Jodi and I spent the day together at SMTC this past week in Springhill 1 West with the young boys. For the first part of the morning, our nurse was nowhere to be found so we both dived into looking into the charts. Many of the boys had oppositional defiant disorder. But one that really surprised me, and one that I had never heard before, was an explosive disorder. Later in the day, I would find out which boy it was. After looking extensively through the charts, Jodi and I trekked down to the classroom areas. We walked past one classroom where one of the Texas State associates asked if we would like to join. She also asked who we were looking for. We stayed in that room until everyone went to lunch and we found our group of boys. They were very intrigued at the idea of having two nurses with them. I had three young boys sit with me at lunch and ask me questions. I answered and asked them questions as well. One boy in particular got very upset at another boy for interrupting him while he was trying to talk with me. He kept yelling, “Shut up!” One of the Texas State associates came over and removed him and his plate of food to another table so that he could finish eating. After eating our own lunch, we joined our boys in their classroom for fairy tale writing and reading. The boys didn’t seem too interested in it but kept on working. Two boys in particular kept aggravating each other to the point where one needed to be moved to another table. For the rest of the class, everyone did what they were told. When it was time for group therapy, I noticed that the two boys who were in conflict in the classroom were extremely rowdy. Once group therapy started, everyone eventually calmed down and they were able to do the activity provided by the student therapist. Whilst everyone was doing the activity, there was one boy who did not want to go to group therapy and threw a huge fit. He was yelling profanities and screaming for what seemed like 30 minutes. Eventually, Mr. Chieza was called down to help this boy calm down. I then remembered from the chart that this was the one who had the explosive disorder.
That day, I felt frustrated because I don’t think that the Texas State associate did a very good job of calming down the boy. It seemed that for 30 minutes, he screamed and yelled and was not able to calm down. At the time, I was thinking about how I wished I could help whether it is the associate or the little boy. I know that our mental health clinical is specifically for therapeutic communication and observation, but I truly felt helpless at this moment in time. Jodi and I sat in group therapy instead and handed out markers and pens for the other boys while they did their activity. We helped them to learn to take turns and learn to share by only taking one color at a time. They quickly got the hang of it and were quietly working on their comic strips. This experience has challenged my assumptions, especially about small children, because for the most part, I love little children and how innocent they are. I watch their behaviors and how their parents interact with them. Now I have new things to look for, especially with little boys.
Know that I’ve been to SMTC a couple weeks this semester, I’ve realized that I do not necessarily want to do pediatric psychiatric nursing. My love for kids is still great, but it truly hurts to see these children in such a situation that they cannot rely on the people who gave birth to them or raised them because of abuse and neglect. Yes, I want to help them, but sometimes these children will not ever recover and it makes me upset. For future nursing practice, I will use the knowledge from this experience to help others change the way they think about psychiatric cases and how although these people and children have major psychological problems, they are still people and deserved to be treated with respect.