A peaceful 12.5 hours

What a blissful shift I had last night. Got a very last minute job call from the nurse bank. It was a specialed care session, 1-to-1 to a patient in the plastic/max-fac ward. I have done several specialed care shifts in the past and they were all differently interesting. Some were demanding, some were relaxing. Thought I should get to know about the shift/patient better before starting, I rang up the ward. This patient Mr. H suffers from schizophrenia and had history of self harming, the most recent episode was few days ago in A&E in another hospital - lacerated his wrist. So basically, I am summoned to sit in with him to make sure he does nothing silly throughout the night. Great, 12.5hours with a psychiatric patient!

After getting myself mentally (yea it takes a bit to deal with psychiatric patients, i've learned that during my psyc block) and physically (just in case I need to fight, or run lol)prepared, I headed off to the hospital with much anticipation, and excitement.

Mr. H, to my surprise was pretty sober and normal. A quick glance around his room, most potentially harmful items have been removed from the room e.g.: wires, tubes, syringes, sharpes etc, anything that he could use to harm himself. I grabbed a comfortable chair and sit near to the entrace, for source of light from the corridor to read when the lights were out, and to call for help just in case he got agitated beyond control.

Guess what, after offering him a drink at around 10pm, he went to sleep. He woke up a few times throughout the night, but went back to sleep uneventfully every time. Slightly disappointed, wasn't too happening and fun as I expected after all. Well, I went all prepared, so I dug out my book and started reading. Chronicles of Wind-up Bird. Perfect match I thought. A bizarre novel for a bizarre setting! Accompanied by a few cups of coffees, I went through nearly a third of the book, with a 2 hours break in between which I managed a short nap.

Tick tock tick tock, finally clock hits 8am. I bid goodbye to Mr. H and the staff. There goes a wonderful and peaceful night! Let's hope there will be more such shifts in the future. I don't really mind to be paid for 12.5hrs to chill and read, perhaps I should bring my laptop and some DVDs next time ;)

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