Maegan Taylor
Clinical 342
Mrs. Dutton
Clinical Journal #6
Today we were to report to Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital at 0630. To start the day we got our assignments and went straight to our designated floors. Mackenzie, Cayenne and I were assigned to the Chemical Dependency floor.
When we got to the floor the nurses were just about to get report so our nurse printed us a patient list and took us to the exam room to get report from the night nurses. After this we went and rounded on each of the patients to introduce ourselves and take BP on those that needed heart meds and assess pain levels. We also helped hand out the breakfast trays. When we were done rounding on the patients and handing out trays we went back into the nurse’s station and got medications ready for the three patients that needed them. After this we sat and read charts for a little while and then headed down to FLASH. There we heard what people were dealing with on other floors and the doctor’s recommendations for each patient. By the time FLASH was over and we got back up to the floor, the patients were in their first group therapy session. They were playing Yahtzee and talking about whatever it was that came to their minds. When we walked in they were talking about why they were each in there. The conversation then switched, because there were three patients being discharged, to what they were going to do when they got out of there. They talked about their families and what they do to cope with their problems at home. After this therapy session they had a processing group where they talked about some of the same things. It was interesting to see what each of the patients was there for and what kinds of things they do at home to cope and how their families deal with the illness process. When that therapy session was done, we got to see the discharging process. All that the guy had to do was sign his papers and get his belongings. Then we went with the nurse to walk him downstairs and out the front doors. After this we went to lunch and talked with our cohorts about the first half of our day. At 0100 we went back to the floor and visited with the patients for the remainder of the time before post conference. We played Uno and talked more about what the patients do for a living and why they were here.
I really enjoyed being on the chemical dependency floor. I say this because the patients interacted much more than they did on Level 1. I felt that it was really nice getting to talk to the patients, but the one that I really feel like I got the most from was a woman whom was admitted because she needed detoxing from smoking crack cocaine. She talked a lot about how she just really didn’t want to disappoint her mother and how she wishes she could be the woman that she should be for her younger siblings. She has been on and off of the streets because of drugs and is hoping that she can help herself get clean so that she can be with her family. Today, I taught my client that she first needs to find a reason to become clean and keep in mind every day why she wants to stay clean and I felt like she really appreciated the talk and may have a little better understanding on how to help herself stay clean when she gets out of the facility. It kind of gave me a good feeling knowing that even though we are not able to do much with these patients, when we talk with them, we are helping them more than we really know!