Methadone Clinic: Case Study

Words: 471
Pages: 2

The following event took place in the triage office at the methadone clinic that has served as my integration placement for the last few weeks. I am to report to this office every single day of the week at 6:30am. There are two desk, two full time nurses and another ETP student. Just like me, this student is trying to learn as much as possible so that we can broader our skills repertouire and be marketable soon. Daily tasks involve conducting nursing assessment, performing new intakes, taking vitals, drawing blood and giving PPD tests. On this particular day, Mr. Andrew required a different type of service.
Mr. Andrew is a 63 years old African American male who has resided in the subway for many years. He is malodorous, has slow psychomotor functioning and wears clothing two sizes larger. He carried a diagnosis of Schizophrenia and admits to ongoing use of opioids in combination with his current treatment of methadone. I met him before at one of the socialization groups provided by the clinic. He was playing chest with another patient and after winning asked if I wanted to play with him. I thought he was
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I was having a really hard time blocking my sense of smell. In order to be able to complete the task I needed to find within myself something I really like about Mr. Andrew. I needed to see him for the human being that he is. I focused on his sense of humor and his intelligence. As soon as I was able to understand that I was helping Mr. Andrew stay healthy instead of focusing on the smell and other aspect of his wounds the experience became rich. I felt a connection that allowed me to be less anxious and therefore more effective. With the help of my preceptor and the other student we cleaned the wound, apply a new dressing and send Mr. Andrew back to his routine. A week later he came again in need of the same service. This time it was a lot easier for me to do the dressing