Posted by Ritch on September 5, 2002, at 0:57:56
In reply to Did anyone *like* being in hospital psych ward?, posted by Ted on August 29, 2002, at 11:02:30
I used to deliver food trays to psych inpatients in the hospital when I was a teenager during a temporary summer job, about three years before I was diagnosed with bipolar. Never wound up hospitalized myself, though (knock on wood!). It was funny to hear all of the instructions about not talking to the patients, etc. We weren't allowed to deliver food directly to the lock-up ward. You had to shove the cart through with all of the trays and deliver it to a psych nurse that would unlock a sliding door. I remember making eye-contact with a few of the patients in the lockup ward, and sometimes they would just stand up and start walking toward you and would be stopped by the staff. In the open ward I talked with patients anyhow (despite the rules). The only thing that was really awful that I can remember was having to deliver sealed trays to babies and children in the burn ward (the psych ward was just one floor of several that we moved the nutrition about).
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:29525
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020829/msgs/29863.html