This week at San Marcos Treatment Center I was in the Spring Hill West with the younger boys. We were in the Spring Hill 1 building with the younger boys and when we got to the office the nurse was not there, so we sat in the nurse's office and read patient charts until 10:30. The nurse had still not come to the office by that time so we went down to the classrooms and were invited into a history class of older boys. We sat in the back of the room and listened to the lesson and watched as the boys interacted with their teacher. One of the tech's then told us it was close to lunch time and said if we went to the gym we could find our group and watch them. Emily and I then walked up to one of the gym's and were told we should just go straight to the cafeteria and wait there. Since we had not yet met our nurse or seen our group we had to ask the tech to show us our group. She did and we waited until they all sat down with their lunches and then went to sit with a table. I sat with a young man that was sitting alone and started talking to him. He was a very sweet boy and talkative. he informed me that he lived in Saudi Arabia and told me what I should do if school was cancelled for a sandstorm. He told me that he had a bigger brother at home and was wearing one of his hand me down shirts. After lunch we went back up to the nurse's office and met the LVN, she stated that she had two new admits and had been working with those all morning, and this was not her normal shift. She said it was her day off but was called to come in so she did because it was overtime for her. She then asked us to walk some paperwork to the nurse in the clinic and we could then join our group in their class in classroom 18.
Emily and I walked the paper down to the clinic and then walked down to the classroom where we met up with our group and watched them as they wrote fairytales. It was very interesting to see them interact with their teachers. One boy kept poking his hand with a pencil and then complaining about his hand hurting and wanted a band aid. Once the teacher gave him a bandaid he put it on and then would still poke his hand with his pencil and complain that his hand was hurting. Shortly after that he put his pencil down and put his head to his knees and said he didn't want to do anymore work. It was interesting to see how the teacher just let him stop working and tried to talk to him about why he didn't want to work. by the end of class he still hadn't finished his work.
We then went back to the building after post conference and met up with our group to watch them during group therapy. The boys were getting their snacks as we entered so we watched them get settled. The group therapist was very patient with them as they kept moving around and talking, after she passed out their activity a small scuffle broke out between two boys as another boy was in the hallway yelling, screaming, and running from the tech's. All of the boys eventually settled down once the therapist passed out the markers and color pens for the activity. I really enjoyed this group and it really pulled at my heart strings seeing how little they are and having a son close in age to them. I did feel sad/frustrated when the boy I had lunch with got a personal call and saw how his demeanor changed when the call ended. He looked so sad and then started acting out a little to get some attention.
I hope that if a circumstance like this occurs again when I am a nurse that I will be able to pull the child aside and see what I could do to address the sadness he/she is feeling.