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I'm in two minds about posting this but hey it's part of the inpatient lifestyle in general and not just about my patients.
There are a lot of similarities between where I work and a prison this includes restrictions of items, leave and general movement within the building as well as the number of doors that need unlocking and locking behind us.
Some of the biggest problems are bartering, exchanging, bullying and general exploitation of the vulnerable.
We discourage exchanges of property and bartering simply because there is always one vulnerable party that gets the raw end of the deal and it can always cause fights when one changes their mind and decides they want something back or claims it was stolen.
Tonight I was called to the smoking room to look at something, the something was a small plastic cup with 24p inside and a sticker on the outside saying 'tips for ****', I was then told how that person was also trying to sell sandwiches and a drink making service for a fee, and the money in the cup was from a vulnerable patient who was bullied into giving it.
Obviously you can not babysit them all the time so how do you prevent them from being exploited in such ways? Tonight was strange as I know the patient who came to get me to look was not coming off her own back and had been sent, also the one who had sent her was only pissed because it's her job to exploit and she didn't like having her toes stepped on.
So now we also run into a 'turf war' yet more fights where we end up having to defuse the situation at the risk of being attacked ourselves.
The above example of is the norm in this sort of situation, there is little we can do to stop it happening other than being observant and hoping they come to us if they need to. With the seriously vulnerable we do keep their money in the safe or their tobacco in the office to prevent it all being taken by the others.
Believe it or not this is part of what caused a major investigation into the running of one of one of the UK's special hospitals.
There are a lot of similarities between where I work and a prison this includes restrictions of items, leave and general movement within the building as well as the number of doors that need unlocking and locking behind us.
Some of the biggest problems are bartering, exchanging, bullying and general exploitation of the vulnerable.
We discourage exchanges of property and bartering simply because there is always one vulnerable party that gets the raw end of the deal and it can always cause fights when one changes their mind and decides they want something back or claims it was stolen.
Tonight I was called to the smoking room to look at something, the something was a small plastic cup with 24p inside and a sticker on the outside saying 'tips for ****', I was then told how that person was also trying to sell sandwiches and a drink making service for a fee, and the money in the cup was from a vulnerable patient who was bullied into giving it.
Obviously you can not babysit them all the time so how do you prevent them from being exploited in such ways? Tonight was strange as I know the patient who came to get me to look was not coming off her own back and had been sent, also the one who had sent her was only pissed because it's her job to exploit and she didn't like having her toes stepped on.
So now we also run into a 'turf war' yet more fights where we end up having to defuse the situation at the risk of being attacked ourselves.
The above example of is the norm in this sort of situation, there is little we can do to stop it happening other than being observant and hoping they come to us if they need to. With the seriously vulnerable we do keep their money in the safe or their tobacco in the office to prevent it all being taken by the others.
Believe it or not this is part of what caused a major investigation into the running of one of one of the UK's special hospitals.
1 comments:
my ex is a sheriff and he would tell me stories of the goings on in the jail...in the vans....in the courts...it was crazy.....I remember when I did my psych rotation for nursing....it was the hardest part of my nurses training...I just wasn't cut out to deal with those kind of dynamics....my brother is a pysch nurse and now a case manager for one of the worst areas of Vancouver...again the dynamics are incredible...I admire you for doing the kind of nursing you do....I guess that is why there is all kinds of nursing...and nurses to do what needs to be done.
Thank you for dropping by my blog...
Happy MOnday!
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