Here is part two of my Christmas message. I have very little time in which to write it so it may be a bit briefer than the earlier one.
August
Z continued the debate on the respectability of nursing as a university subject.
So, I think we could do with raising our own self-esteem as a profession. That just-qualified Nursey, as he/she drives home from the new 20k job with all the generous NHS pension, annual leave and sick leave benefits, shouldn’t feel so inferior to the “proper” university graduates out there. If Nursey stops off at Starbucks on the way home, it may well be one of those graduates serving the coffee.
Potentially a different answer could be had if we asked is Mental health Nursing a second rate university subject?
Bloo shared her experiences as a nursing student on placement and gave sound advice.
It can be hard going walking into a ward for report when you are full of enthusiasm (even at 7am) to be met with tired and miserable faces stating the latest patient that presents as a challenge is another personality disorder. This has been covered before, and I’m sure it will be again, so I won’t go into that here. Basically, the nurse is doing exactly what they aren’t meant to…. being judgemental and negative about the people they are there to help. Don’t learn their attitudes, you have plenty of time for that after qualifying (:-p)
August was also the month that Cellar Door joined us.
I’m a mental health nursing student coming to the end of my first year, and at some point in the distant past I somehow achieved a degree in psychology. I also work on a forensic unit as and when they phone and make me. I do have another blog, which I am going to use this site to shamelessly promote (it’s here).
What do you think the odds are that she will put ‘writing for Mental Nurse’ on her CV when applying for a job?
She followed up quickly by starting off another Ted debate by talking about learning injection technique.
Being a bit of a swot (in the irritating definition, not the strengths/weaknesses analysis twaddle) I had researched my technique, and considered the dorso versus ventrogluteal sites. Of course, when it came to it, I stuck it where my mentor told me to, given that she had never heard of the ventro site and was unlikely to allow her student to just take a (well intentioned) punt at it.
Here is one of my favourite Ted comments.
As is plainly obvious , all psychiatry today is coercive, actually or potentially. It seems I am not the only person to find mental health professionals who profess to be attentive to wishes of their patients to be in bad taste. In this regard, psychiatry before the late 20th century was much more respectable — “you’re having this injection because it is good for us/you”, etc.
Mr Ian started trying to make us do book learning with his first Case Study Vignette. Then Z shared his thoughts on anger management.
Anger management is something that the CMHTs seem keen to give a wide berth (at least round where I live), but with child and adolescent mental health services it’s offered quite commonly. The following vignette is a semi-fictional amalgam of several cases.
September
Another Ted debate came a calling with another Vignette by Mr Ian. the duty and boundaries of care
Jodie is a 19 year old female who is voluntarily admitted to the acute mental health unit following a suicide attempt whilst under the influence of alcohol. This is her first presentation to the service and you spend some time to get to know her the following day.
The comments and the issues raised are quick thought provoking. At least until Ted wades in.
Another lovers tiff was kicked off between Beakie and Mr Ian with You can stuff your risk assessment
In fact – isn’t it about time that the justice services picked up the supervision and monitoring role of managing “mentally ill” offenders in the community and stop this prejudicial treatment of the staff charged with their care? Mental health professionals are not trained to do anything that impedes the patient’s progress; we are by definition trained to do the opposite.
The major major debate was yet another how can we wind up Ted post my Z. Anorexia and coercive psychiatry
So, Ted, this is from me, a jackbooted representative of evil psychiatric totalitarian bastardry, to you, brave standard-bearer of freedom and liberty.
And the subject of this post is: eating disorders.
To round off September I just want to mention this post from July is getting a stunning amount of Google traffic.
The Nursing profession dies Laughing
Small groups of volunteers have been venturing into the nations hospitals since midnight only to find the nursing accommodation full of dead nurses gathered around copies of “Helping the NHS to reach its full potential”. By dawn RAF helicopters were flying over deserted hospitals but it is feared that the entire profession may have suffered a catastrophic abdominal rupture.
October
Personally I quite enjoyed the idea of being paid to take my meds. Sadly they do not seem to be offering enough to make it tempting to me.
In the two part study, they examined attitudes towards financial incentives displayed by assertive outreach (AO) team managers, and also offered five previously non-compliant AO patients a payment of £5-15 per single depot injection.
Mr Ian asked us Who Needs A Consultant.
So, and remembering I haven’t been UK for a few years now – this is my question -
Why is it still up to the likes of The Shrink to demonstrate to people that holding hands and not getting in their face can calm people?
Where are the Nurse Consultants in your area and what are they doing?
Mr Ian stirred more debate with his post on Paternal Post natal Depression. Asking was this yet another designer disorder?
November
Well. The highlight of this month was the big stramash. Welcome to the post that is the Brutish Nazi Party.
Which is where the question/point comes in. Should nurses, like the police, be formally banned from joining the BNP? I would argue that membership of a racist organisation automatically impairs your ability to meet your NMC Code of Conduct obligations not to “discriminate in any way against those in your care”. Others might argue that it is perfectly possible to separate your political beliefs from your professional behaviour and to carry out your duties as expected when you’re at work, while continuing to post dog shit through Asian families’ letterboxes on your days off.
The comment thread showed the Mental Nurse community both at it’s best and worst. Read the comments and admire us in all our glory.
Thankfully near the end of November E came back to the Mental Nurse party in the comment section for The Productive Ward (A Post for E’s Benefit).
I must confess I don’t know much about the Productive Ward programme, other than that Ducky Crippen got all hot and bothered about it a while back, and E seems rather excited by it now. Apparently it’s the epitome of all that’s wrong with nursing.
Skipping ahead like a happy little lamb we get to December.
We got a mention on Radio 4′s All In The Mind. That was it, just a mention in passing. Long gone are the days of getting a print story in the Graundiadndand.
A Tale of Two Erins by Z got a fair amount of discussion.
Over on Nurses Universe (the Nursing Times’ group blog), there’s a bit of a hoohah going on about this blog post by Erin Docherty. She’s a student nurse who, although deeply committed to nursing, has had to drop out for 7 months in order to restart the semester, because she’s failed an essay. This has caused an almighty row over at NHS Blog Doctor about whether or not this is a fair way to treat a student nurse.
We had yet another entertaining post about Personality Disorder with Traits – All of the Stigma! None of the Diagnosis!
Over on Marine Snow’s blog, she’s been informed by her psychiatrist that she has “borderline personality traits”. Her reaction is probably not what the doctor anticipated.
I did have a guilty pleasure over this post and E’s comment.
Bringing our year to a triumphant finish with our first TWIM awards.
I’ve been doing This Week in Mentalists, our weekly round-up of mental health blogging, for just over a year now. For that reason, I think it’s now time to do an Actual Proper Award Ceremony, with Actual Proper Awards and stuff.
Which brings us to the end of another wonderful year of Mental Nurse fun. Sadly just a few days ago the forums finally died, I will try to get them fixed or replaced.
As always we would love to have new members of the Mental Nurse team. Make yourself known get involved in the discussions send Z an email. Guest posts always welcome. Regular posters must be nurses of some kind 
Thank you all for making Mental Nurse what it is. Have a brilliant new year.
Mental Nurse
just like to say thanks for an informative and thought provoking year. hoping that there will be as much to come in 2009! I am just finished first semester of my final year and revving to get into the field, there has too much to mention specificaly for fav bits but general round of applause to all. ( scenarios have been dead handy for playing devils advocate in pbl sessions! but get funny looks off tutor some times, could they be a lurker too??)
All ra best for 2009,
kit
Happy New Year to all of you.
The Cockroach Catcher