia disorder. But these clients don’t quite fit the criteria for these disorders and only have a few select behaviors. But yes they are quite erratic and can quickly change their mood. So I experienced my first close call this evening with one particular elderly female whom I was warned about. One of the male nurses had grabbed a unit phone and rushed out ( I later found out he was rushing out to grab a hospital van to pick up a patient on our unit who had decided to walk off hospital grounds towards the highway in the rain while he was out on privileges, he was spotted by several hospital staff) and she was being nosey, asking what he was doing and where he was going, I suppose I could have said something else but I replied back with “oh im not sure, but he is a grown man and is probably going out to do what ever” and she snapped! “YOU SNOT NOSED LITTLE SHIT, I AM OLD ENOUGH TO BE YOUR MOTHER BLAH BLAH BLAH…!!!!” She was getting up close right into my face I kept my cool and told her that I meant nothing by it and was preparing to dodge a fist to my mouth but thankfully the well seasoned and bad ass nurse told her to back off. Another bullet dodged.  After that my shift ran smoothly, not a whole lot going on, another aide came up to me and asked if I would like to play Wii with a client, she had played a few games and her arms were already hurting so I jumped to the opportunity to be paid $20 an hour to play games. This patient was one I saw around the hospital often so I felt comfortable being alone and in close quarters with him.  Game was going well, he is quite good at bowling and was calling me a lucky duck every time I got a strike, but soon those duck comments got a little weird. He started talking about ducks in a bath and how we are both ducks, and he would “wash my body” then I would “then wash his body” I immediately said “absolutely not” and the comments stopped, I quickly finished up the game and left the room (to make it even a little more awkward I unfortunately walked in on him pleasuring himself while doing rounds). I brought this up during report and one nurse immediately replied “Its that bath scene in the video”. I was a little confused but they explained that his brother had given him a pornography and odd enough the doctor said that it was acceptable as long as no bad behaviors occurred, looks like I got the video taken away. Opps!  I mean, I try to empathize with him, he is a young man with blood in his veins and he is going to need to express those feelings, but I think a playboy or more preferably the underwear section of a sears catalogue and some Vaseline would do. But his mind is no more mature than a 9 year old boy, so the pornography on his video would seem acceptable to him, and I could definitely see something terrible happen. Anyways other than those two characters there was only one other patient who had stuck out to me, not so much by their actions but by their history.  Right from the get go her life hadn’t been easy, she has experienced incest, physical abuse, drug abuse, living on the streets, schizophrenia, pregnancy and almost no normalcy in her life. She most definitely was predisposed, almost every female in her family has some sort of psychological issue.  But the way life has treated her I don’t blame her for breaking down.  She is catatonic most of the time, I hear she is quite violent, but I feel for her. And I wish that it was as easy as supporting her and telling her that everything will be okay, but she is too far gone.  I was told that this unit is the dumping grounds for all the patients that no one else can handle, but I was so impressed with how organized and well handled everything was. Over all it was a great shift and I really am loving my job. And as I sit here in the comfort of my own home I  am thankful for my supports and healthy mind.  GOOD NIGHT.