Am I qualified for Psych?

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I am a school nurse, and I LOVE it! :redpinkhe I have considered going back to the hospital setting on a PRN basis for some extra money and to kinda keep my foot in the door. I do not really want to go back to med/surg or critical care type nursing, and I have always wanted to try psych nursing. It was one of my favorite rotations in NS, and I think I was pretty good at talking to the pts. But, I am wondering if I have enough hospital experience to even apply for a psych job.

I worked on a cardiac tele floor for 3 months after graduation and it was AWFUL - my preceptor was great but she was always charge nurse, and so she was given the easiest patients. With the preceptorship I took the same pts as her, so therefore I didn't get the "hard" patients. We also were often short staffed and one night while I was still on my preceptorship, they gave me 5 patients on my own and my preceptor had 5 of her own - this is when I still had 2 weeks before I was scheduled to start taking my own pts!!!! Once I did start getting my own patients I was overwhelmed because I had only taken the "easy" charge nurse pts in the past, and now I was getting the typical pt. load. One night I had a trached pt. and had never had a pt with a trach, and of course everyone was too swamped to help me! Luckily it was ok. Anyway, sorry for the rant! I was not looking to leave per se, but an opportunity to do school nursing fell in my lap (it was an area of nursing I was always interested in doing, I just did not think it would be that soon!) I took it and have been doing it for almost a year. Love, love, love my kiddos!

I work well with the kids, and alot of what I deal with is emotional as much as physical issues. I would love to work on an adolescent or child psych unit PRN, but do you think I have enough experience to even try for it? Are orientations usually pretty good? Will it be a detriment that I might not have the clinical hospital skills of someone who has been doing Med/Surg? Thanks!!!

[Jules A, MSN]

Hi,

Definitely give it a try! Imvho much of being successful in psych is being interested and empathetic to the patients. Most everything else you can be taught and I'd bet you really have most of the skills already. I do pediatric psych and love it.