November 2023
Chelsea
Taylor
,
RN
Grace Grego Maxwell Mental Health Unit
Dell Children's Medical Center
Austin
,
TX
United States
Chelsea was able to de-escalate the situation by delegating roles to staff who were directly in the situation, as well as the remainder of the staff on the unit who were attending to other patients' needs.
Chelsea consistently goes above and beyond to connect with her patients. More specifically: we recently had a patient with us who was acting extremely unsafe to herself and others and had been for the past several nights. One particular night, however, this patient became extremely agitated and was not responding to any sort of redirection. Over the span of two hours, Chelsea was able to de-escalate the situation by delegating roles to staff who were directly in the situation, as well as the remainder of the staff on the unit who were attending to other patients' needs.
Chelsea used therapeutic communication, motivational interviewing, and allowed time for the patient to calm down and reflect on the next "baby steps" they were going to take to ensure their safety that night. She even got the patient to smile and laugh, which seemed like an impossibility at the start of this incident. This situation had the potential to go awry in many ways, but Chelsea prevented that by using both her leadership skills, as well as her skills as an experienced psychiatric nurse to firmly insist on patient and staff safety while also being caring, therapeutic, and supportive.
Chelsea used therapeutic communication, motivational interviewing, and allowed time for the patient to calm down and reflect on the next "baby steps" they were going to take to ensure their safety that night. She even got the patient to smile and laugh, which seemed like an impossibility at the start of this incident. This situation had the potential to go awry in many ways, but Chelsea prevented that by using both her leadership skills, as well as her skills as an experienced psychiatric nurse to firmly insist on patient and staff safety while also being caring, therapeutic, and supportive.