Tales from an inpatient hospital...

So, I'll start out with a story. I tell this story a lot in my classes when I begin talking about schizophrenia. It's always been memorable to me. Imagine a young, naive, psychology extern. First time working on an adult unit in an inpatient hospital. I was asked by some of the nurses to help them with pain assessments because I was new, inexperienced, and frankly because they had no clinical work for me to do.

So, here I am, going room to room on a women's unit asking patients who indicated they were in pain, how much pain they're in on that happy face chart hospitals use. I walk into the room of Ms. P and I note in her chart that her primary diagnosis is schizophrenia. My first schizophrenic patient. Exciting, right? Well I do the pain assessment, she's having pain in her back. Throughout the entire assessment, her reality testing has actually seemed pretty intact. Naturally as a dorky student, I was sad that this was so. Not that I want people to be actively psychotic, but this was a learning experience for me. I finish up and ask, "Is there anything else you'd like me to share with your nurse or doctor?" She looks at me in a confused way and says,"Well, I am pregnant." I realize that this could be a possibility so I decide to assess further. "How many weeks are you?" I ask. I was surprised by the response,"I'm having the baby." "What? You mean you're actively in labor?" "Yes, I'm having the baby right now." Followed by a groan. "Do you need me to get the doctor?" "Yes, can we go to the snack bar?" I guess her reality testing wasn't so intact after all.

No one will read this, but here I am...

So, I'm new at this, and this blog probably won't be great. It probably won't be read much anyway. So a little about me, don't want to say too much, because I like anonymity. I'm a 30ish female that teaches at a small university. I'm married and currently 8 months pregnant. I started this blog to log some of the funny things that happen in my career as a psychology professor. My husband also teaches, so I'll throw some of his teaching stuff on here too. We just have constant amusing conversations about things that happen in academe when we're least expecting it, and I thought some people might enjoy these stories as well. I'll also put up some funny stories from my history as a clinician. You run into a lot of interesting characters, both patients and not, when you work in the mental health field. I'm sure once Baby S is born in a couple of months, some stories about him will also become part of this blog. So anyway, enjoy.