Chrinic Back Pain and Psych

IMustBeCrazy · Dec 17, 2005

I have chronic back pain due to degenerative disc disease...
In the early 80's I completed 2 years of a 3 year RN program at a large teaching hospital. I did my psych rotation there so I have an idea of what psych nursing is about but I don't know alot about it.:)

If you have a bad back/joints etc I would not recommend going into psych nursing.

On a med/surg floor you will encounter hitting/kicking/slapping/biting from patients occasionally. On psych you may find yourself in a full body tackle. Not to mention the fact that the other nurses on your unit rely upon you to pull your weight when you may need to participate in 'taking down' an out-of-control patient.

Psych nursing is not an administrative nursing position. It is just as physically demanding (if not more so), than 'medical' floors (I despise that differentiation btw :imbar ).

Please consider your coworker's safety before you decide to enter psychiatric nursing. I wouldn't want to have to worry about a coworker taking a step back or hesitating to get involved when a patient is coming at me.

~IMBC

missunnybrook · Dec 18, 2005

If you have a bad back/joints etc I would not recommend going into psych nursing.
On a med/surg floor you will encounter hitting/kicking/slapping/biting from patients occasionally. On psych you may find yourself in a full body tackle. Not to mention the fact that the other nurses on your unit rely upon you to pull your weight when you may need to participate in 'taking down' an out-of-control patient.
Psych nursing is not an administrative nursing position. It is just as physically demanding (if not more so), than 'medical' floors (I despise that differentiation btw :imbar ).
Please consider your coworker's safety before you decide to enter psychiatric nursing. I wouldn't want to have to worry about a coworker taking a step back or hesitating to get involved when a patient is coming at me.
~IMBC

Thanks for your reply. It definately provides me with information to consider. I am not a scaredy-cat type of person so I would never leave a co-worker in need. However, I don't think I could take a full body tackle too many times and it not affect my back. Maybe recovery would be a better place for me.

elkpark · Dec 18, 2005

I agree that I would have concerns about working in a psych setting with a colleague who wasn't able to contribute her/his "fair share" in physical takedowns, which are typically group efforts, as well as being concerned, for your sake, about your back being further injured in a 1:1 physical confrontation of some kind. (That is a risk for anyone, of course, but if you know you've already got serious back problems, why tempt fate??) That person would be putting other staff at risk as well as her/himself.

There is a common misconception in nursing that psych nursing is not physically demanding, and if someone has phyical limitations or is just tired of running the halls in another specialty and looking for a less tiring option, that moving into psych is a way of taking it easier physically. This is not true.