Most of what we see about mental illness is enough to give the nerves a
stern rattling. Movies like Psycho certainly make you think twice about becoming
deeply involved in mental health, let alone staying in a motor inn.
But this is the world of fiction. In fact, rarely are those with mental
illnesses violent. Usually, they prefer to keep to themselves, says a spokesperson
for the American Psychiatric Association.
Maybe Jack Nicholson's character in As Good As It Gets paints a more realistic
picture. His character suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although
the movie made us laugh, these illnesses are not funny. What all psychiatric
nurses have learned from their profession is that no one is immune from a
snap in the mental faculties.
Karen McSwain is a psychiatric nurse. She fondly remembers a man who had
"a psychotic disorder that slapped him down to the ground over and over.
"He had the kindest eyes I have ever seen in a man and a smile that always
came from his heart," McSwain says. She remembers his frequent visits to the
psychiatric ward.
"He'd come to the hospital terribly deteriorated, sometimes emaciated,
his thinking too locked up to even communicate. But he always smiled at me
warmly as if to reassure me I was doing a good job."
Not only did he give McSwain jewelry he designed from broken
McDonald's coffee spoons, but he opened her eyes to something deeper.
"One day he showed me a picture of himself at 23. He was leaning proudly
against the side of a car he was restoring. His girlfriend stood beside him
in the bright sunlight. And I realized he'd lived a life just like mine before
he became ill," she says.
This is one of the great awakenings in the psychiatric nursing profession.
"Your problems seem small and insignificant compared to theirs [the patients'],"
says RPN Rudy Young.
Psychiatric nurses need to bring a dose of compassion to their wards each
day and understand that illnesses can strike anyone down.
But while compassion is essential, there is a delicate balance. Psychiatric
nurses also need to avoid becoming sympathetic toward the patients. Mary Ann
Richoux, a psychiatric nurse, says this is a very important lesson. "The hardest
part of the profession is to remain empathetic. If you are sympathetic, you
are of no use to your patient." This is because feelings of sympathy are not
objective and can color the whole treatment.
McSwain agrees that she had to learn how to care honestly about people
at work and then go home each night and not think about them.
"This seemed like a paradox to me. Somewhere along the lines, I worked
it out -- the relationships I develop with patients are sincere, but they
are within the boundaries of the professional relationship. This doesn't mean
I care less about them," McSwain explains.
We all live life with certain beliefs and prejudices, but a psychiatric
nurse must not bring these thoughts to their job. The wise words of Young
are these: be aware of yourself.
He describes self-awareness as an often overlooked, yet necessary skill.
"Awareness includes your own thoughts, feelings, biases, preferences and sense
of morality -- [these] can greatly affect the kind of care you provide.
"Being aware of yourself means that you can set your thoughts, feelings,
biases aside and provide the kind of care the client is in need of, not the
kind of care you think the client is in need of," says Young.
Another danger is known as transference, says Richoux. To explain, she
reveals her background as a child of an alcoholic. Every person has emotional
baggage and hidden childhood experiences. You must make sure you are not tainting
the treatment with your emotions and experiences.
Because of the dazzling emotions on display at all times, psychiatric nursing
is not an easy job, but it is rewarding. It is one of the few specialties
that allows large input from the nurses.
Psychiatric nurses hold group therapy sessions with patients, much like
a psychiatrist or psychotherapist. All agree that they become closer with
the patients and the patients' families than the attending physician.
Young says the psychiatric nurses are there to listen more often than doctors.
"In psychiatry, nurses are an important part of the team. We work alongside
social workers, psychiatrists [and] sometimes occupational therapists," says
Richoux.
Bob Davis explains psychiatric nursing as "the best of both worlds. Social
work or psychology plus nursing equals psych nursing."
Davis is an independent psychiatric nurse who primarily treats those with
gambling addictions. He is an example of what experience and education in
the field can do -- anything you want it to.
"Psychiatric nursing is full of unsung heroes," Davis says. "I am a little
older and more appreciative of the gifts each nurse brings to his or her work.
There are a lot of gifted people working as psychiatric nurses; we just need
more of them," he says.
So if you are keenly interested in how the mind works and helping people,
and you can throw all stereotypes out the window, you may be what the world
of mental health is looking for.
McSwain remembers that when she was younger, she wanted to understand why
people behaved the way they did and how the mind works. Later in life, she
found happiness in the most unlikely place.
"From the time I drove through the front gates onto the grounds of Selkirk
Mental Health Center, I was hooked. Here was a world where reality was in
sharp focus."
Young sums up. "I have learned quite quickly that mental illness is serious,
can affect anyone -- and I mean absolutely anyone -- and that mental illness
is nothing to be fearful of. It has also taught me not to pass judgment on
others, to accept people for who, what and why they are."