If you are wanting a optimistic and fluffy story please move along to this site, or this one. They are very very fluffy.
This involves a young man called Paul, who was in a psychiatric hospital for the first time ever.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2005.
This happened when I was a student on my first acute admission ward. It was very educational and taught me a lot about how the mental health services are seen by people.
“What should I do next ?”
The question came up while trying to convince my partner that the Muppet Show had hidden depths, it does. Trying to make me stop talking about Muppets the issue of Mental Nurse was raised. I asked the above question.
“Do something serious”
Was the suggestion. I was shocked. Serious ? More serious than the cynic’s guide to job adverts or the psychiatric hotline.
“Write about something that affected you deeply.”
This did not sound good.
“You mean ..?”
I said.
“Yes.”
So here it is. A brief snippet of my worst shift ever and a little about the effect nursing had on me. I strongly suggest you don’t read it.
Thank you very much to everyone for their messages of support for the site. It was very lovely, I almost had a tear in my eye.
Site traffic which shot up following the newspaper article has almost fallen back to normal. The nursing standard article barely caused a blip. Using the word porn in an article title caused a rise in traffic. Mostly searching for “uk porn blog” ! If you are one of these perverts may I point out that I am slightly less attractive than Jo Brand. The sight of my nude body has been known to cause Post Traumatic Stress.
The dark world of blogs
You just know this is not going to be good.
The dark humour contained in the expanding number of on-line diaries - or ‘blogs’ - written by nurses has received a mixed response from charities and nursing groups.
Hello Mental,The piece should be in on Wednesday. It’s not very big. Good luck with
the website.
This is the email I received from the Nursing Standard telling a small piece about the site will be in this weeks magazine (24 August). Great 
more anonymous fame to annoy my partner with !
Read more if you are new to the site and want a brief introduction.
With apologies to Roy Castle.
To win use the comments and post something better (not too difficult).
Winner will be decided by site readers. Prize will be unique (honest). Closing date will be roughly one month.
I meant my posts, not my thoughts.
On of my favourite blogs. Which I read at least daily. Winston has written an entry on the anti psychiatry movement. I present an extract and encourage you all to read.
The link below does have a rather disturbing image, NSFW.
The Anti-Psychiatry Movement: Liberty, in Reverse
The link above does have a rather disturbing image, NSFW.
I’d always thought that democracy was being abandoned for an orgy of consumerism and war. How wrong I was! According to the APC, it’s actually dying because of the injustices done to a small number of people abused at the hands of psychiatric institutions…
Go on, go read.
I have extensively researched how true the following tale is.
Mental: Is this true ?
Source: mmm.
What more do we need ?
Lois & Clark were in charge of developing a new assessment tool on their busy acute psychiatric ward. This was to be a global admission assessment. This was because the ward was decomputerising and changing over to a new model of nursing.
Nora was their ward manager.
I have read the signs. There is a golden age for mental health approaching.
From the BBC:
Will finance shake-up be NHS Armageddon?
From April next year hospitals will be given money for each patient they treat - the rest of the NHS, including mental health and community care, will follow by 2009.
…
In other words - no patients, no pay.
Do you see ?
As a follow up to the recent newspaper article I was contacted by a chap from the Nursing Standard, sorry I meant to use this link. He seemed very nice.
He was asking questions about the use of non politically correct words such as mad and lunatic. Then there were more questions about the purpose of the site, what did it all mean, did I know other people might be offended.
Then I remembered why MentalNurse is a written blog and not a podcast.
Have received my brand spanking new Agenda for Cheaper Staff job description. It is very funny. Having read it I actually have no idea what I am meant to be doing at work now.
Please could any mental health nurses reading this send a copy of their job descriptions. I will be interested to discover whether they are all this bad.
I have a temporary fax number: 08715 227 042
Feel free to use it or email me copies if possible to the normal address.
Mental
Welcome Observer ( Grauniad ) readers. Looks like this blog was mentioned in some local paper today.
I received the following from a reader of the site. I thought the other reader may like to respond.
Dear Mental
I start my mental health nursing degree in September ’05.
Problem is… I’m a bit worried. I have been offered a place and they have my exam results from college and are more than happy with them, so nothing to worry about there.
It’s the medical that worries me.
Before we go any further I think people may have the wrong idea about this site. It is not meant to encourage people to become mental health nurses. Quite the opposite. I do not need more competition when I next apply for a job 
I digress …
I was intending to do something about the gap between theory and practice. This post here does it so much better, please read. Also this post covers the difference between what is taught and what is done.
Dear students,
just to let you know: we can read your minds.
A mildly depressing day at work.
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- Kittyxxx121 : that sounds too much like hard work. If you have to do the meds round, do they wash a couple of your patients for you?
- TheShrink : *nags Zarathustra for a roundup*
- Crazy_Nurse : AP's are the new version of EN's - paid as a band 4; do everything except meds. Bloody nightmare if theres a lot of them on one shift cos u av 2do all their drugs.
- spongebob5 : my daughter has one of these,don't think she finds him therapeutic though,i'll have to ask her
- TheShrink : What's therpeutic? "Dinosaur, Rrrrr!" I want one. «link»
- DeeDee Ramona : I have ended up finding an entire website about the Donner Party. Note, not the "doner party".
- DeeDee Ramona : ta muchly!
- zarathustra : I have unleashed your comment, DeeDee. No idea why it got stuck in moderation hell, but it's now free
- DeeDee Ramona : A comment of mine is awaiting moderation because it contains URLs. (It's a bunch of information on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, which was mentioned on the anorexia thread). Z, can you free my comment from limbo please? ta
- TheShrink : Oh noes! Zarathustra, but that's a disaster! I've read Global, but I'm institutionalise d and crave TWIM every Saturday morning!
- catriona223 : anyone on line
- zarathustra : Shrink, I won't have time to do This Week in Mentalists until the evening. You may go to bed now. Or just read the Global Mentalists News Round Up instead.
- Kittyxxx121 : In reality EN's used to do the same jobs as junior staff nurses CD, there was no scope for promotion. Before AfC they still used to do meds rounds, ward rounds would even be left in charge of a ward if short staffed. however they only usedto get C grade, bloody disgusting i think. Thankfully that's all gone now.
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