Week 1: Psych Clinical

Ok well it goes like this. I have to be up at 4:00 am for clinical. I have a 3 year old who had a cold the other day so I gave him a pediatric dose of pediatric cold medicine. You know on the label where it says "May cause marked drowsiness" and then later on it says "May cause excitability"? Which one do you think Colin is the night before my first clinical? You guessed it. I got to sleep around 1 or 2 am. I woke up so tired every cell in my body was aching and screaming.

Well I made it to the hospital an hour away. Mind you I don't know what to expect. Still a little shaky from my brother's suicide.

During group therapy I find my patient. Fortunately the social worker has each of the patients introduce themselves and where they are from. She is very well-groomed. Her clothes are clean and she looks to be very "normal".

As soon as group therapy is over I go over to my patient and introduce myself. She was full of smiles and very friendly to me. Right away she told me stories of her childhood that were rather remarkable. I was instantly interested in this woman. I love the elderly anyways and feel they have so much to teach us if we just listen, but she was so knowledgeable about so much. Art therapy was about to begin and she didn't care to join in. I was unable to convince her to stay, but told her if she didn't mind I would like to talk to her some more later on.

I attended art therapy with the 5 other girls in my clinical group. The patients were coloring leaves for the approaching fall season. We were invited to join in but we just stood there and watched. Finally, being like I am, I jumped in front of my classmates and instructor and said "Come on! Let's go color!" LOL Wouldn't you know but my classmates jumped at the opportunity? HAHA... they just needed someone to take the lead. Yeah, leave it up to me.

So we all colored the blank leaves that was on the sheets of paper. Everyone was doing such a great job of making real colorful leaves. And then I got ahold of every hot pink, electric blue, shocking green, and vibrant yellow crayon I could find and colored the most manic leaf you could ever imagine LOL! Ho-ly heck. I think they considered hospitalizing ME instead! But it was so fun.

Later on I went in to visit my patient as promised. We share so many of the same interests and she is beyond intelligent! But then again, being smart doesn't make you immune to depression. My impression of her is that she has spent her lifetime experiencing so much and has this treasure chest of knowledge to share, but no one to share it with.

I really hope that she is able to find out what will help her feel better. But if she's there next week I will be on cloud nine. I feel I was "led" to her for a reason. Both for my benefit and hers. Just like my first patient ever my first semester of nursing in Cardiac Telemetry touched me spiritually, this psych patient left a lasting impression on me. There's something very special about certain patients. You care about all of them, but there's a few that just really get you.