Mid-Year One Week: Day One

Arrival

Gloryosky - I made it to Memphis without getting bumped off my flight. I called Last Minute Transport, as usual and they got me to Springhill Suites in no time. When I walked in the door, Jency the receptionist greets me with a "you are our customer of the day!" This entitled me to a room upgrade to the tower and free goodies from the market store. A room with 2 beds was immediately available which was lucky in light o the minus-6 hours of sleep on board. A great beginning to the trip. Unfortunately, MATA stopped trolley service down Madison so I had to spend $12 on a 5 minute ride to campus.

Interviewing and Counseling Wrap-Up

Reality check time! The final we took a couple of weeks ago consisted of several clinical scenarios that we had to make a therapeutic response to. Several examples from different students were anonymously presented - some were amazing and others were hilariously untherapeutic. A few of the good ones sounded familiar, but I was so emotionally spaced out when I took it, that I had a panic moment in November and asked the instructor to re-open the exam because I forgot I had taken it!

The same mental-health consumer who was present during orientation week came back and discussed communication issues among different types of health care providers. Not surprisingly, psychiatrists rated low on the list because of the short time spent in relation to decisions to start major brain-chemistry-altering medications. Family pratice rated high because of their holistic approach (yeah!).

Assessment Strategies

We started with a Medatrax tutorial. In my FNP program we used a similar tracking system for clinical logs and these things pretty much all work the same. There will be a Droid app or this soon, thankfully! We talked a bit about expectations, for the upcoming class, but the class does not start until January so the bulk of the information will come through Blackboard.

Psychopharm Wrap-up

I am so glad to know I am not the only person who feels both smarter and dumber after taking this course! The same mental-health consumer from I&C came to class and we broke down her medications, past and present, as well as cases from some of the practices of other classmates. Great ending, and I am looking forward to getting to the "meat of practice" with the assessment course.

WTF Moment

Word is PTSD and Narcissistic Personality D/O may be out of the DSM-V when it comes out in 2013? 2015? THe reason for PTSD is easy. If you get rid of a disorder, there is nothing to pay for. "Shell shock" will probably come back into the vernacular, but I imagine they will shuffle many of the PTSD cases into TBI if you can demonstrate any sort of head trauma. Narcissistic PDO is a little more disturbing only because the reason it may be out it because narcissism is so pervasive in our society, it is considered normal. Wow.

Best Line of the Day

"Inhale? He still owes money!" (former limo driver John James on Governor Bill Clinton in his heyday)