My mom and this guy today were having a conversation about me being a psych major. its so frustrating to have negative people around me. I don't know what i want to do but i know that i am interested in psych, social work and nursing. He was telling me I should look for a job as a nurse where i can have a social work/psych aspect..ive seen my career adviser soo many times and she didn't seem to help much on career options like that..but the guy said there is such a thing as an RN social worker..is this true?
I saw some people give suggestions on here about case managers but what exactly are they? do they have the social work aspect? do they make more than social workers?
I want to work with all age ranges, not be depressed with my job, help people mentally, physically and emotionally.
is it bad to be a psych major? i heard you can get a masters in social work without needing a a b.s in social work..so wouldnt it be good to get my b.s in psych in case i do go into nursing?
Are there any other field options that you can suggest for me?
Good luck finding work with a pysch major. I have some friends with that degree and they're bagging groceries or working at the mall, living hand to mouth trying to pay off loans. Going to grad school is another hefty loan. Many banks these days aren't willing to give you a fixed rate either, and finding a good-paying job that will justify the investment is difficult.
Sorry to be a Negative Nancy but that's reality for you. It's hard for us nursing students too.
Why the negativity towards "crazy" people though? Were you hoping that with your degree that you'd only have to deal with neurotic suburbanites who are sad because they have too much stuff?
Thanks tish i hope i figure it out soon once i job shadow!
Kuniklo: But did they continue to get their ph.ds? and i just dont want to work with only ONE group of people..i feel like thats depressing..working with people who are psychotic all of the time i feel is a bit draining compared to dealing with a mixture of people.
i feel like thats depressing..working with people who are psychotic all of the time i feel is a bit draining compared to dealing with a mixture of people.
Even as a nurse who dislikes psych patients for many reasons can I just say that this statement shows a lack of understanding. the majority of psych patients are NEVER "psychotic". they may simply be depressed, withdrawn, suicidal or have some behavioural problems. Even on my student placemnet in a psych unit I only met a handful of truly psychotic patients.
Find a career counselor at the school you go to and get some input based on surveys and other tools that use information pertaining to you.... we're a bunch of strangers who wouldn't know you if you stepped on our feet
Seriously- there are some good evaluation tools for job selection and compatibility
Specializes in LTC, Disease Management, smoking Cessati.
also would it be a waste of a degree to get my psychology degree? thank you for the idea i am going to look at the nearest hospital so i can jobshadow case managers, social workers, nurses, and psychologists in hospitals. i hope i figure this all out soon!
Education is never a waste ...it is yours forever..no one can steal that from you!!
First - Know that you will make some choices. You will figure it out.
second - if you make a choice and are not happy, you will make another one. That's life.
Are you interested in the salaries connected with these choices? And how much work is actually available in each field? Research these aspects now.
I guess you have to figure out how you want to spend your work life, how you want to spend each day at your future job. I see that you do like variety. Nursing definitely provides opportunity for that. There are many specialties - cardiac, renal, Operating Room, day shift, night shift, mental health, clinics in the ghetto, outpatient surgery in the suburbs, Labor and Delivery as a travel nurse - 3 months in Alaska, 3 months in Hawaii, 3 months in Saudi Arabia. Lots of variety in Nursing. There might be travel work for SW's and Psych's, too, not sure. Nurses might work for private industry (occupational health nursing) or for insurance companies (learning how to turn down claims while trying to get the patient well for the least possible cost to the insurer). A nurse might render first aid on a movie set (hard to get these few jobs, lots of competition) or you might work an inner city ER or go into the military and provide care in a MASH unit for front line troops or become a Nurse Anesthetist at the Army's expense. You really should explore the military as an employer. Also, look into other Federal departments for work as a nurse, SW, or Psychologist. State governments employ lots of people, too, as do some counties and cities. Kind of hard times financially right now, but at least check it out.
Do you want to be self-employed? Do you want shift work or would you prefer to be off on holidays, weekends, and in the evening and night hours?
Nursing requires working 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, every single day of the year (Christmas, too) in jobs where you work directly with patients. If you become a teacher or administrator, you might be on call but likely won't have to go to work other than day shift Monday - Friday. This consideration becomes very, very important if you have children and want to see them a lot and if you'd prefer to be off duty on Thanksgiving and the 4th of July.
