HA!!!  Can anyone else conjure up vivid memories of psych rotations???  Bwahahahahaha!!  Oh, my goodness… this semester had me so flustered, I actually had a moment where I thought I would not make it. Lucky for me, when I called my fiance’ and asked if we could please move up our nuptials sooner, because I needed his strength to survive this nursing school crisis called psych nursing, he was ready to get married, too!

Because I never chose a psych nursing job, I’ll have to share my experiences from nursing school while driving in the Texas heat an hour to and from clinicals each day for the entire month of June.   I’ll never forget it!  One patient I was studying had schizophrenia.  If you saw him on the street, you wouldn’t think anything unusual about him, except his slower gait, or, flat affect. For a couple of my care plans, I would study all of his medications, his inpatient plan of care, watch his interaction within the schedule of activities, and gently offer appropriate interaction.  Each morning we received report from outgoing shift on our patient’s progress toward their discharge. 

Day number one seemed uneventful. My patient allowed me to gently approach him, without harming me, or, others.  I was feeling hopeful I would witness his discharge before the end of the month and completion of my psych clinical rotation.  However, on day number two I was horrified when I received report only to be told he had succumbed to the voice that told him to place a hot iron on his hand causing a burn.  Now, this side of the clinical, you have to ask the question, “how in the world did he get a hold of an iron?”  and, that would be a legit question.  Answer is… I don’t know... but, it happened!  Apparently, the staff was in some kind of trouble for allowing this to happen, and, now, not only did my patient have this horrible problem of hearing voices, but, now, he had followed through with their tormenting suggestions, and now, had a scalding burn on his hand!!!

In Daniel chapter 2 we read of a king who was troubled in his mind.  His mind was so troubled he could not go to sleep.  God was causing him to see dreams which none of his wise Babylon men, even the astrologers, could interpret to bring relief from his torment.  Some time earlier, Daniel had been one of a few young Jews who found themselves in the palace being prepared to serve King Nebuchadnezzar.  As Daniel lived and became known within the palace, it was clear that he could interpret dreams.  When King Nebuchadnezzar found none of his wise men were able to interpret the troubling dreams, he planned to have them all executed.  When the king’s commander had gone out to put to death all the wise men, along with Daniel and his Jewish comrades, in his gentleness, Daniel offered himself to the commander to provide God’s answer to the king’s tormenting dreams. As God allowed Daniel to tell the king his dreams, the king was not only pleased and agreed with Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, but, declared to Daniel and all the people “Your God is the God of gods!”  King Nebuchadnezzar then made Daniel ruler over the entire province and appointed his Jewish friends as administrators over his province. 

This story is written to the psych nurse who needs to be encouraged to continue being gentle as they assist the troubled mental health patient.  Thank you for all you do.  God bless you.