Settled and Appropriate

I am a nurse, of the psychiatric variety rather than the "real" variety.

The "real nurses" (RN) think my job entails drinking tea, eating cake and biscuits and chatting to people. I do occasionally drink tea, I admit. I have even been known to use a cup of tea as a tool to help form a therapeutic relationship. I'm not too fond of cake though and I learned very early on in my career never to eat any gift of cake that has been prepared in the OT department by a patient.

I am a Registered Mental Nurse. RMN. 

I work on an inpatient ward caring for adults of working-age with a mental illness. My patients are, for the most part, acutely unwell. I like my job. I like my patients. I wouldn't ever want to work in any other area of nursing, because the care I deliver is person-centred rather than task orientated.

I can take a pulse, I can measure blood pressure and temperature. I can clean and dress wounds. I can even inject stuff into patients and take blood from their veins. In short, I can do everything a RN can do but I can do something extra too: I can create time to talk to my patients and treat them as individuals.

It's why I'm a RMN and not a RN.

Mine's a bourbon biscuit, please. Thank you. 

RMJ