Mental health practice placement is very important for student nurses and clinicians and it includes working in the actual clinical setting to gain practical experience. This gives the students a chance to apply the skills and eventually attain the required competencies. Thinking about this caused me a lot of worry and anxiety. This is because this would be a time to test my skills and ability to work effectively and integrate theory into actual practice where people’s lives are involved. Anxiety comes in bearing in mind that I will have to work with experienced workers who will facilitate my work and later be assessed by my mentor. Sometimes it is not easy to employ theory in practice since it requires courage self-belief and a high level of intellect to put into practice the skills learned in class.
Looking back at my family and friends, so far I have not received comments from them regarding the mental health placement. I think that they are not sure of what to say because of the mixed information that they may have been receiving from other sources. The psychiatric or mental health program is usually designed to prepare students for specialist practice. However, many people believe that the theory does not offer or is not a reflection of the prevalent actions and complexity of the mental health problems in a population. Consequently, I feel my family has not been able to talk about it believing that this could break my heart.
I think that many of my friends think that this is a very hard task because it requires greater preparation. However, I also feel that their worry is warranted because, in the past, I have heard stories of novices or student learners who were unable to provide appropriate mental health care during placement. Sometimes this heightens the problems that many mentally sick individuals face, that of stigmatization.
While on placement, my view of mental health nursing has been that this chance provides students with an opportunity to integrate theory into real practice. Currently, students need to be prepared sufficiently for the modern world. The quality of care given has to be high and ethics or legal concerns have to be addressed as well so that the patients’ rights are not violated. To accomplish all these, mentorship should be highly encouraged.
My work has positively impacted me. As I ventured into it, I knew that placement was a chance for me to gain experience. It is pertinent that I take a keen interest to reflect on the nature of providing care in the actual work setting. This gave me the experience to address the mental healthcare need and other demands of this type of work. Therefore the support to be granted by me cannot be over-emphasized.
I want to learn a lot of things while on placement in a clinical facility. The most important thing I would love to learn is clinical judgment in mental healthcare. This is a very essential skill and reflection on practice is useful in helping practitioners to make a clinically sound judgment. Judgment in clinical practice is very complex but by use of the reflection process, learning from experience enhances this and it will eventually expand my knowledge. Critical reflection would be very important for me but I also know that this requires a positive attitude and readiness to seriously analyze and understand my relationship with the results.
My experiences in the mental health setting were amazing. I learned that many of the practitioners enjoyed and valued involvement in education for the new nurses and psychiatrists. As a result, they provided positive teaching support and a convenient learning experience which allowed me to acquire essential knowledge and skills for me to be competent in mental health practice. I, therefore, learned methods of examining the mental state of clients, the various intervention processes, the process of client engagement, and better communication skills. Other clinicians were committed to the provision of quality assistance to me on my placement hence they spent more time with me and used extra effort to teach me. Being able to remain the professional line was very useful based on the complexity and diversity that come with mental health care.