It's been a while. Germany was amazing but somewhere along the line I just didn't want to write anymore.
On to the next thing:
So I'm sitting in a mental health class, and each week I become more and more frustrated by my professor. To hear her stereotype people with mental illness with statements such as, "people with mental illness can't hold a job for 40 hours a week" or "people don't like the terms 'normal' and 'not normal' but I'm going to use them anyway" frustrate me. As someone who has dealt extensively with mental illness on a personal basis, I take great offense to the way she treats us. I find her behavior unprofessional and a lot of the time very unhelpful when it comes to learning anything at all about mental health nursing. Many times when I walk into that class I feel as though I am sitting down in front of someone who has 'seen it all' and is calloused by her experiences. I feel like she looks down on her students as though we don't have the potential to learn and intrinsically accepts the fact that we will never be as skilled at mental health nursing as she is.
I go to that class every morning and am constantly reminded of my inability as a nurse. My presence there is rewarded with 5 points for attendance, however there are no lecture slides, no readings and no other supports set up to guide her tirades at us. She presents personal stories about what a great practitioner she is: "he spent $200 and did what no one suffering from mental illness should do, got a debit and credit card. but, I have to give myself a pat on the back, he no longer has them, he gave them to a friend."
This is an example of a poorly controlled mental illness, and in my opinion, a poor mental health practitioner. I, as a nursing student, do not need to know these embarrassing intricacies from her "practice" and I can't help but wonder what would happen if my mother was one of the people this woman was counseling. would she be put up on a metaphorical cross, too? Used as an example for...what? What was the point of her story today, about this schizophrenic man with an addiction problem who went on a rampage with his debit card? We were supposed to be learning about the mental health exam and assessment (mind you, you are measured against "normal" and "not normal" in her eyes when she gives you an exam!) I don't see the connection here. As one student so astutely pointed out, "it seems like your assessment is using a lot of "I" language and is very subjective."
This semester of nursing school has been one frustration after another as far as I'm concerned. The class I was least looking forward to, Geriatrics, is actually the most completely structured and interesting class I'm taking. Mental health nursing, as described above, is a disaster, and community health nursing isn't all that bad except for it's a lot of common sense. Nice for the studying, a good time to get caught up on watching all 6 episodes of Star Wars back to back in German.
Hope all are well, keep in mind (haha) that mental illness can affect anyone and they are people, too.
On to the next thing:
So I'm sitting in a mental health class, and each week I become more and more frustrated by my professor. To hear her stereotype people with mental illness with statements such as, "people with mental illness can't hold a job for 40 hours a week" or "people don't like the terms 'normal' and 'not normal' but I'm going to use them anyway" frustrate me. As someone who has dealt extensively with mental illness on a personal basis, I take great offense to the way she treats us. I find her behavior unprofessional and a lot of the time very unhelpful when it comes to learning anything at all about mental health nursing. Many times when I walk into that class I feel as though I am sitting down in front of someone who has 'seen it all' and is calloused by her experiences. I feel like she looks down on her students as though we don't have the potential to learn and intrinsically accepts the fact that we will never be as skilled at mental health nursing as she is.
I go to that class every morning and am constantly reminded of my inability as a nurse. My presence there is rewarded with 5 points for attendance, however there are no lecture slides, no readings and no other supports set up to guide her tirades at us. She presents personal stories about what a great practitioner she is: "he spent $200 and did what no one suffering from mental illness should do, got a debit and credit card. but, I have to give myself a pat on the back, he no longer has them, he gave them to a friend."
This is an example of a poorly controlled mental illness, and in my opinion, a poor mental health practitioner. I, as a nursing student, do not need to know these embarrassing intricacies from her "practice" and I can't help but wonder what would happen if my mother was one of the people this woman was counseling. would she be put up on a metaphorical cross, too? Used as an example for...what? What was the point of her story today, about this schizophrenic man with an addiction problem who went on a rampage with his debit card? We were supposed to be learning about the mental health exam and assessment (mind you, you are measured against "normal" and "not normal" in her eyes when she gives you an exam!) I don't see the connection here. As one student so astutely pointed out, "it seems like your assessment is using a lot of "I" language and is very subjective."
This semester of nursing school has been one frustration after another as far as I'm concerned. The class I was least looking forward to, Geriatrics, is actually the most completely structured and interesting class I'm taking. Mental health nursing, as described above, is a disaster, and community health nursing isn't all that bad except for it's a lot of common sense. Nice for the studying, a good time to get caught up on watching all 6 episodes of Star Wars back to back in German.
Hope all are well, keep in mind (haha) that mental illness can affect anyone and they are people, too.
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