What do you have to do to become a psych nurse? What's it like

Once you earn your RN license, you simply apply at psychiatric facilities and attempt to get hired at one of them. After working in psych for a couple of years and gaining experience, you have the option of becoming certified in psychiatric nursing. However, certification is optional.

As above. Working in psych, you would have lots of opportunities to work with people in crisis. You will meet people suffering from addictions, joblessness, homelessness, and those with significant losses of important relationships. You will encounter all manner of moods and behaviors. Sometimes, you will be personally threatened emotionally, verbally, and physically....... either one at a time, or all three in the same incident. You might someday find yourself cutting somebody down from a hanging. If you are lucky, you will be in time.

Every day on my way to work I pray that God sends me to the right place at the right time, and that I say what needs to be heard, or hear what needs to be said.

A good employer will provide lots of education for their staff. Just as a nurse in cardiology can read heart stuff, you will learn to read behavior stuff. Lucky psych nurses like me work in and/or develop a phenominal tag team approach to caregiving. We learn to trust in each other and communicate across disciplines and shifts. It keeps us all safer. Patients feel more supported, and they have a chance to experience what healthy environments feel and look like, even if busy and stressful at times. Some folks have never known that before, or it has been so long they've forgotten what it feels like to be safe and respected.

Safety risk assessments, detox assessments, medication education, DBT, mindfulness, coping skills, cognitive skill building.....the list of topics to learn and teach and apply to your own life is nearly endless. This either sounds like a dream-come-true or a nightmare to run from, or a big lot of both. Trust that voice.