Electroconvulsive Therapy
The ECT aka Electro Shock, Shock Treatment or Shock Therapy
Why? Because that is done throughout the course of stay at NCMH (mentioned in previous post) depending whether a patient needs it or not. Others go through it to stabilize their behaviour and if no medications are working for the patient or the stocks are limited, ECT is the last resort.
Today, our group experience handling 28 patients who are going to the ECT treatment. It's not a pretty sight, i'm telling you. At first impression, i was excited to be able to see the treatment but when we got inside this room, those 28 patients were all tied up 2-way to separate beds. What's a 2-way? That means, only both wrists are tied excluding the ankles. Three students nurses will each hold down an extremity and a nursing aid will hold the fourth extremity. But in our case, the nursing aid wasn't able to assist us so i ended up holding down one arm and one thigh. So the doctors came, placed this things on the patients' temples and the shock was given...5...4...3...2...1.
The whole body muscles stiffened to it's maximum state.
Eyeballs started to turn white.
Patient goes into grandmal seizure.
Student nurses struggle to keep the patient down.
Patient starts to salivate.
Patient relaxes.
Patient starts to get violent and struggles to escape.
Student nurses try to hold down the patient once more.
Orderly's to the rescue! (they help tie up the ankles)
It may seem nothing when you first read this but when you are there and you see all the patients helpless on their beds, you would just want to walk out. But I didn't want to walk out because it IS part of our exposure. It was a first for us (actually, everything we undergo is always a first) and unlike those people who are there all the time, it's normal for them already.
They are like pigs being killed before sending them off to the markets but the patients don't die in here. And when i asked if the voltage is the same for men and women, our CI said that the voltage for women is higher. And i as like "WTF?!", she explained it was of our hormones and adipose tissues(?). Correct me if i'm wrong. My friend even got teary eyed because she couldn't take the scene.
Psychiatric nursing just really takes our breath and brains away. I you are not mentally healthy, you could become one of them soon.
Anyhow, i have this patient which i am going to make a case study to. His diagnosis is Paranoid Schizophrenia. I asked him what his doctors tell him and says, "may naririnig ka pa bang mga boses?" ("Are you still hearing voices?"), he told the doctor that they stopped. Heh, Auditory Hallucinations. Quite interesting but very complicated.
I really need to start reading about these things or else i have no foundation to start my case study.
>_<#
"is a controversial medical treatment involving the induction of a seizure in aIn other words... i call it the "treatment for no treatments".
patient by passing electricity through the brain. Patients with any of several
conditions often show dramatic short-term improvement after the procedure. While
the majority of psychiatrists believe that properly administered ECT is a safe
and effective treatment for some conditions, a vocal minority of psychiatrists,
former patients, antipsychiatry activists, and others strongly criticize the
procedure as extremely harmful to patients' subsequent mental state."
Why? Because that is done throughout the course of stay at NCMH (mentioned in previous post) depending whether a patient needs it or not. Others go through it to stabilize their behaviour and if no medications are working for the patient or the stocks are limited, ECT is the last resort.
Today, our group experience handling 28 patients who are going to the ECT treatment. It's not a pretty sight, i'm telling you. At first impression, i was excited to be able to see the treatment but when we got inside this room, those 28 patients were all tied up 2-way to separate beds. What's a 2-way? That means, only both wrists are tied excluding the ankles. Three students nurses will each hold down an extremity and a nursing aid will hold the fourth extremity. But in our case, the nursing aid wasn't able to assist us so i ended up holding down one arm and one thigh. So the doctors came, placed this things on the patients' temples and the shock was given...5...4...3...2...1.
The whole body muscles stiffened to it's maximum state.
Eyeballs started to turn white.
Patient goes into grandmal seizure.
Student nurses struggle to keep the patient down.
Patient starts to salivate.
Patient relaxes.
Patient starts to get violent and struggles to escape.
Student nurses try to hold down the patient once more.
Orderly's to the rescue! (they help tie up the ankles)
It may seem nothing when you first read this but when you are there and you see all the patients helpless on their beds, you would just want to walk out. But I didn't want to walk out because it IS part of our exposure. It was a first for us (actually, everything we undergo is always a first) and unlike those people who are there all the time, it's normal for them already.
They are like pigs being killed before sending them off to the markets but the patients don't die in here. And when i asked if the voltage is the same for men and women, our CI said that the voltage for women is higher. And i as like "WTF?!", she explained it was of our hormones and adipose tissues(?). Correct me if i'm wrong. My friend even got teary eyed because she couldn't take the scene.
Psychiatric nursing just really takes our breath and brains away. I you are not mentally healthy, you could become one of them soon.
Anyhow, i have this patient which i am going to make a case study to. His diagnosis is Paranoid Schizophrenia. I asked him what his doctors tell him and says, "may naririnig ka pa bang mga boses?" ("Are you still hearing voices?"), he told the doctor that they stopped. Heh, Auditory Hallucinations. Quite interesting but very complicated.
I really need to start reading about these things or else i have no foundation to start my case study.
>_<#
posted by mgee @ 9:52 PM
2 Comments
