Mid Term

Well, as the title implies, we are nearly halfway through the semester! Woohoo! I just started my second round of midterms (3-4 rounds in a semester) and came out better than I expected- quite a pleasant surprise. I have been doing clinical at Utah State Hospital (the mental health hospital), which has been very interesting. The people who live there have been committed by the court because they have been through every other mental health program available, and they have been deemed a danger to themselves or others. Some have been there for many years, others stay only a few months. My heart truly goes out to those people. I would say that most of them know that they have a mental illness, although there are a few who really think that they don't have a problem. Some of them want to stay there, because they have no where else to go, but the majority are not happy to be there. There is a wide variety of different diagnoses. There are some interesting treatment groups that patients attend. I have been attending the Sunrise Program- a DR (dual recovery) group. This is a group for people with mental illness who also abuse substances (all types- prescription pills, alcohol, illegal drugs etc.). It is kind of like AA but less formal. Next week I am running a group with another student. It is a reality- based group (for all the patients, but especially those suffering from delusions) where we talk about concrete things in a reality shared by everyone. We are going to focus on "nice" things- nice things we have done for others, nice things that have been done for us, and positive memories etc. Clinical there is very interesting, but I don't think that I would choose to work there as an RN.
Today I attended the baby shower for my friend Laura whose baby was born 5 weeks early. I was pleased to learn that the baby girl (Ryan Rebekah) is doing just fine and she is at home now! I think most of the girls that attended the shower were pregnant or had babies/ toddlers. I was quite the minority! I enjoyed it though.
I don't really have anything else going on that I can think of other than getting ready to present in Washington D.C. in 2 weeks. We are mostly finished with one project- our poster presentation- and we are working on the other one- our round table discussion. I have a ton of work to do to get ready! That is probably what I will be doing in most of my spare time until I go(besides studying of course).