Initiative

During a night shift at approximately 0230, the nurse looking after the acute side came up to me with a very concerned expression on her face " Jacky, will you accompany me? [Patient name omitted] is missing from her room and there is smoke in the ward!".
I made a nervous joke that perhaps the patient burnt herself to ashes. Hopeful thinking aside, I instantly felt that this may mean that impending trouble was coming along our side as this woman was a really horrible person. When angerted she would physically smash everything/anybody within her vicinity and was unpredictable in nature. If she was to start playing up at this time of the night, all the other patients will be awoken and we would be understaffed to control the onslaught as there are only 3 staff members in night shifts. Unfortunately, we had a nurse doing a double and she needed a few hours of sleep, so it was the 2 of us.

We took our torchlights and made sure we had our duress alarms ready just in case she decided to give us some fist sandwiches. As a male working in this field it can be abit disadvantageous. Although I was not assigned to work on the acute side that night, I had to be there to accompany my colleague as I was the only male in the ward at the time and I was undeniably more stronger and capable of defending myself compared to her. We walked together down the dark corridor, expecting anything to break loose. Incidentally, the work colleague saw the lady walk out of a male patients' room, fortunately still fully dressed. She immediately started questioning why she was in the other persons room and told her it was not appropriate to enter anybody elses room - especially at night time. The patient was apologetic and said she only wanted to be there because she wanted to chat to the man in that room who I shall call 'Ray'.

Now I knew this was totally untrue. I have never seen the two chat in broad daylight and Ray seemed to be abit dazed. One thing whcih caught my suspicion was that Ray had a pair of pants visible on his bed. My initiative took over and I told my colleague to escort the lady back to her room. This is because she kept lingering about the outside of Ray's room and that anything which will even slightly upset her will cause her to erupt in a fit of rage - and we did not want that.

My colleague escorted her back to her room and made sure she stayed in bed while I stood outside Ray's room. Afterwards I told my colleague to stand by me as our business was not finished. She was abit confused as to why I decided to suddenly give out these 'orders', especially when she was a few years senior to me in experience. I told her I wanted to make sure Ray was not having intercourse with her, and I had to do this by lifting his blanket to check if he was naked inside...especially sicne he had a pair of pants on his bed right beside him. There has been cases where the hospital can be sued if the patients had intercourse and got pregnant. Anyhow I peeked inside the blanket and sure enough he was wearing his pants... however I also noticed a trail of tobacco leading to the other pair of pants on his bed.

I politely and assertively told him " Ray, I understand that you have some items on you which need to be returned to the office. I'm sure it is to both our interests that the security not get involved... so please co operate and return those cigarettes." I was not scared, but I knew that there was always the possibility of him lunging at me. However he adhered to my instructions and he handed over 2 packets of cigarette materials and a lighter.

The next morning, when the female patient woke up, she was raging. She swore and threatened to kill Ray, because he "uppercutted" her. She started kicking and smashing the mental health facilities and was really becoming a danger to those around her. We all knew this was not true; there was an underground tobacco blackmarket going on in the ward and Ray was the one caught with the 'goods'.

I am still feeling very proud of myself, as I knew this was going to happen. It was always my intention to divert her away from the nicotine bust and then let her find out in the morning instead, as there will be more staff to deal with her aggression and that at least it was daytime so there would be less disruption in the ward.

I have acquired the skill to lead and manage problems tactfully and foresee potential circumstances from occuring. It is very much important to be able to think on your feet when you are on the ward, and take charge when the situation arises.