Intro to Psych

I had my first day on the Psychiatric Floor and what a first day it was. It started off normally. We had report on all the patients, met our nurses and then moseyed off to read through our patient's charts. At about 7:45 I started walking toward the nursing station looking for my instructor. One of the nurses kindly and forcefully asked me to go into the nursing station and to remain there for a minute as they were about to have an altercation. And an altercation definitely ensued.

A lady barged into the nursing station demanding to be released. She was very distressed and kept on yelling about her cat and being held against her will and on and on. There was no way to calm her down and she started getting physical so they called a Code White (aggressive individual). The doors to the psych ward are locked so she couldn't leave the ward. She was smart enough to pull the fire alarm because that unlocks all the doors on the unit. She pulled the fire alarm and ran out the doors with 20+ people in hot pursuit.

During this time I was watching the monitors they have in the nursing station. There are three Psych ICU beds for people with acute illnesses. A staff member was making the bed in one of the rooms and managed to exit just as the distressed woman and her entourage entered. I watched, along with a resident who was also on the ward for the first time, as the nurses had to corner the woman in the room and then exit safely. The poor woman began throwing things and throwing herself at the walls, floor, and windows.

She was quick enough to pull the fire alarm and run out of the psych ward, but she didn't know that she was running herself right into the Psych ICU. This was the best case scenario as the rooms are secluded, locked and entirely safe.

The cops were called to come to the hospital and assist the staff in undressing the woman, getting her into hospital garb, and giving her much needed medication. It was quite an ordeal.

I didn't find this out until later, but the woman wasn't even a patient. I'm guessing she was a patient at some point because she knew where she was, but she came in the door while it was unlocked for someone else. She was already agitated, had issues of alcohol and drug abuse, and was delusional. Things just escalated from there.

To make matters worse, the fire alarm kept ringing for the next half hour for some reason and some of the other patients were working themselves into frenzies. My poor patient was a schizophrenic with strong auditory hallucinations and an anxiety disorder... not a good combination with a loud ringing bell.

Let's just say it was an interesting day.