I am looking forward to be back to school. It was nice having a week off, but to be honest, I love the people I go to school with and I love staying busy and going to clinicals! I'm hoping that the rest of my OB rotation will be eventful! My first two days, nothing happened; which was great for some people, not so great for others, and very unfortunate for me! I wanted to cry. We only get 6 days in our specialty rotations (so six days in OB and six days in mental health) so you have to make the most of the experience. We only get one day in Labor and Delivery and my day two moms gave birth but I didn't get to see either because with one there were way too many people in the room and in the other the midwife didn't want students in the room (pouting face). So I'm hoping to convince my instructor to send me to labor and delivery again!! We'll see though. If nothing else I'll get lots of practice giving IM injections to mothers and babies!! YAY!
Today I while I was at work, things were a little slow so I had time to think. I started to think about my mental health rotation. There's a lot of negative feelings, emotions, and thoughts about going into mental health. I think the hardest part is just talking to people. Our society is one that we try to avoid personal contact as much as possible. Not only do we avoid personal contact, we also avoid conversation with one another. Honestly, who likes to talk about "feelings"? No one really does...it's something we avoid, and even run away from at times!
I also think that mental health in general still has a stigma attached to it. I was talking to my older sister about it and she was telling me about having heard this example be given...'If you have a cavity of course you're going to go to the dentist to get it taken care of. No one thinks twice about that. If you're bleeding from somewhere or something that shouldn't be bleeding you're going to go to the ER to get it checked out. If you're just not feeling great you're going to schedule an appointment to get a check up with your doctor. If you have just been diagnosed with diabetes you're going to schedule a follow-up appointment'. All of the examples I've just given you no one would think twice about asking "why" they are taking care of those needs. So why then, is there still a stigma to mental health? Why then is it looked down on for someone who has to be hospitalized because they have bipolar disorder and right now they're thinking about killing themselves. Why is it looked down on someone going through a manic episode to have to go to the hospital?
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about this rotation. But what intimidates me more than the people is the way we're supposed to talk to these people. We're trained to have open-ended conversations with our patients. So instead of saying "Why are you here today?" we are told to say "What brings you here?". It's the talking and listening that I think is so difficult for everyone with this rotation. We have to offer ourselves to these individuals. We have to put ourselves out there and be willing to spend time with our patients and hear what they have to say. We have to care. We have to drop our guards and go out of our comfort zone and we have to listen to what this person who is experiencing physical, emotional, and spiritual pain.
While I was pondering all of this a quote came to mind. I want to leave you all with it to ponder as well. I don't know who said it or where I've heard it but it's something like, "You know my name, not my story. You've heard what I've done, not what I've been through".
P.S. this week marks the 10th week of the semester. That means only five weeks left of level three!!! HOLY SMOKES!!!
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