Monday last week was orientation for clinical rotation on the psychiatry ward. It was exciting and intimidating all at the same time, especially the part about getting security keys, fingerprinted, and having to provide a urine sample for drug screening. It was a calm day regardless though, and there was no work with actual patients until Tuesday. Tuesday morning I made my way through the string of locked doors at Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center (hereout referred to as Mid-MO), the mental health hospital. I am assigned to the ward on 2 south. I met the psych resident assigned to the floor, Dr. Johnson (not his real name of course), and discovered I and the other two medical students assigned to the floor would accompany him to the county courthouse to start the day. Dr. Johnson had to take the stand to testify to the need for inpatient treatment for a number of mentally ill individuals who were picked up by the law. It was an interesting start to the day. After court hearings we hurr...
Excerpts of a rural hospitalist's thoughts and experiences