Talent

The skills groups on the adolescent psych unit are run by nurses. Usually they pick an activity based on the needs of the teens who are in the unit at the time. We've done group juggling exercises, discussed smoking, watched videos on nutrition and worked on team building. For one of the skills groups in the adolescent psych unit, the nurse decided to work on building self-esteem. The theme was "What I'm good at." The kids found out about the theme in the morning. By lunch time, it had evolved into an all-out talent show. Several groups of girls took over the dining room to choreograph dance routines. The boys just gawked. It was teenagerdom all over. I felt like I was in the middle of a bad teen movie.

For the final show, one girl sang a song and another shared her drawings. One read some poetry she had written. The dance routines went off very well. I taught everyone how to say a few words in Chinese. The nurse read another poem she had written. We were a pretty talented group!

I was so impressed with the dance routines that I said to another nursing student, "Hey, we should get this on camera."

She grinned at me and pointed to the ceiling in the corner of the room. "We ARE on camera," she said.