'You have no choice but to cope': a day on the ward with a student nurse

'You have no choice but to cope': a day on the ward with a student nurse It’s exhausting and sometimes distressing, but Chantelle Brooks, on her final placement at a mental health hospital in Blackpool, wouldn’t work anywhere else

Inside the Harbour, Blackpool’s mental health hospital, a patient is anxiously eyeing up the student nurse who is taking another patient’s blood pressure. When it comes to her turn, the woman begins shouting insults. On the acute woman’s ward, it’s easy for things to escalate if one patient becomes upset. For nurses on placement, it can be a stressful introduction to life on the wards.

Chantelle Brooks has learned to cope by now. This is her final placement on a three-year degree course in mental health nursing at the University of Cumbria. Despite the occasionally distressing nature of her job, she can’t imagine doing anything else. Continue reading... The Guardian