12 Hours On a Psychiatric Ward

Sometimes there’s aggression, sometimes even violence. There’s tears, screams and things being thrown right, left and centre. But there’s also smiles. There’s kindness. There is laughter.

By Evelina Bakanaite, Featured Writer.

My alarm rings at 5:20am. It’s still dark outside, my house is quiet. Everyone is asleep. I start to get ready. I leave the house by 6:35am to catch my bus at 6:45am. I’m at work by 7:20am. I charge my psychiatric alarm and ensure I have the ward’s keys. 7:30am the day staff are ready to receive handover from the night staff. This is the most crucial part of the day as we discuss every patient, their treatment, their risks and overall management.

By 8:00am the night staff have left, and the day shift has officially started.

The morning starts with breakfast, medication and planning meeting at 9:45am where staff discuss what’s going on in the day and what the service users have got planned for their day. There’s not much to plan when they aren’t allowed to leave the hospital, and unfortunately the activities are scarce. Still, we consider this an important part of the day and also part of their recovery journey.

No shift is the same, no day is the same, and no two people with the same illness are the same. I absolutely love my job. It’s tough, it’s intense, but it’s incredibly rewarding.

Sometimes there’s aggression, sometimes even violence. There’s tears, screams and things being thrown right, left and centre. But there’s also smiles. There’s kindness. There is laughter.

I wish I could say that when I finish work at 20:00pm, that’s it. I leave it at the door and I go home, but it’s difficult when you have been with people from their absolute worst to their best. When you have been there through their recovery journey, where you see a remarkable improvement. It is a bittersweet feeling when a person gets discharged. Of course, there is happiness, and there is worry that they will be back again, and there is also sadness. Sadness because you’ve spent so much time with this person, and you miss them, although that is somewhat selfish to say.

12 hours is a long time to spend in one place, with the same people, in an environment charged with sadness, anger, impatience, worry and confusion. And yet, I cannot imagine myself working anywhere else.

Everyone always says that nurses and support workers make a difference in patients’ lives, but I think it’s quite the opposite. There is not one service user that did not touch my heart. Their resilience, bravery and strength are admirable.

There is something we can all learn from spending just 12 hours on a psychiatric ward.