Warren Hospital School of Nursing - Lamp Yearbook (Warren, PA)

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Twenty one that a certain patient do some regular floor polishing. She was restless and agitated and I felt that regular exercise might have a very beneficial effect. I assumed that the nurse would explain the situation to the patient. She saved time by issuing an order to the patient and neglecting an explanation. Her intentions were good, but a few minutes of tactful explanation on her part would have saved ruining in a moment the progress which had been made in weeks. 6. How do you react to patient's antagonism? Do you sink to the level of a disturbed patient and react with a childish emotional response? Do you lose your temper and plan to get even ? Or, better, are you able to ignore slurs, and petty annoyances? Or, best of all, do you make an attempt to learn the reason for the patient's antagonism and take steps to modify it if possible? One common cause of resentment toward the hospital and all connected with it may illustrate this. Many patients are brought to the hospital by relatives who have misrepresented the situation. How do you face the antagonism thus engendered? Do you ignore or avoid the subject? Do you plead the innocence of the hospital and yourself? Or are you able to discuss the situation and help the patient retionalize it? Do you call to his attention his relatives' distress, their anxiety to hasten his recovery, their unfamilarity with such problems, and their desire to arrange hospitalization as speedily as possible? Do you try to explain that although the deceit was not advisable in our eyes that it was carried out by those who were most anxious to protect his interests, and done with the best of intentions? 7. Will your interest in your medical studies end with your State Board examina- tions? Suppose the doctor on your ward has left an Rx for an encephalitic patient to receive Tr. Stramonium. You know that the dosage varies according to the patient's susceptibility. Do yon have to be asked to watch his reaction to it or are you interested in observing? Is the dose insufficient to modify the tremor and rigidity or is it too great? ls there dilatation of the pupils, dry mouth and tachycardia? Do you observe such things and report them? Are you eager to progress? Do you read medical and nursing literature? Do you discuss your ward problems with other nurses? Do you know of improvements on other wards? Do you avail yourself of opportunities to see interesting medical cases? Do you derive pleasure from seeing a patient improve and enjoy the part you have played in his recovery? Do you realize that each patient you help broadens your understanding of psychiatry and increases your mental stature? 8. What is your conception of psychiatric nursing? Do you realize that it is the most difiicult branch of nursing to adequately master? Others, such as surgical nursing are perhaps more glamorous but require manual dexterity and robot-like train- ing rather than the intellectual ability to meet ever-changing situations or understand personalities. Have you the patience and foresight to continue working with a patient month after month with perhaps but little improvement to reward your effort? Gen- eral medical and surgical nursing require less perseverance. Recovery from appendicitis or pnuemonia is a matter or days or weeks. Recovery from a psychosis is at best a matter of months. So much for the examination. Grade yourself carefully during the coming months. Will you go forward or backward? It is difficult to stand still. And even if you could, remember the maxim, The only thing deeper than a rut is a grave. What does lhis June mean to you? Graduation or Commencement?

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7, ,, , Twenty Graduation or Commencement? S a group who are approaching the climax of three long years of intensive training, you are no doubt jubilant that your examinatfons are over. However, l purpose to give you one last formal examination. This is to be conducted on the honor system. You may grade your own papers. i To-morrow you will receive your diplomas. XVhat will the event signify? You may think of it as either the end of your period of formal study or as the beginning of your career. VVhich is it to you - the end or the beginning, graduation or commence- ment? You must answer the question for yourself. Here is your examination: l. How does your ward look? The appearance of your ward bears the same relation to your work that your mode of dress does to you. An individual who is sloyenly in one respect is usually sloyenly in all. 2. VVhat do you do when you complete your routine ward work? Do you fold your hands and sit idly in a chair? Does this week mean to you a housekeeper's grad- uation or a nursels commencement? 3. How do your patients spend their time on the wards? Do they sit in rows along the wall? Uo you know what this means? Do your realize that psychotherapy means re-education, re-socialization and finding new interests? VVhat is your attitude toward the patient who causes you no trouble ? Apathy means inversion and regres- sion. He is not standing still. He is slipping backward. When in doubt do you ask for advice? How do you regard physicians and supervisors? Are they persons from whom you conceal your inadequacies or do they mean to you some one who may be a source of helpful suggestions? 4. Do you take a personal interest in your patients? Do you know each one's likes and dislikes? Are you as considerate as possible of such? Do you show the same courtesy to your patients as would be essential in private duty nursing in which your position more obviously depends on the patientys reaction to you? Nursing is essentially a personal relationship. This is especially true in the nursing care of mental patients. You can sell nails without any personal feeling in the matter, but you cannot help a patient recover from a psychosis without displaying a personal interest and sympathetic understanding. 5. How do your patients like you? Do they confide in you? Do they bring their big and little troubles to you? Do they share their pleasures with you? Do they tell you the news from home and that the baby has sprouted a new tooth? If not, why not? Or do they merely complain to you? Or still worse, are they actively antagoinistic toward you? And again why? Do you always try to be tactful? Do you request and suggest or do you invariably order? Do you appreciate the difference between laughing at and laughing with individuals? How do you carry out a doctor's orders? Is a pack to you a method of treatment or a threat? Some time ago I requested

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