I guess having a BS in Psych could be good if you go into Nursing later, but a lot of schools only want to accept transfer credits within 5 years of you having earned them and they might not all be transferable.
A Social Worker, by the very nature of working socially, is going to encounter many unhappy situations. You might work in a jail or juvenile detention, you might work in a school, in a methadone clinic, or in a hospital - mental hospital, medical-surgical hospital, VA (veterans') hospital, in an ER at a hospital, or any other Service area in a hospital. Some social workers develop a private counseling practice, usually aligning with a psychiatrist who can prescribe medications the SW's patients might need for mental illness. Some social workers work in long-term care (employed nursing homes). Some teach social work students, do research, write and publish articles and books.
You might be called upon to get kids out of their family homes and put into foster care or protective custody. Not a happy thing.
Being around sadness does make you sad. But it's not so bad if you keep in mind that you are helping protect children and even helping their parents get the help they need. It's frustrating when you see the same person mess up over and over, but you will be able to help some people.
You might work for a state Department of Social Services or other department that handles food stamps and other welfare benefits.
An RN is going to be more concerned with meds, treatments (changing bandages, applying creams, for instance), and the physical care a sick person needs. Some RN's go into Management of Nursing, teach Nursing, do research, publish their findings. An RN might become a Nurse Practitioner and will specialize in a particular area - Dermatology, Neurology, Pediatrics, or many other specialties. She will see patients like a doctor does, diagnose and prescribe. She will be paid a good deal less than the doctor. An NP can make rounds at a Nursing home so the doctor can see patients in the office.
A psychologist's duties would be more like those of a social worker, in that they don't do IV's, bedpans, bathing, shots, or other physical care. You will likely need a doctorate in Psychology to really go anywhere with it. SW requires a Master's. Nursing you can still get into with a 2 year Associate's degree, although the push is really on for the BSN to be the minimum entrance degree.
I guess you just need to do some further research into income and job availability. Also, spend time with someone doing bedside, direct care Nursing in a hospital, a clinic, jail, prison, school, long-term care, and skilled nursing facilities. Talk with a Nurse Manager in a couple of facilities and with the DON or CNE (Director of Nursing or Chief Nurse Executive) at a couple of places.
Do the same with Social Workers and with Psychologists.
I know that's a lot of research, but your reward will be that you will be able to make a more informed decision as to which path to pursue and which path will actually result in employment. Nurses are having trouble finding work these days. I don't know about the other disciplines you are interested in.
I do wish you the best. Oh, you could also speak with professors in SW, Nursing, and Psych and see what they have to say.
Even as a nurse who dislikes psych patients for many reasons can I just say that this statement shows a lack of understanding. the majority of psych patients are NEVER "psychotic". they may simply be depressed, withdrawn, suicidal or have some behavioural problems. Even on my student placemnet in a psych unit I only met a handful of truly psychotic patients.
What is your understanding of the term psychotic?
I have to disagree. There are plenty of patients who are ALWAYS psychotic. They are either hallucinating or have delusions all the time. They are definitely psychotic. I think OP doesn't really grasp the term, but I'm just sayin'.
Thanks tish i hope i figure it out soon once i job shadow!
Kuniklo: But did they continue to get their ph.ds? and i just dont want to work with only ONE group of people..i feel like thats depressing..working with people who are psychotic all of the time i feel is a bit draining compared to dealing with a mixture of people.
Grad student positions don't just fall out of the sky. And getting into a doctorate program isn't easy. There's a lot of competition, especially now since many jobless students are going back to grad school to delay paying off their debts. Not only do you have to be exceptionally bright, but you have to kiss a lot of butts and get a lot of references/recommendations. For a doctorate degree, you need quite a bit of experience before they'll accept you. Typically, a PhD was something that people pursued when they got to middle age, after they had beefed up their credentials through a decade or more of practice. You have to ask yourself if you can afford to pay off a massive debt plus bills and living expenses hanging over your head while you are working at gaining this experience - IF you can find a position to begin with.
