When arriving at simulation on Friday I was very nervous, I had done the preparation for the day and knew what I was going to say and what was expected of the day, but I was still nervous. I knew that there were going to be actors coming in and that we were going to have to go through the scenarios, but I was nervous that I was going to ask the wrong questions that what I had on my paper was wrong and It just wasn’t going to be good. After the simulation I have the insight that I was not bad at all, that I need to just go with everything as it comes and to not overthink the situation as much. It went way better than I thought it was and the people I was with helped ease my nerves as well.

            Some challenges that I expected to experience were not knowing what to say or asking the wrong questions. There being awkward silence and I just wouldn’t have questions to ask, I also didn’t know what to expect with the actors that I was nervous that one of them would overexaggerate and be “crazy”. During the experience I would say that there wasn’t any that I didn’t anticipate, I think that it went smoothly. I also think that the group I was with, we worked really well together, bouncing ideas off each other and having it flow so that if someone was stuck the other person could pick back up.

            I learned that mental health nursing can really be used anywhere, it isn’t just one aspect of a nursing that’s pushed off to a single floor. This can be used with even people we meet if we notice they’re anxious, we can use therapeutic conversations and help them. We can even use this in our clinical experience right now. I think the experience and learning about mental health issues should be a thing that is talked more about and not be so stigmatized as these issues are things that everyone deals with and if we make it ok to talk about then more people will hopefully seek that help that they need instead of working through it on their own when there are resource to help.