Advice, career info wanted

[amacdon]

I am currently a student studying psychology and nursing, hoping to combine the two when I'm finished with college. I'm working on a paper that I need advice or any information that can said or given to me about psychiatric nursing and how to go about specializing in it? Also, how these two degree would combine? Any info would be great! Thanks!!

[Davey Do]

A background in Psychology will assist you in understanding the behavior Psych Patients manifest as a result of their Mental Illness Dx. Many is the Nurse who will relay a report with a tone of disbelief at a Mentally Ill Patient's illogical behavior.

Somehow, the concept that illogical behavior and inappropriate emotions, which are typical manifestations of the Mental Illness, never sunk in for those Nurses.

[marshmallowstar, BSN, RN]

I doubled majored and psych and women's studies in undergrad. Worked in inpatient psych as a mental health tech based on a children's unit but would cover the adol. and adult units too. After that I worked at a runaway shelter and then become a sexual assault counselor at a rape crisis center. After 10 years I went back to school for nursing. The reality is my BA in psych did not prepare me for working inpatient psych. I took abnormal psych and psychotherapy classes in school but knowing the general concepts does not prepare you for what to do when a 14 year old girl has her first flashback or watching 2 men, who both think they're Jesus, having a conversation. Luckily I had a great preceptor at the psych hospital and got to mentor under some great psych nurses and therapists.

I think the two degrees work together in providing both psychology at large (social psych, psych of minorities, psych of religion) that impact everyone and then nursing gives you real life tools to assess and interact with patients.

The psych class I would recommend the most to a future psych nurse is developmental psychology. In nursing school our peds class and psych class both prioritized it but with all the nursing information (dx, tx, meds) that needs to go into the semester there isn't enough time to focus on development. Many MH patients are stuck at a developmental level d/t trauma, illness or other life events and some will regress during difficult times of illness (many medical patients do too) So identifying what stage they are in helps identify motivation for treatment and communication styles that will work best for them.

Good luck!