Mental Health Clinical and...

I'm sure no one even reads this, but whatev...I'm just writing it for me then or pretend like people out there read it. haha. So today we had our orientation for mental health clinical and it was pretty intimidating. Getting told "never be alone" with the patients, etc. was kind of a wake-up call. Then again...it's for our safety.

I'm going to a children/adolescent residential facility for the next 6-7 weeks to work with kids there that have a range of problems - including behavioral, biological, and closely related neurobiological issues. This is definitely going to be challenging at times!! I'm used to just playing with kids or teaching them to read, do math - that kind of thing...so being in the nursing role will be a new experience. There are so many rules associated with it that it sometimes makes it frustrating - like no even side-hugging the kids, no forming peer-like relations, no self-disclosure. I know that it has to be like that because we are professionals, but like I said it can be frustrating. We will see though when I get there how it goes. On the positive side though, I love working with kids and think that I am usually pretty good at it (at least I won't be uncomfortable like some people that have no experience with kids or just plain don't like them...).

OH and this is pretty scary so tomorrow I am already going to practice initiating IVs on mannequin arms and then next week we practice on each other in our class. AHH.