April 1, 2016
The unit I was assigned to was Spring Hill 2 which consisted of teenage girls. On the unit there was a registered nurse as well as staff members. While on the unit I had the opportunity to review the charts and find out a lot of background information about admission and childhood experiences. It was interesting to have an insight on their backgrounds, and be able to identify the girls based on their charts. On the unit I learned that the girls are individually ranked on levels of good behavior. Each level is represented by a color. If an individual partakes in inappropriate behavior they would be dropped a level.
Today, I recognized that therapeutic communication skills were important during my presence of a physical and mental health assessment. I had the opportunity to go the campus clinic and observe these assessments. This event impacted me by reviling the importance of therapeutic communication in the mental health population. The child was a new admit so he seemed a little uncomfortable. Therapeutic communication between the child and the health care provider made the interview process smoother. The child participated and answered all the questions. Some things the health care provider asked the child about were: triggers, past hospitalizations, thoughts of suicide and voices. If therapeutic communication would have not been used he child could have been reluctant to answer any questions, because a positive relationship wouldn’t have been built. The boy admitted to hearing voices all his life and stated he was hearing voices during the interview. He had no recent thoughts of suicide, but did admit to wanting to hurt his mom and put her in jail. The interviewer done well keeping the child engaged by mentioning things the child may have liked as well as talking about small things like where he lived. During his physical assessment here were no abnormalities noted. I got to provide him with some support by holding his hand and communicating with him while he received his tuberculosis test.
In group therapy on the unit the theme was positivity Friday. Each girl in the group had to make three positive statements about; themselves, another peer and a staff member on the unit. I feel this exercise was beneficial to them individually, because it made them feel confident and comfortable with themselves considering their ages. Acknowledging something positive about them emphasized importance.
This week I had the opportunity to attend class with the girls from the unit I thought it was interesting to see how they engage and interacted in class, not just on the unit. I felt like being in the class room provide more interaction with the girls. By watching the girls play a game in English class, I noticed the girls had individual groups apart from the others on the unit. I could tell the girls had their own cliques and I could also see who didn’t interacts well with certain individuals.
In my career I know therapeutic communication will be important no matter what type of population I decide to care for. I learned therapeutic communication should be used at all times in order to promote a good patient- nurse relationship. In the future I will make sure to use this skill and I will continue to develop them as I go through my career.