Behavioral Health Nurse- break from floor nursing? - page 2

I second what everyone else has said. I am a medical nurse who has had the privilege of working with a truly gifted psych nurse practitioner for 11 years on my AIDS unit. I'm here to tell ya that psych nurses have as extensive a knowledge base and skill set as anyone in med/surg, peds, ED, L&D and so on.

My advice is to read up and then read up some more. Then attach yourself to someone who knows what they're doing and pick their brains clean. At the end of a year or so, you'll be a competent beginner.

It'll be a challenge, so I hope that's what you're looking for. If I was 46 instead of 66 and couldn't work hospice I would commit mayhem to work on a dual diagnosis unit (medical+psych).

I've been in psych for 30 yrs and have encountered a bunch of RNs who moved to psych because they perceived it as "easier" than med-surg nursing. I've never seen that work out well. Either they quickly realized that it isn't really "easier" than med-surg nursing, or they were just really bad at it.

You're not going to get as much of a break from medical problems as you anticipate. There used to be a clear, bright line between people on med-surg units and people on psych units, and psych units used to (be able to) refuse to take people with acute medical problems. But whatever line there used to be is long gone. A large number of med-surg clients have psych problems, and large numbers of psych client have chronic and acute medical problems.

(Of course, if you're looking to make a change mostly because you're really interested in psych nursing, that's different.)