First Real Day of Work!

After a sleepless night we were up bright and early on Friday morning for our first day at the OI Clinic.  Despite our beaming scrubbed faces the Matron declined our services for the day because they were doing bookings and our time would be better spent on another day.  Feeling slightly deflated we wandered over to Casualty to offer our help.  A somewhat unsmiling Sister also decided that she could also do without us.  Fast running out of places to go we went over to Annexe to see if they would have us.  Matron was very pleased to see us and talked us through the running of his department with vigor and enthusiasm that was infectious!  But by 9:30 we were yet to clap eyes on a patient so we were very excited when we left for the unit.
We were somewhat unprepared for what awaited us on Ward 12.  The unit is a secure unit catering for 36 patients though we were told that this quota was frequently exceeded due to lack of space.  The unit also mixed all of the patients admitted (juveniles, females/males, those in criminal custody, those dealing with addiction etc) which the Matron admitted was not conducive to the treatment and rehabilitation of the patients but it was an issue that he was working hard to rectify.
Immediately upon entering the unit we were amongst the patients who seemed to find us very interesting!  The nurses station was behind metal grates and we were encouraged to enter the garden and meet with the patients.  We both found this somewhat intimidating as even with our limited mental health experience it was clear to us that the majority of the patients were disturbed in some way or another.  Patients came up to talk to us and ask us questions.  We found a lot of the patients to have little awareness of our personal space and much interest in our badges and pens and had no problems with touching us without warning and for want of a better word we felt 'snuck up' on several times by several patients.  On the whole we were a little intimidated and stuck together like glue!
We saw 2 concrete cells with mattresses on the floor where violent patients were contained 'for their safety and that of others.'  There was a small hole was in the centre of the door for observation purposes.  In the 3rd cell a lady was frequently beat on the door screaming which did not serve to quell our nerves.
Student nurses seemed to do the majority of the patient interaction.  15 minute observations were carried out on patients at risk of suicide.
The patients were a little bit unhappy that we had not brought oranges and apples so we will certainly be bearing fruit on our next visit.