SwampCat BSN

SwampCat has 3 years experience as a BSN and specializes in Psychiatry.

Latest Activity

1. Gero-Psych... good resources and essentials

   SwampCat replied to perfectbluebuildings's topic in Psychiatric

   How weird, I did two years in child psych and just transferred to the "older adult" unit. That staffing is unsafe in my opinion. We have pts with stable med issues (maybe an iv a few times a yr) and for 22 pts there are 4 nurses and 4 techs (2/4 nig...

2. LGBTQI and Psych Nursing

   SwampCat replied to medic1969's topic in Psychiatric

   I'm not an MSN either, but at least once a month we get a kid on the floor that is here for one thing but the kid is also questioning their gender identity. The youngest I've seen dealing with this was 10. My floor does 5-12 years old.

3. Geropsych?

   SwampCat replied to kingvonnBSN2017's topic in Psychiatric

   One of the great things of geripsych is you don't lose all med/surg skills. I will go and help out on the geri floor now and then and it is always busy! It appears to me that morning is the same as afternoon which is the same as night. A lot of sundo...

4. Pros and cons of psych nursing?

   SwampCat replied to AngelusLapsus's topic in Psychiatric

   How often does one work with a violent/aggressive patient? (daily, weekly, monthly?) Verbally aggressive is a all day thing where I am. Physically aggressive is usually at least once a week. Aggressive to the point of full blown restraints, a couple ...

5. Self harmers

   SwampCat replied to kiwipsychnurse's topic in Psychiatric

   We really try not to use it, but we have a restraint chair which is essentially a wheelchair with restraint straps. We have a de-escalation team we page and they come down (maybe, if their units aren't acute) and help try to talk the pt down or help ...

6. Adolescent Psych RN

   SwampCat replied to Nurseladyt's topic in Psychiatric

   Every day I thank the gods of my place of employment for hiring me onto pedi instead of adolescent. I wanted adolescent, now I cringe when I float up there. I've seen 17 year olds trying to kill themselves because mom took the phone away. I've seen 1...

7. Theraputic ideas for patient activities

   SwampCat replied to amwatkins72's topic in Psychiatric

   Jenga with questions about goals, coping skills, aspirations, etc on each block

8. Is Psych Nursing Easy?

   SwampCat replied to resilientnurse's topic in Psychiatric

   We could sure use some magical de-escalation powers on my unit! Especially when there are two seclusions and everyone else is feeding off the frenzy.

9. Is Psych Nursing Easy?

   SwampCat replied to resilientnurse's topic in Psychiatric

   Let me show you my bruises from my last restraint/IM and you can guess how laid back psych can be. And ignore that healing bite mark. Kids do the darnedest things...

10. Psych Nurse for kids ?

    SwampCat replied to kalexis226's topic in Psychiatric

    This. Daily I feel like little more than a well-paid babysitter. Yes there are certain kids that you will reach and you will get the warm fuzzies like you made a little difference in the world, but I'll be honest: I get that maybe once or twice a wee...

11. How many hours is your shift?

    SwampCat replied to motor_mouth's topic in Psychiatric

    We have 8's but some of the adult units have 12's. Our unit is a bunch of younger-ish nurses who are trying to come up with a way to switch many of us to 12's. We can do 16's either voluntarily or not.

12. Dealing with disturbing patients

    SwampCat replied to studentbear's topic in Psychiatric

    I found it interesting that my unit gets animal abusers quite often. I just remind myself that it's not the child's fault. Ot's not like any healthy 7 year old would stab a cat or try to hang himself.

13. Child psych patient restrictive interventions

    SwampCat replied to WantAccel.BSN's topic in Psychiatric

    Our facility has been basing a lot of our changes on Butler Hospital (Providence, RI) 's methods. I'd start with their Director of Nursing

14. Child psych patient restrictive interventions

    SwampCat replied to WantAccel.BSN's topic in Psychiatric

    I work with the under 12 group. In my facility we just get them into seclusion asap, even if that means two people escorting a child whose feet aren't even touching the floor. Legend has it that we used to use something like Elkpark burrito thing but...

15. Need a Job!

    SwampCat replied to DZcarrie's topic in Connecticut

    Day Kimball is cutting jobs. Windham cut jobs. Anything owned by Hartford Healthcare is either cutting jobs or only looking at BSN. Middlesex is magnet therefore will only hire BSN.