That second practicum day marked a new milestone to my career as a psychiatric nursing student. I was wearing the same scrubs I use at work, a pair of new shoes, a little notebook and a pen in my pocket. I realized for a moment upon entering the nurses’ station for change-of-shift report that I now see things from a different perspective---the perspective of a would-be nurse.
I have been working as an aide for a while. I have sat at many reports but I saw my role as being just an audience to the nurses who primarily discuss the care given. I felt more like an outsider in the very care I was providing to the clients. But now, my task is no longer limited to attending to the clients’ basic personal needs. Instead of doing the care like a mundane everyday routine for the clients, I begin to realize that every step of the care I give has a health reason.
Furthermore on that second day on the unit, I met three male psychiatric aides, also directing the staff, was a male nurse in his 50s. At work and even in class, it had always been female-dominated until then. This gave me somewhat, a sense of pride and belongingness. Alas, I thought, a niche for men in this female-dominated field in healthcare!
As I already have experience in providing personal care, the first part of the day went by smoothly. The only bottleneck in between residents’ care was the low supply on towels to wash the residents. Several residents had to wait because others were using the mechanical lifts. I took these as normal occurrences as not only once did they happen at the facility I work at.
Being on the unit, even for a day and-a-half, has made me see a different side of nurses. That nurses who deliver bedside care still do exist, as evidenced by the nurses on the unit providing total care. My exposure at work, where nurses are bound to their medcarts and do limited bedside care had somewhat blinded me. As what one of the nurses on the unit told me, bedside care is the only way nurses could truly assess, plan, implement and evaluate the care they are providing. I could only agree.
