Psychiatric nursing was taken in the fall semester of my Senior year of college. It was here that I was exposed to yet another set of content I never knew I needed to know.
Psychiatric nursing has become and increasingly important form of health care. The stock market crash in 2008, wars breaking out over the globe, increasing rates of poverty, increasing levels of childhood bullying, inappropriate ways of coping all relate to an increased risk of psychological conditions. In this course, we learned the history and evolution of psychiatric nursing, the scope and practice of psychiatric nursing, and the manifestations of these conditions in real world scenarios.
This class I found to be very difficult for me because I could not relate to the content. i often found myself having to review content 4-5x before a certain topic would stick in my brain. At the beginning of the class I thought the only patients that needed psychiatric help were “crazy” patients you would see on TV shows. After taking this course, it really opened my eyes showing me that normal people often need the most psychiatric help. in fact, the “crazy” people I often subconsciously related this content to were in fact normal people who simply suffered traumatic events or were born with defects.
This course, like many other nursing courses, utilized lecture style classes to teach the students the content and a hands-on clinical experience for students to work closely with this population of patients. I learned the most from this course within my clinical section, because I was able to see the effects of mental disorders on the life of average people and their families. One would obviously think life would be difficult with a mental disorder, but one cannot truly grasp they full weight and detriment these conditions pose on the lives of these patients and their families. Social relationships, familial ties, economic success, personal views, and even the desire to live are ALL struggling when one is suffering with a mental disorder. The use of medication is even a double-edged sword most of the time. Medications make certain chemicals in the brain more or less available (depending on the drug) so that the body can more efficiently process those chemicals and manage their emotions/thought processes. Medications work phenomenally for these patients, however, almost all of these medications require several weeks before therapeutic effects can be seen and often come with NUMEROUS side effects. Along with the delay in function and the presence of side effects, patients often become dependent on these medications that allow them to feel “normal.” When these patients become dependent, they eventually become tolerant, thus requiring increased dosages of their medications just to feel the same effect, yet increasing the severity of their side effects.
Interestingly enough, most “psych patients” don’t want to be treated like patients. They want someone to listen to their story and understand what they are going through. During several of my clinicals, I had my most therapeutic conversations simply listening to the stories of my patients. Not assessing them, not administering medications, simply letting them tell me whatever they are comfortable telling me. Patients are very eager to tell you their story, because they are tired of feeling “crazy” or “weird” when being compared to their peers.
Even though this was a challenging class for me, I genuinely enjoyed my interactions with my patients. I was able to connect a lot of my textbook content with real world patients.