Clinical Reflective Journal

Clinical Reflective Journal

The first day I visited psychiatric ward, I felt nervous and excited because of the psychiatric ward which is totally different from general ward. I sensed that all patients who are walking in the corridor and some of them keep murmuring, and those behaviors I seen are seldom appearing in the general ward. However, after I found that they can communicate with others normally and have no aggressive behavior after approaching the patients.

I learnt we should establish therapeutic relationship in the communication with patients via using non-judgmental, empathetic, active listening and supportive attitude. But I found difficulties in approaching patients who are introverted due to their unconcerned response. However, I think that we should obtain their confidence through persistent contact with them. Besides, I realized that being a psychiatric nurse, the observational skills is very importance, as the emotional or mental condition of psychiatric patient can be fluctuated between day and night. Therefore, nurses can implement corresponding precautions beforehand.
In the private hospital, there are seldom opportunities to perform those skills, but there provide many chances for me to practice the professional skills and of injection and physical restraint. For instance, choosing which type of restrained device should be applied on the patient and related assessment we should made. Moreover, through the guidance of the nurse, I could realize the rationales behind the intervention, weakness in my performance and how to improve it.

After caring of psychiatric patient in these two weeks, it helps clear up my misunderstanding of them and I hope that the nursing care of psychiatric patient can be helpful for them to return the society.