24 hours later.....Shaken, Stressed, Sleepy

Glad to finish my first long psychiatry on call.

*phew.....so glad that its all over.

24 hours after this on call.... I am:

1. Shaken
2. Stressed
3. Sleepy

Why?

Shaken - because a patient kinda "pushed" my face real hard...in slow motion, my right jaw and cheek were pushed to the right and upwards. It wasn't too painful...but I was shocked. I did not expect that to happen. Couldn't really blame the patient, as she has bipolar mood disorder, and at that time, was in a manic phase. I did stand a distance from her, but somehow, when I was trying to listen to what her husband is telling me, she came near to me...and just in a split second, I was physically assaulted. Immediately, due to the shock, I could feel tears welling up in my eyes....but I told myself, I need to sort this out. I recomposed myself, and told her husband that I was going to issue an Emergency Detention Cert for her. (she had no insight whatsoever, and was going to leave the hospital...so no choice...had to detain her so that she doesn't harm others). I was quite shaken after that....my hands were shaking for a few minutes, while I was explaining the situation to the consultant on call.

Stressed - because it couldn't admit one of my patients to any hospital, as none wanted to take her. This girl was having on going suicidal thoughts, and I have decided to admit her. Unfortunately, my hospital was full. So I tried to contact the other two hospitals. One informed me that the patient was banned from the hospital, whereas the other one told me that it is their hospital policy not to take in any patients as they do not have any doctors oncall in their psychiatry unit. So now where should I put my patient?? It took me a good 1 hour or so, on the telephone...before one of the hospitals agreed to take her in, reluctantly. sigh. You know, at the end of the day, we all want what is best for our patient...so come on, people!

Sleepy - because errm...pretty obvious-lah... not much chance to sleep...prob managed about 2 hours or so. Quite sleepy now...but then I do not want to sleep now as I would end up sleeping for at least 4 hours...and this would upset my body clock!

Right...enough moaning. I still couldn't really stop thinking about being hit by a patient. It is quite frightening actually...later, I found out that she has once hit a doctor really hard, to the extent that she needed her hands x-rayed too! my...guess I'm lucky eh?