Medical Care and Psychiatric Care: One and The Same?
We are exploring the question: In medical patients with psychiatric disorders, how does being placed on a medical-surgical floor compared to being placed on a psychiatric unit influence staff and patient experiences throughout admission? We have decided to dive deeper into this concept due to our own experiences at our jobs as nurse's aides, as well as at clinical for school. Oftentimes, patients with psychiatric disorders are placed on medical-surgical floors due to medical comorbidities, or to the simple fact that there are no available placements at the proper psychiatric facilities. We are curious as to whether having a non-psychiatric nurse care for these patients is therapeutic. We have seen medical-surgical nurses with a "not my problem" mindset when it comes to dealing with patients' mental health. Some feel their job is to care only for the physical aspect of the patient rather than their psychological state too. Based on current evidence, our proposal is to develop a new unit in which nurses are trained with medical-surgical skills as well as psychiatric care. We hope to improve the experience of nurses providing care along with the quality of care patients are receiving.