Week 3

This week has been really exciting as I have been more involved with the patients. As the weeks progress, I will be even more instrumental in helping the patients cope with life at Carter Hospital

Activities -

• Treatment team meeting
• Rounds meeting
• Worked on learning plan
• Identified possible groups and activities
• Met with first patient
• Attended discharge meeting with patient and supervisor
• Researched mental disorders in hospital library
• Reviewed charts of possible patients to follow

Learning -

As the weeks progress, I am learning more about how the state policies affect the population of Carter Hospital. For example, because the state doesn't want to pay nurses their average rate, it hires a registry to provide nursing staff to all the state hospitals. Unfortunately, there is no consistency, as there are different nurses everyday. As a result, medical mistakes are often made and patients don't get the quality care they deserve. For example, on one shift alone, there were 40 medicine errors made. Patients didn't get their meds, patients got the wrong meds, and some got too much of a med. I believe that these are unacceptable errors that are a result of a state system neglecting its responsibility to its mentally ill citizens.


Something else I learned is that working with such a population, one has to be "thick skinned". One patient I worked with this week cursed a lot and used derogatory language. I had to face my own prejudices and assumptions to look past what he/she was saying. I realize how important it will be to understand that sometimes patients/clients will make me uncomfortable, and it is something I have to get used to.

Reflection -

policy/macro

House Joint Resolution No. 8, Definition of Marriage. Provides that marriage in Indiana consists only of the union of one man and one woman. Provides that Indiana law may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups (www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2008/RES/HJ0008.1.html).

This bill is important to me because I am a homosexual male and feel it would be a blow to my rights. I am strongly in favor of homosexual marriage and feel this bill, if passed, would further separate homosexuals from society. I believe the government should set the standard and feel it will add to the further structural discrimination of gays and lesbians.

Senate Bill No. 310, Death Penalty and Mental Illness. Establishes a procedure to determine whether a defendant charged with murder is an individual with a severe mental illness. Prohibits the imposition of the death penalty on a defendant found to be an individual with a severe mental illness (www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2008/IN/IN0310.1.html).

Personally, I am not an advocate for the death penalty. However, this bill would, at minimum, keep persons with mental illnesses from being placed to death for a crime they may have committed. This bill is interesting to me professionally because I want to work in the mental heath field and will be a strong advocate for mentally ill persons. This bill would protect mentally ill patients from being sentenced to death for a capital crime, and thus they would be able to be treated for their disease.

Both of these bills are significant on multiple levels. Resolution No. 8 is significant to me personally because I am homosexual and therefore feel strongly in favor of homosexual rights, and Bill No. 310 is significant to me because I am personally invested in helping the mentally ill. I believe what ever agency I work in, it would definitely be effected by these two bills. Any homosexual client would be effected (especially at the Damian Center) by Resolution No.8, and a state hospital like Carter would definitely be effected by Bill No. 310 if the mentally ill were to be exempt from the death penalty. It is obvious how clients would be effected by the bills. Homosexual clients would be further discriminated against and mentally ill clients could possibly become exempt from being put to death (if they have committed a capital crime and been found guilty).

Total Hours this Week: 16 hrs 20 mins

Total Hours to Date: 48 hrs 10 mins