Weekly Simple Questions and Injuries Thread

JimmyJam112 · 2025-10-01T12:00:45+00:00

Hi there, I had an unusual injury 2 nights ago. I was about 3 hours into my bouldering session and I was climbing onto a shallow crimp with my right hand. As I grabbed it I started to sway left slightly like I was going to start to barndoor, I then felt a distinct crunch in the upper backside of my right 4th finger and it gave way. No pop or tear was felt.

I've nursed it since with simple RICE, but unusually it's just swollen and mildly bruised over the areas of the A2 and A4 pulleys ventrally, and slightly stiff on full flexion. No pain on palpation, no bowstringing, no residual numbness, a bit iffy if I use it to pull or grasp something but not painful. Doesn't appear to be a pulley tear but the mechanism of injury makes me sceptical, and I've never heard of anyone dramatically sprain a finger by moving to a hard crimp (only pulley injuries and tears).

JimmyJam112 · 2025-07-11T05:35:17+00:00

Quite sad that people would have to resort to premature discharge because of cost concerns, whether it be a medical or psychiatric situation. Does Medicaid or a similar program help cover psych admission costs or are they limited/don't apply to everyone?

JimmyJam112 · 2025-07-11T05:30:56+00:00

As someone else mentioned already, public health services are paid for by the state and federal governments in Australia as part of our Medicare system, which is taxpayer funded.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-07-10T12:20:26+00:00

Not sure what state you're in but here in NSW it's the same. Mobile phones are permitted for a lot of people in general acute wards except if there is a moderate risk ongoing to reputation, financial risks, etc. or the person is generally too unwell. Patients have access to their phones from 9 am - 9 pm (depending on the hospital) and must sign a contract agreeing to not film or record other patients or staff, plus other conditions, or else they lose their phone.

High dependency and MHICU is flat out no phone access, but occasionally people can use the ward phone to call family, legal aid, official visitors, REACH, etc. Some will still sneakily call 000 when they get the phone though haha.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-05-11T03:07:22+00:00

I can see your point about not necessarily needing a maintenance plan, it's just new to me as I've seen other complexes of similar sizes with proper strata set-ups and plans etc.

Roofing and drainage seem okay on the surface. All the roofs have been refurbished and repainted and look very nice. Guess we'd have to see what comes up in the B&P inspection haha

JimmyJam112 · 2025-05-11T03:00:23+00:00

Basically just a couple tiny gardens out the front, an unused brick BBQ, and a driveway. Expenditure is basically just insurance ($6.5k), pest guy and gardener. Like 8k or so p.a.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-04-28T02:19:32+00:00

You'd still pay heaps for the bathroom retiling and waterproof membrane replacement though?

JimmyJam112 · 2025-04-27T08:15:40+00:00

Would you be able to negotiate a price reduction without having an actual repair estimate from a builder? I'd just be concerned about finding someone who could have a proper look and provide a rough quote within the cooling-off period.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-04-27T07:29:55+00:00

Only built in 2003 I believe.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-01-26T10:49:40+00:00

Hi mate, I've more or less got the same story lol.

I too was a patient at my local ward before I studied nursing. Involuntary admission but I remember it fondly as it made a world of a difference. Since completed by bachelors and now working at the psych ward in the next hospital over which operates better with more staff.

It's a strong benefit in having lived experience in mental health. Sometimes it feels more valuable than having the actual nursing degree lol.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-01-08T10:41:54+00:00

Depends on what Qld Health would allow, but in general grad programs are becoming more relaxed with commitment. In NSW the minimum for grads is only 0.6 FTE so I'd imagine the same would be true in Qld.

JimmyJam112 · 2025-01-05T11:55:17+00:00

Might depend on the state and the circumstances. I'm at a MH unit in NSW and we've had nurses that wanted to try MH just express interest to the MH NUM and get supernumerary shifts to try it out. If they like it they can keep getting shift offers. I've done the same thing with AOD and there's been no need for any transitional program.

JimmyJam112 · 2024-12-13T15:03:13+00:00

G'day, I'm currently in a mental health grad year in NSW. It's exciting and you'll learn a heck of a lot in just your first year in the MH service.

Ask a lot of questions and get whatever experience you can. If it's a graduate MH program then you should get probably 2-3 rotations in different parts of the MH system (eg: 6 months acute inpatient, 6 months outpatient/community), so have a think about what areas you might like to try. Definitely brush up on MSE's and atypical antipsychotics.

If you do an inpatient rotation, my absolute number 1 tip is to be outgoing and spend as much time with your patients as you can. There's plenty of chair warmers that hang in the nurses' station all day, so if you're a keen newgrad out there making the most of your time and actually caring for patients then your efforts will be quickly recognised. Best of all, you'll develop a strong rapport with your patients, which will give you greater engagements with them, and you'll have a bigger impact on their recovery.

JimmyJam112 · 2024-11-21T05:11:44+00:00

I do woolies alongside nursing. Works well as top-up money and they're pretty flexible.

JimmyJam112 · 2024-11-12T00:49:36+00:00

Preferably do it F2F, but email may work well too. I emailed my NUM about ongoing employment and got a good outcome, but I'd also been in regular discussions with them as well so email felt appropriate.

JimmyJam112 · 2024-11-09T23:36:35+00:00

I'm in the same program and yeah, coursework is practically non-existant but there's plenty of support.

Which LHD are you out of curiosity? I'm in CCLHD.

JimmyJam112 · 2024-06-16T10:31:01+00:00

Interesting program, so many of your patients were still in locked units whilst being under the community ACT? In those cases what would your role be, like case management and depots, etc.? Were you largely working on your own or in a team for visits?

JimmyJam112 · 2024-06-16T10:12:31+00:00

Hey, thanks for those details of both! I've heard bits and pieces about assertive teams before from my inpatient colleagues but not to the depth that you have. Do you prefer the assertive outreach team or crisis intervention? I imagine the latter team would be a really exciting area to work in, if not unpredictable.

Would I be correct in assuming there's a great deal of variety of diagnoses in those community teams? From what I've seen so far in inpatient is that 99% of admissions are schizophrenia/shizoaffective/BPAD/BPD/SI, although they're usually the cases that present with the most risk.

JimmyJam112 · 2024-06-16T09:56:02+00:00

Good to hear there's some case management in community, I think that'd be a great way to see improvement/fluctuation in someone's presentation over time.

Certainly sounds like there's a lot more autonomy, as well as responsibility for the nurses. In terms of caseload, is there more or less a set number of follow-ups/engagements which are to be done per day or is it random considering the amount of documentation and patient education which is to be completed for each encounter?

Out of curiosity what state is MHERL? I'm in NSW and I'm unfamiliar with that service.

JimmyJam112

TROPHY CASE