How Can the Nurse Help the Refractory Patient?

It is necessary, in Mental Hospitals, to gather together into one ward those Patients who are impulsive, disobedient and the like, or whose presence in other wards gives rise to fights, quarrels and indiscipline. Such trouble-brewers , who have been labelled " Refractory Patients unquestionably need stricter discipline, and it is not in the interests of the other patients to subject them to the firmer rule. The Refractory ward is a most satisfying ward in which to work, for the task showing these patients the error of their ways and of directing their ebullient energies falls chiefly to the nurse. Because they are so very much alive and usually fairly intelligent, they are good material to handle. Refractory behaviour is a single entity, but it manifests itself in a great variety Ways which are predetermined by early experiences of life. Hence, while it does ^?t really matter what form misbehaviour takes, the important question is, Why ^0es this patient behave in this manner ? " Since the causes of refractory behaviour are> potentially, as numerous and complex as there are men and environments, must, to find the answer, study the psychology of each patient individually and gravel the threads of her life from the cradle to the present moment. The child ls