mental health nursing..what sqeamish things do you have to do?

Why are you so argumentative with everything! You need to remember that your experience of mental health does not cover absolutely everything. those that work on an acute ward may not need to be trained in NG tube insertion whereas those that work in eating disorders obviously have a far greater need for it. On our ward there is training for IV rehydration etc but as we are a psych ward we simply do not have the equipment necessary, which is why we turf our patients off to the general medical wards. Similarly, this is why when the general hospital panic when they get unwell people who are floridly psychotic, they borrow a member of staff from our ward, because they are just not equipped to deal with these people. Collaborative working approach and all that - there are things we could do on our ward, but if it can be done better by adult trained nurses in a general hospital, it is in the patient's best interests to send them their to get treatment for their physical health problems. People are too quick to slate MH nurses for what they can't do.

Then how come, at my uni the MH nurses aren't trained in catheterisation ..I mean suppositories, and basic wound dressings are fine, you do that in CFP


EDIT: Just had a thought, is it more taught on placement than in clinical skills sessions..

We were trained in Catherterisation... it was a fun clinical lab session

depends as in MH you don't have the chance to do a lot in clinical skills but again placement you do a lot more.

Hope this helps xx

Hmmm..havn't met any MH nurses with an IV package, and none of my friends are being trained with NG tube insertion, IV fluid management and wound closure management like we are in the adult branch..otherwise we'd have these lectures together. Plus like I said the amount of times im on a ward and we get an admission from the psych ward downstairs, ie a patient in AF, or needing dehydration management..why couldn't they do that on the ward if the nurses were trained in this?

It must just vary uni to uni then, same in the adult branch etc. Ie we get taught ECG and interpretation in 3rd year but in keele it's 2nd lol

That does help, thanks! If i ever need a catheter i know i can ask a mental health nurse too lol

i'd want a nurse who was trained to do it, it doesn't matter the nurse who gets to him first..plus it depends on why the tube is there, the type..It just surprises me that when the mental health nurses qualify from my cohort they can go and do NG tube insertions, wound closures...when looking at their timetable, and the 3rd years, they only have two clinical skills day on BSL and anaphylaxis

Im not arguing that they dont, as i'm sure these things probably come with post-qualification training- but it doesn't seem to be present in pre-reg training

hey im not arguing, its just something new i've learnt, and it just differs to what friends in the MH branch at my uni have told me, hence i'm interested! Im not slating what they do, I couldn't run a therapy session or restrain in a million years- just have learnt something new today

OP -on a general mental health ward to will find that a patient (unually thoes who are depressed but not always) will harm themself as a waY of coping. cutting is a daily occurance on a mental health ward and a mental health nurse will see and have to deal with many cut arteries before the patients bleeds to dealth. dealing with cuts on a mental health wards is also usually harder because the cut is not, usually, an accadent (like in A&E cases) so it is important for a MH nurse to be able to stop the bleeding and dress the wound effectivly on a uncooprative patient.
if you work on a ward many advanced clinical skills will be used daily because dont forget you will be dealing with many people who are on high dose meds that make them ill and there are usually a few detox patients per a ward and because MH paitents have a tendancey to neglect themselves that will offten result in physical illness. just think about all the physical illness you would encounter with a high end depressive with life threatening anorexia (this is a very common patient type). so yes many clinical skills are needed.

On our ward there is training for IV rehydration etc but as we are a psych ward we simply do not have the equipment necessary, which is why we turf our patients off to the general medical wards. Similarly, this is why when the general hospital panic when they get unwell people who are floridly psychotic, they borrow a member of staff from our ward, because they are just not equipped to deal with these people.