[GeorgiaGirl]

Does anyone on the board work geri/psych? If so, would you recommend it to a newbie in nursing?

[sanakruz]

Georgia-Go to the psych forum.Often geri patients are managed on regular psych units (by regular I mean other adults.)
I personally really like this population and would indeed recommend it to a newbie.

[mageean]

I have worked in this area for 25 years and enjoy every day of it despite the fact that I now am the Service manager rather than a Nurse practitioner.( I am still a registered Nurse). In the UK we tend not to nurse Older people with mental health problems in general Psychiatric wards as it is certainly not supporting a "person centred approach". Dont let anyone kid you. it is hard work but very rewarding but you need to possess tolerance, understanding and compassion in abundance.. The Geriatric forum on the BB is a good place to start. Good luck.

[adrienurse]

I have worked in the area of psychogeriatrics for 2 years. It is exhausting and noisy work, but we do have our successes. I work on an inpatient locked unit, using a person centred approach/ Generally, we deal with problems as they arrise, do a lot of careplanning, behavioral mapping and giving TLC. We allow them to be as happy as they can while doing the best we can to remedy behavioral disturbances that arise due to severe dementia.