I'm an engineer, artist, mom, wife, and registered nurse. I work on an inpatient psych unit and live in the Pacific NW USA with my husband and our menagerie of dog, parrots, cats, and a couple of corn snakes.
Voice Lessons
One of my responsibilities as a psych nurse is patient education. I help my patients learn coping skills, teach them about their medications and how they work, and help them find ways to change the thoughts and attitudes that keep defeating them. It’s not a one-way street, though; my patients teach me, too. They show [...]
Posted: December 28th, 2008 under Deep Thoughts, Nursing, Parallel Universes.
Comments: 1
Vignettes
It’s the end of a 12-hour shift at the geriatric psychiatry unit where I work. I’m standing in the hallway waiting for night shift to come out of report. A very delusional woman is conversing brightly with a very confused gentleman who thinks he’s at the bowling alley (but he can’t find his bowling shoes). [...]
Posted: August 28th, 2007 under Parallel Universes.
Comments: none
Why I Love My Job
One of the things I love most about my job is that you just never know what is going to happen next. It’s never boring! Here’s just one small example of what I mean.
The setting: The geropsych unit where I work, in “Fred’s” room, where he’s just waked up and I’m helping him dress for [...]
Posted: June 25th, 2007 under Nursing, Parallel Universes.
Comments: none
Focus
Back in the early 90s there were these posters and pictures everywhere that looked like a big mess of colored dots or designs, but if you learned to look at them the right way, you could see a three-dimensional image there. It took practice to teach your eyes to focus in this new way. Even [...]
Posted: April 28th, 2006 under Nursing, Parallel Universes.
Comments: none