Real life stories - Psychiatric nurse

I am based in a GP practice that provides an enhanced medical service for people who are socially excluded. It’s for people who are homeless, have substance misuse problems, work in the commercial sex industry, or have a level of violence and aggression that excludes them from normal services.

A typical day involves seeing anywhere between six and ten clients for face-to-face contact as well as offering formal and informal supervision to colleagues about clients in their caseload. My role occupies a senior position within the nursing structure so I attend quite a few strategic and planning meetings.

The thing that drew me to the role was knowing how much of a problem personality disorder (PD) is for the client group. That’s my passion, that’s where my enthusiasm lies - working with people with PD. The face-to-face contact with the client group and the management of the services surrounding them is the bit that I enjoy the most, I really like coming in to work and not being able to say what I’m going to be doing from day to day.

Being stubborn and sticking to your guns is one of the biggest assets a nurse doing my job can have. Clients who have been excluded often believe that the services are not going to be appropriate so I really need to persuade them. For my clients, getting them to attend an appointment on time is a huge achievement. Once you’ve got your head around that and got them to a point where they are actually engaging, it’s great.

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