Breana Herrera
N342 Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Nursing
February 19, 2016
San Marcos Treatment Center Clinical Journal 2
This week I was able to observe a rather different age group and a different gender in the San Marcos Treatment Center residential psychiatric facility. I was placed in Springhill 1 with the younger teenage girls. This facility was different than the unit I observed two weeks before in regards to the type of artwork on the walls and the entertainment provided. These girls were placed in this unit that was decorated with artwork made by the actual residents and the entertainment the girls were engaging in was different as well. As I observed the young girls before their scheduled lunchtime, I noticed they were illustrating pictures, listening to music, singing, and dancing. What seemed to be typical adolescent behavior for teenage girls. I then proceeded to accompany them to the cafeteria where one of the residents told my partner and I that we were going to sit with her, since she was on “ops” for engaging in physical altercations with her fellow residents on the unit. As I engaging in communication with her she disclosed her reason as to why she was admitted into the facility and what she hopes to gain from her experience. Her tendency to participate and initiate fights lead to her aggression diagnosis, as well as the question why she felt the need to fight others, if she ever thought about using verbal communication with those who made her feel angry. There were several interventions suggested for the patient as well as different problem solving skills for possible future altercations.
Being in this type of situation made me feel like I was in a good position to communicate effectively with my patient and offer some insight regarding alternative methods of resolving her issues with other residents on the unit. At the time I was thinking about how I offered alternate practices to relieving her aggression and if the message I was attempting to communicate to her was being received and how it was being received. My reaction to the situation allowed me to really think about and analyze the way I communicated with my patient in regards to her thought processes and the reasons behind them. My experience challenged my own assumptions by encouraging me to include the patient’s past history in my evaluation, although my patient was very young in age, her past experiences shaped and encouraged her to handle bad situations in a violent manner instead of a civil manner. The studies of therapeutic communication greatly aided me in developing a more educated insight and non-judgmental outlook on patients with similar past experiences and present ineffective coping mechanisms.
This occurrence has impacted my future practice as a future nurse by encouraging me to consider the patient’s social background and history in my assessment. I will use this knowledge that I gained in the future by taking each patients entire experiences into consideration of their psychiatric and mental heath assessment. When I am confronted with a circumstance of similar nature I will continue to monitor the therapy I administer and the way I convey a healthy alternative method to resolving bothersome issues. My experiences will continue to aid my future nursing practice by teaching me how to cultivate a fully developed and comprehensive thought regarding the reasoning behind particular behavior in a specific patient. This has taught me that many people come from various backgrounds and as a nurse you must take the patient’s background and past experiences into consideration when evaluating the mental health and psychiatric behavior of each patient.