A patient yells for no reason, another one is singing hymns in bed, a couple of others are snoring on opposite ends of the hallway not unlike a surround sound system, while still another is talking and arguing with herself while lying in bed. A patient staggers out in the hallway not knowing whether he is coming or going. Seems like the Ambien is not agreeing with him with all its side effects (sleepwalking, confusion, etc...).
It's 1:30 in the morning and all is well. Another night at work and despite of what is happening so far, this would be considered a quiet night. No admissions since the night shift came in at 7:00 PM but that could change any minute because in some remote emergency room someone might have checked in complaining of being suicidal, homicidal, having hallucinations, or just plain have no place to sleep for the night and cannot take care of him/herself.
I am here, I watch the hallways and check on the patients to make sure they are safe, this is my job, I'm a mental health worker, the lowest position on the totem pole of a psych unit.
It is indeed a quiet night but I don't complain about being bored because something might happen at any given second in a place like this, which I hope it doesn't. I like quiet boring nights because it means there is no one acting out and the patients are safe and getting their needed sleep. I wish I could do the same but sleep is not for me at this time of the night. Sleep will have to wait till I get home in the morning. In the meantime I keep my fingers crossed hoping that it will remain a quiet night at the asylum.
Addendum: Come 4:00 AM things have changed drastically. One of the confused patients intentionally or not tried to attack one of my co-workers and at 6:45 AM another patient tried to destroy the radio because she didn't like listening to Janet Jackson. The good news is that nobody got hurt and nothing was damaged. As the night shift ends, a new patient is being admitted by the day shift.
Oh well, another night at the asylum trenches is over and I survived another one.
2 comments:
Wow, sounds rough! I was just talking to a friend who works at a mental health hospital and she said one of the patients attacked an employee. Yikes. Rough stuff! Stay safe!
Hi Nancy, thank you. It was actually a good night despite what happened. I wasn't planning on writing anything but since it was quiet, I was able to do so in my laptop. The first part was uploaded in the middle of the night and I edited it and added the addendum when I got home this morning. I hope you had great fun in Paso Robles.
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