Being a Psych RN

[JM_RN]

Background: I am in nursing school and graduate in May '14. I decided I needed to get a job in the hospital as a tech so after graduation it would be pretty easy to get a full time position as an RN. The catch: the only place hiring at the time in the hospital was psych. I reluctantly took the position with the idea that after 6 montsh I could transfer to another part of the hospital. Problem is, if you want to call it that, 14 monthe later - I love psych.

Issue: The patients just break my heart over and over. Admittedly I have a huge soft spot these pts, when it appears others dont. It seems that mental health is just a revolving door, especially in Alabama, and would I really be making more of a difference in another part of the hospital?

Questions:

1) It seems that psych nurses are looked down on much like our pts

2) I would love to travel nurse later on but is their a need for psych travel nursing?

3) If I stay in psych, i feel as though I can make a bigger diff in pts lives as a PMHNP, thoughts.

Thats a mouthful - fire away. Thanks in advance.

1) It seems that psych nurses are looked down on much like our pts

I do not look down upon psych nurses but neither do I think that they're particularly well-prepared to step onto the floor or into the ICU/ED.

If you like it and would like to make a career of it, who gives a rip what other people think?

If you're hoping to make it a stepping stone into an acute-care medical/surgical role, you may have trouble making the leap.

2) I would love to travel nurse later on but is their a need for psych travel nursing?

Not in these parts. The number of psych beds is shrinking, not expanding.

3) If I stay in psych, i feel as though I can make a bigger diff in pts lives as a PMHNP, thoughts.

Everybody wants to be an NP...

If you really want to be an NP then who cares about #1 and #2?