As I write this there are seventeen patients on the unit, five of whom
are in wheelchairs. As a result, the unit is unusually labile, because
the patients and staff are stuffed into a space that would look roomy to
calves destined to be veal chops.
[The two hallways of the unit form an "L." The longer hallway is 102 ft.
long by six foot wide. (1) The shorter hallway is 48 ft. long by eight
or 10 feet wide. (2)]
Unless you are unfortunate (3) enough to have one of the two single
rooms, there is nowhere you can go to be alone except the common shower
room, which accommodates one patient at a time (unless the staff isn't
paying attention).
The only places you can go on the unit are your room, the day/TV room
(4), and the dining room (5). Or you can pace the hallways.
Add to this the total lack of activities on the weekend, the unit was
ready for its own version of "The Jerry Springer Show," only with
certified psychiatric patients.
There was an incident Monday morning, in which a patient snapped out and
starting attacking a patient. When staff stepped in to stop her, she
started attacking the staff. To add to the tumult, a patient chose that
time to go into (what turned out to be false) labor. I missed the
incident because I was in my room dressing after my bath.
Things appeared to have settled down until dinner today, when one of the
paranoid schizophrenics to display both paranoid and schizophrenic
behavior in the dining room. I missed the details because I hadn't yet
arrived for dinner. (6)
Then there was the 6pm smoke break. There were no community cigarettes
(7), and there are fewer more disagreeable people than psychiatric
patients who smoke when they can't smoke. People were still muttering
darkly more than three hours later.
What bothers me most about the tinderbox is that I'm finding it
difficult not to provide a match. IOW, the mood of the other patients is
affecting me negatively. (9) For the next few days I'm going to spend as
much time in my room as possible, until some patients (including a
couple or three in wheelchairs) are discharged.
(1) This is not wide enough to allow two wheelchairs to pass each other.
(2) I know the lengths because part of my exercise program is to walk
the hallways. Not so much the widths.
(3) Yes, I said "unfortunate." The unit reserves one single room for
patients who are either not medically stable, require intensive nursing
care, require isolation, or otherwise need to be close to the nursing
station (e.g., are on suicide watch). The other single room could also
be used for such patients or for those requiring equipment too large or
bulky to fit into a double room. I fall into the last category. I don't
consider myself particularly unfortunate, but I do consider most
patients who have been in the other single to have been.
(4) It's the only TV on the unit, and programming is determined by
consensus. As a result, I rarely get to watch any programs I prefer,
thanks to my refined tastes.
(5) If it's not being used. It being the only room on the unit that's
not a patient room or storage, it's used for groups, meals, the daily
staff meeting, and nurses' re****ts. So between 7am and 6pm, it's almost
always in use.
(6) My room is near the end of the longer hallway, and the dining room
is at the midpoint of the shorter hallway.
(7) Not all patients bring cigarettes with them to the hospital (some of
them don't even bring _clothes_ with them), so some members of the staff
chip in to buy cigarettes for them (8). These are known as community
cigarettes.
(8) Yes, this is a hospital. No, I don't know why medical professionals
are providing patients with cigarettes. They aren't bringing me pizza.
(9) That and a persistent case of ED that Cialis isn't helping. (10)
(10) No, the attending did not prescribe the Cialis, I had someone bring
my supply from home.
--
D.F. Manno | dfmanno@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words
are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by
destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people
will solemnly vote against their own interests." (Gore Vidal)
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