#psychtech-futurern

Grey walls, heavy chairs

One by one, all our cares

Slip away like fading dew

Overworked and overused

Poor patients, they just come to heal

Some just need a bed and meal

Some expect a ritzy stay

No more extras, not today.

What was once shiny and new

Has faded just like me and you

A brand new unit, one month in

It’s the same story over again

Short on blankets, short on time

Management’s not worth a dime

“Why hire more workers,

You could just work harder!”

Not a matter of work,

It’s a matter of care.

Some patients have to be 1:1

Because of SI or HI or wanting a gun

We just don’t have enough staff to go round

I’m afraid someone will end up

she gets here and is soaking wet; her urine stinks of E. coli. She keeps screaming profanities and is unresponsive to our attempts to calm her.

I’m pretty sure she has a UTI.

Treating psych patients as invalid, and as less than ourselves. I’m guilty of it because when I came into the job, I fell into that just as easily as anyone else. It starts small- not believing what patients say, not allowing them to have their clothes just because they’re being really rude, stuff like that. And while that isn’t considered abuse, it’s a gateway mentality that leads to worse things.

Like not speaking up when a coworker holds a patient down to dress her just because she doesn’t have the patience to talk the patient through it.

I’ve seen things that were questionable- a nurse making gay jokes about a patient in report, a coworker talking in front of the patient about the patient. It’s these kinds of things that lead to worse forms of abuse- physical and verbal abuse.

One of my least favorite nurses said something very true: “the only difference between a psych patient and the staff is that we have the keys”.

Are the ones that make you remember why you love what you do

The ones who make you smile and laugh and cry with delight

The ones who make you think "that's what I want to be like when I get to be their age"

The ones who curse, abuse, and lash out at you

The ones who make you hate your shift, your career, your life

The ones who shake you, make you question yourself and your choices.

Because all of them, no matter whether they know it or not, are there because they need you and it is your task, your role, your duty to overcome whatever stress and heartache you're dealing with to make a positive difference in their life.

Because every patient is a gift from God to make you stronger, make you a better nurse, and a better human being.

Because one day, that patient may be you.

And you may not know who you are, or even what your name is, but you will know the Fear. The terror of the strange and unknown place that a hospital becomes when you're coming in from the outside.

And you will need that Protector, that Friend, that Guide.

And they are angels in the making,

Cold air across my face

Subtle ache in my head;

It’s a marathon, not a race

Four more hours before bed

Watch your patients, watch your back

Management is always there

Waiting to see where we lack

Can’t they see we truly care?

Shh, shh, patient stirring

Quietly I turn a page

Studying, my head is whirling

Just trying to get the grade

Rosy hues peek through the window

A sunrise to another night

One more hour before my pillow

I’ll be out like a light

16 hours is just way too long to be at work... I can’t imagine how the patients must feel. I don’t envy them. I used to, when they were sleeping... I used to think “god that bed looks comfy. What I wouldn’t give.”

No... I’ll wait till I get home, thanks. Only six more hours. Thank god.

Still, I love my job and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.