adolescent psychiatry

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Hello!

I am a new grad, currently hired for an adolescent substance abuse unit. I've always thought that I would like to work with the pediatric population. I think I still do, but I am feeling intimidated by adolescents that act out or are overly confident. Many nurses tell me that adolescents with substance abuse are extremely manipulative and they are very difficult to take care. Are there any psy nurses that overcame this fear and continued to like working with adolescents? If so, how did you become more comfortable?

Also, I've met many adult psy nurses that think adolescents are a lot harder to work with and would never consider working in the ped units. On the other hand, some ped psy nurses really can't stand adults. Why do they have such strong opinions. IMO, adults with behavioral problems are like kids in that they never learned to cope and adolescents with behavioral problems at times try to be adults. Both population can be unstable and emotionally labile.

How does one know which population is more suitable? I am rotating in the adult unit now and I am starting to like it, and am concerned that I should be in adult and not adolescent which is what I am hired for.

Many thanks for your input!!

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Specializes in psychiatric, rehab.

I don't think one population is really better or worse then the other. Speaking as someone who used to be a high school teacher, its all about controlling yourself, picking your battles and learning to accept that kids push boundaries. I find I tend to relate better to adults, but that might be because I had four years of basically having parents hand off responsibility to me because I was a teacher and I went into nursing to get away from that. I guess that is just the long and the short of it- the populations only seem better because of you.

With kids, you have to be comfortable telling them "no" and meaning it. If you hand out a consequence you have to, HAVE TO, follow through with it.

It might sound weird, but I suggest you get some classroom management skill books- one of the better ones is The First Days by Wong and Wong. You can't apply all of it, but it helped me quite a bit and I fall back on it a lot while nursing- both in the adult unit and with the teens and children on the occasions that I float down there. It won't make you an instant success, but I think it might help somewhat.

And yes, teens can be manipulative and act out like crazy and, to me at least, they are harder to talk down from these times of acting out. You have to realize that they haven't developed their brains enough to really process what they have been put through or putting themselves through. Remember that the human brain develops through the early twenties and that you can't always logic them out of their emotions because they haven't developed that capacity as of yet.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I think for me personally the reason I love the kids is that I see hope in them more so than the adults but that is just my perception. I pray that there are some of mine that will get out and live happy lives. The kids are combative and I happen to think some of that is just related to kids being kids and the fact that they will have physical altercations especially when they are housed in such close quarters. Heck I'd think about popping someone if I had to live on the tiny unit my kids are on, lol. As DesertKat mentioned it is largely because their brains aren't finished forming and their impulse control and ability to reason the consequences of their actions in times of stress aren't well developed. If you find you like adults more than go for it. My thoughts would be that for someone a bit unsure, also judging by your name, that the adults might be a better fit for you right out of school. Not that anything is forever and you can always switch back if you decide to. Hang in there and either way welcome to the world of psych nursing!

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Thank you DesertKat and Jules A! I will check out the First Days by Wong and Wong.

Since I am hired for the adolescent unit I will try that out first and go from there. Even though I have slightly low self-esteem, I learn really quickly and I hope my desire to help adolescents will make my transition easier.

THANKS AGAIN. You guys are great!

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Specializes in mental health; hangover remedies.
How does one know which population is more suitable?

It's not them.... it's you.

We all have our preferences. I can no more tell you your preferences than you can tell me mine.

But good luck.

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