Day in the life of a psych nurse??

[nursenotamaid]

Hey all!

I'm an ICU nurse -- been working adult ICU (on the medical side) for the past 10 years and have reached the point of serious burn out. I wish I could go BACK to nursing school to do clinicals again because it's been so long, I have no idea what I actually want to do with my career because I can't remember what the all the specialties were actually like (and frankly, they have probably changed quite a bit since then).

I always enjoy talking to my patients (when I can) who have mental illness and I find psychiatric care to be absolutely fascinating. My frustration with patients who have psych problems all stem from the environment that they are in. Trying to keep an acutely psychotic or paranoid person in their ICU, in their bed, with their lines attached and taking therapies is enough to drive you up the wall.

I could follow my path of critical care that I'm in now and just change it up a bit, going to life flight or something. But psych is always nagging in the back of my head!

I read the threads here and I have no idea what a psych ER or psych ICU is, or how they would be different from the "regular" floors. I have no idea what your basic responsibilities would be day-to-day or how your shift generally goes. What advice can you give? Can anyone help me to understand before I start shoving my resumes out there??

Thank you in advance!!!