Clinical Reflection Essay

I personally think I had a great experience at Seven Hills Hospital during my psychiatric clinical rotation. During the rotation, I got to experience different units of the psychiatric hospital and experience many different cases of mental health. In the adolescent unit, it was very surprising to find out that most of the children that were admitted there came from broken homes. It really hit me hard hearing some of their stories about how they were beaten or their parents were not around at all. It is sad because those kids really do not get much of a choice on the environment that they grow up in. It was also interesting how the staff deals with the children such as communication techniques and how it was a very structured day for them. For
the kids, it imitated a school environment, which was very useful. In the detoxification unit the experience was great especially since I will deal with those types of patients if I get a job in the Emergency Department. I ended up talking to patients that are detoxing from alcohol and drug addictions and learn what they are going through. It was also a great experience learning the different drugs they use for detoxing from the addictions.
The most common I saw was alcohol withdrawal, Benzodiazepines was the treatment of choice, such as Ativan and Valium, which is evidence based. (Drug & Therapy Perspectives, 2014) In the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, I had the chance to experience many different mental health disorders, such as Bipolar, Major Depressive Disorder, and Schizophrenia. It was a great experience talking to the patients in this unit, listening to their stories, and understand their way of thinking. I experienced patients that were having delusions for example there was a female who thought she had 12 children born on the same day and she became pregnant again by never having sexual intercourse with a male. I ended up learning the different medications patients take for different disorders, which was very educational. In the outpatient unit, I ended up attending and participating in group therapy for individuals with addictions. It was very eye opening to listen to the patient’s stories and how their addictions have ruined many parts of their lives. For example, a patient was an alcoholic that got caught for a DUI, loss his job, his family will not speak to him, and he is in a financial hardship because of this
addiction. It was very interesting hearing how all these patients just want to break free from this addiction but it is a struggle everyday and it is hard to end it. I personally believe the most valuable things I learned or improved on during my clinical experience is my communication skills and learning all the different drugs used for mental health disorders. My therapeutic communication skills from day 1 of clinical to the last day has improved significantly and I feel a lot more confident communicating with patients that suffer from mental health problems. The nursing staff really showed they cared about the patients and withheld the standards of the joint commission National Patient safety goals. Overall, I had a great experience and Seven Hills Hospital is a wonderful facility to provide the care needed to a mental health patient.
My comfort level has improved greatly since starting the clinical rotation at Seven Hills Hospital. My first clinical day I was very hesitant talking to the patients especially since it was a new environment and not knowing what the patients are capable of. Now I feel really comfortable in this setting mainly because the more I talked to patients, the more I realized they are just like me but with a problem they are going through at this moment. The biggest thing that helped improve my comfort level was using the therapeutic technique of active listening. Most of the patients that I came into contact with just wanted somebody to listen to their story and it helped build a therapeutic relationship.