I'm a jaded mental health nurse working with very high risk individuals - as me anything

[Meadow90]

Ask me anything...

nearlyfinished they probably did want to go into it when they started. All careers have the potential to look somewhat different several years down the line.

@nearlyfinished1moreyear I can understand how it would appear to you at the start of your career .....
However, I’ve been RMN for 25 yrs
I DO value my job, and it is so rewarding at times, the problems come from pressures in services to patch people up and send them on ASAP, a lack of joined up services, a lack of community support, community OT, day services / hospitals
Over the last 20 years we have seen massive positive shifts in awareness and acceptance re metal health, but alongside that, the destruction of comprehensive services.
Especially for the serious and enduring.
Less staff, less services. More demand, higher expectations, more beaurocracy, shorter interventions, more risk adverse, ........
I’m afraid mental health services survive on staff goodwill, I would not recommend it as a career. Sorry.

And less pay !!!
With agenda for change, pension changes, NMC costs, a lack of full time positions, no to little pay rises, mean I earn less now than I did 15 years ago

@RhinoskinhaveI

I would also be interested to know what you see as being the chief causes of mental health problems?

Primarily trauma (inclusive of neglect) particularly in childhood.

@AgeLikeWine

How do you deal with people who are so dangerously violent that they cannot safely be approached?

We'll try to keep a team of people around them (perhaps up to 4 staff), so that if they make any attempts to assault then intervention is fast and co ordinated. If even this is too dangerous, then seclusion

I think that the Human Rights act, giving everyone autonomy, is a good thing. But it means you cannot just dope aggressive patients as in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Then someone has to pay for all the extra staff reqd.
Fascinating that chidhoid trauma is a major cause. There is much more intervention than in the past eg 50 yrs ago, but numbers aren't falling. Perhaps more self confidence building and less pressure to succeed in schools might help.

'Man hands on misery to man it deepens like a coastal shelf'
people who were traumatised by their own upbringings are now traumatising their own children

To the PP studying to be a MH nurse and on placements “ I just don't understand why you go into a career if it's not what you want to do” Perhaps many of those people you’re judging were like you, before their experiences at work. Understandable that it’s hard for you to read about and witness people who’re “jaded” and sometimes negative, when you’re studying for that job. But your post seems naive.

My dream job post woman 😂 even in the rain as I would only have brief interactions with people and get to meet lots of dogs and be home by 2.30.

@Schmoozer I totally get where your coming from and I have spoken to nurses who say the exact same as yourself. It seems a common theme within the NHS where staff are far stretched. There is a lack of placements for patients who have been in hospital wards for years with just no place for them to go I.e lower secure, grade 5 areas.

To the poster above I am no way naive @Loopytiles. I worked in challenging behaviour for 10 years before doing the course. Maybe I should have worded my post better. But you see a lot of nurses who are only there for the money.

How do you offload from the stress of the day, bearing in mind you confidentiality restricts you so much?

Have you ever found someone after they have taken their own life?

I read a case of a young girl in a psychiatric unit who was on suicide watch (not sure if that is the proper term) and she was only allowed a paper robe to wear. She reported that she had her period but as she wasn't allowed pants it literally just dripped down her legs. As someone with very heavy periods the thought of this terrified me, is this something that happens?

Hello Meadow90.

Thank you for the work you and your colleagues do. I'm sorry but not surprised to hear that you've just about had enough. I hope you find a different type of work before too long.

My question is about anti-social personality disorder / sociopathy / psychopathy. Laypeople like me are always being told that a percentage of the population - 1%? - has this condition. And that while some come to the attention of health professionals or the criminal justice system, the great majority don't. Although the incidence of the disorder seems low, it's actually not. One in a hundred means we must all know, or work with, someone who's wired so differently and is potentially very bad news.

My question is, have you developed a 'sixth sense' about such people, and can you pick up on cues that most of us wouldn't notice? So while I'd be none the wiser or even thinking how great they were, you'd be thinking " Woah - need to be careful with this one / avoid"?I

Thank you.

@Meadow90 yes I think I would still be nursing. Obviously I don’t enjoy every day but I can’t imagine doing anything else.