slumber parties

i love my work.

i love where i work. i love the people i get to work with. i love the complexity of people. i love that i work with a group of patients who are highly acute (perhaps that's redundant). i love being a mental/behavioral health nurse (a.k.a. psych nurse). i love caring for people and doing my best, at my part, to provide a safe and therapeutic experience for each one. and i love that every day the experience is different......one never knows what the shift will bring.

usually, the unit i work on is quite intense. males and females ages 18 and older with a unique reason to be there. some are very psychotic (which presents in sooo many different ways. often delusional or experiencing hallucinations of some type), some are easily agitated and aggressive (and/or homicidal), some are very depressed and at high risk for suicide (which in that case are on 1:1 with staff always being one arm-length away), some abuse substances, some have sexual disorders, some have personality disorders, etc. etc. the list goes on. most of the folks who are on this unit are there to be closely monitored.

the last few weeks we had a bad mix of folks. there's no other way to say it. out of the 23 patients on our unit, at least 5 were highly aggressive, a few were extremely sexually inappropriate, one a very quick and challenging 1:1, and several highly psychotic. you can imagine what happens when all are mixed together. then, many were discharged.

there's a new mix now.

last night was the quietest evening since i've worked there. there were two people who became agitated and had a little outburst, but overall smooth and serene. one patient (who arrived acutely psychotic a couple of months ago and only recently has started to interact with staff) said last night, "this is like a slumber party for adults here". it made me smile, as that's a perspective i haven't heard before.