Going to grad school isn't free - it's more loans that you have to take on. And you have to factor in the interest that accumulates while you're not paying back the principle. Many banks won't give you a fixed rate anymore - variable rates mean that there's a chance your interest could sky rocket according to how the market goes, which could add tens of thousands of dollars to what you originally signed up for. I know a lot of people who only make enough every month to pay the interest; they aren't anywhere close to getting to the actual principle.
Some programs give you a small stipend or pay for a portion of your tuition if you're lucky enough to get a position as a TA or research assistant, but people have told me that it's only enough to pay for food (not very good food) and maybe the rent. Having an opportunity to ride the coat tails of a more distinguished university professor/researcher means that you may do slightly better financially, but many grad students have told me that it's a lot harder than you think to get a professor to favor you over the others.
But will i only be working with mental/psychotic patients? That feels like i would be depressed or potentially crazy when dealing with only "crazy" patients..sorry if that came out wrong. People always tell me how psych and social work are depressing but i know i want to help people..just not people who are only mentally ill
A job - any job- that you don't like is depressing. Helping people and having job satisfaction are like the opposite of depressing.
Any patient or client you come into contact with in health care could have an underlying psych diagnosis, anything from run-of-the-mill depression to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, to full blown break from reality. And, a lot of people with psych "stuff" are NOT diagnosed or getting help for it, then show up in the ED or the clinic. That's just how it is.
Overall I think that as nurses we have more options for different opportunities (inpatient, outpatient, psych unit) than social workers do. Either nurses or social workers can work as a case manager. Either one could become a LCSW and do one-on-one counseling with further experience and training. Either one could get burned out too.
It sounds like you find working with psych patients depressing from your previous statement. Based on that, I would say that psych nursing probably isn't for you. Psych patients are not easy to treat; typically they are "frequent fliers" since they take their meds for a while, then stop because of the nasty side effects (psych meds really have not come all that far since their inception but that's probably because the majority of our research goes into other areas). Anyway, psych patients typically relapse, and if you find this depressing, there are still plenty of other nursing areas.
However, psych patients pretty much permeate most of the hospital (other than the NICU, I guess lol). You will take care of people who have psych issues in the med/surg floor, OB floor, even peds from time to time, and the ICU. These people need our compassion, though, for what they deal with is not easy. Severe depression (I see overdose a lot in my unit/vented patients, detox, etc), and they need caring nurses. Many people quickly lose compassion for these people because they believe they should be able to "snap out of it" or their addiction is their fault, etc, which seriously, I've never been in their shoes, but do you think people wake up one day and say, I can't wait to wake up each morning and drink 3 pints of whiskey?
Anyway, I would try job shadowing, and don't lose heart, you will discover what you really want to do in life, but also you need a paycheck too, so being practical is huge. I would choose something that you want to do, but that also is marketable. Nursing is marketable, although it's not easy to get a job in certain areas of the country (see what the market is like in your area). Best of luck to you! Also, if you're interested in social work, you could be a medical social worker if you want to work in a hospital setting (which requires a master's degree).
A job - any job- that you don't like is depressing. Helping people and having job satisfaction are like the opposite of depressing.
Any patient or client you come into contact with in health care could have an underlying psych diagnosis, anything from run-of-the-mill depression to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, to full blown break from reality. And, a lot of people with psych "stuff" are NOT diagnosed or getting help for it, then show up in the ED or the clinic. That's just how it is.
Overall I think that as nurses we have more options for different opportunities (inpatient, outpatient, psych unit) than social workers do. Either nurses or social workers can work as a case manager. Either one could become a LCSW and do one-on-one counseling with further experience and training. Either one could get burned out too.
Exactly! You don't have to in a hospital to be "crazy" Alot of people walking around have underlining psych problems and you wouldn't even know until it gets exacerbated or they stop taking their medications.
Kuniklo
36 Posts
Good luck finding work with a pysch major. I have some friends with that degree and they're bagging groceries or working at the mall, living hand to mouth trying to pay off loans. Going to grad school is another hefty loan. Many banks these days aren't willing to give you a fixed rate either, and finding a good-paying job that will justify the investment is difficult.
Sorry to be a Negative Nancy but that's reality for you. It's hard for us nursing students too.
Why the negativity towards "crazy" people though? Were you hoping that with your degree that you'd only have to deal with neurotic suburbanites who are sad because they have too much stuff?