disallusioned with nursing! psych new grad

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

I have just finished my 8 week new grad psych nursing orientation. I have been extremely lucky that my preceptor is an incredible nurse and human being. He is really the first mentor I have ever had.. and I've told him that he is stuck with me =P

I actually do enjoy working with psych patients and I am pretty good at it. buttttttt There has been some upheaval in the unit.. changes which are well..hostile to nurses..

Taking admissions is now the priority.. yes.. trumping care of the patients you already have!!! Admissions can come whenever they are ready.. med pass.. shift change..not done with your current admit..while your detoxers are moving towards DTs.. whenever..doesnt (&^(*) matter. And they call the (^()&% manager if you delay an admit even if you have a valid reason!!!!! Everyone is overworked.. irritable and stressed. More mistakes are being made. You can practically taste and feel the negativity!!

I recently had a shift where i worked for 13 hours with no breaks!! 10 patients..and two admits.. and i was still chewed out by the AM nurses for not doing enough!!!!! I came home and cried.

The unit was also really vulnerable.. i had 12 patients.. one patient had no admit paperwork completed from day shift (shift change admit), but slept my whole shift because she was combative and was given a ton of ativan (not on her med records btw). One patient was a regular admit.. ok.. my 12th patient rolled in the door at 6am..before shift change at 7am.. my preceptor's patient rolled in the door perfectly at 7am >_<. so day shift.. inherited my passed out patient without paperwork.. and the admit.. i stayed late to complete it was hell..and we would have all been screwed if a had acted or medical emergency. in fact.. think about it.. what sleeping woken out..when rolled in.. just be complicated when last ciwa of detoxer>

i like the theory of nursing.. this job sucks.

i feel ABUSED and EXPLOITED! and I feel like I am betraying my patients who trust me that they are safe and that their needs will be met.

is this what nursing is??? as much as I like caring for patients.. I refuse to be overworked to death.. i'm young and have a bachelor's degree. :banghead: thanks for listening!!!!!

ps.

(a joke that was in my mind)

I rate my day a 2/10. I am having active SI. I am having HI against you with a plan. I have voices in my head telling me to quit.. *$*&&( you! LOL

Specializes in Psych.

Our mental health workers can chart observations; I ususally just sign off on them, ie: "Concur with above notation", unless it's a newer MHW and then I talk with them before they chart, as a teaching tool, so next time they are more aware of what is appropriate and what is not, and WHY. Why can't your LPN's chart? Our rule is that an RN must chart at least once Q24H, although we frequently chart more (hell, isn't our opinion mega important LOL).

The good news is that a recession is really good for health care, nurses come back to hospitals, as they may be the only family source of income. As a matter of fact, I believe my unit is fully staffed at present. See what I mean?:yeah:

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Specializes in psychiatric, home health.

my goodness, I have never had more tha 8 psych pts at a time , and that was at a travel position in Ct. , any more than that sounds extremely dangerous for you and your pts.

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.
A patient recently hung himself In a CT hospital. Could lack of adequate staffing have anything to do with this?

It is scary and unsafe, and happens all too often. What will we as nurses do to make changes to keep everyone safe?

A psych patient here was murdered in his bed by his roommate. The victim had been brought in for a psychotic episode, but was doing better and was quite calm and docile-not sure what his roommate's reason for admission was or what the staffing ratio was.

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

It's gotten so bad that nurses are being mandated to work 16 hour shifts that usually run to more like 17. That same mandated nurse gets to go home to sleep for four hours and show up for her next shift 7 hours later. Our assistant managers have picked up as much slack as they can without dropping dead themselves.

I'm thinking of retiring early. Very early. This may be my last year guys. I just don't think I can cut it much longer. It's not just psych. The current culture permeates throughout the profession. I wonder what the average length of service is for nurses before they too hang up their license.

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Specializes in psychiatric, home health.

My goodness , I guess nursing on a gero psych unit and having 2 aides and 1 RN isn't so bad! (for 6 very disoriented, aggressive pts):yeah:

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Specializes in behavioral health.
A psych patient here was murdered in his bed by his roommate. The victim had been brought in for a psychotic episode, but was doing better and was quite calm and docile-not sure what his roommate's reason for admission was or what the staffing ratio was.

TERRIFYING!!!!!!!! poor guy.. he checked himself in to be kept safe =(. I feel so much responsibility for my patients. They trust us to keep them safe!!! I don't know how I could handle that if he were my patient.

Very thankfully, In Arizona, mandatory overtime and mandatory 16 hour shifts are illegal!!! I don't like the nursing culture either. Nurses are truly expected to sacrifice themselves to the point of self-abuse!!! Most nurses I know (including me) don't always even take a lunch during a 12 hr shift!!!

Take care, RNKittyKat,

you only have one life to enjoy

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.
TERRIFYING!!!!!!!! poor guy.. he checked himself in to be kept safe =(. I feel so much responsibility for my patients. They trust us to keep them safe!!! I don't know how I could handle that if he were my patient.

I can't imagine how the staff must have felt in that case-they're going to be double and triple guessing themselves for a long time.

I had a patient die by suicide while in hospital. I'd warned the other nurses repeatedly that he was at risk to self-harm, but I still felt awful. I wanted to call in security for a 1:1 or speak to his MD, but on that unit, everythign had to go through the RN and nothing happened. Either that, or else the patient told me of his wishes but denied them to the doctor and RNs-I don't know which.

I still sometimes second guess the last day or two that I cared for him, wondering if I could have done things differently, even though it's been 12 years, so I don't doubt that those psych nurses are going to be doing a lot of wondering and self-searching for a long time.

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Most nurses I know (including me) don't always even take a lunch during a 12 hr shift!!!

Lunch break? What's that and why didn't anyone tell me about it?!?!

I recently heard that a fellow RN filled out the form that you are "supposed" to fill out if you work through a meal and/or breaks (since this time is deducted from your paycheck) and the supervisor refused to sign it.

But, hey, when I'm the only RN on a unit, I can't leave anyway. Someday .... well, one can dream. :chuckle

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

No, we generally do not do lunch either, but if on the rare occasion that the day is running smooth, while the majority of the pts. are in the cafe I always try to tell the other RN to get off the unit for 1/2 hr. they really do appreciate it and she will do the same for me.....this is

when we have 2 RN's on the unit...sometimes there are just one also.

You have to have a little time to recharge your batteries on a 12 hr. shift !!

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

RNdaze----that supervisor should be reported....I always signed the "unit too busy for lunch break" sheet when I was supervisor....I even took them to the nurses to fill out when they did not think about it...

That is just horrible that she would not sign....must be more to it than you know....maybe told not to by higher ups, who knows??

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I was actually happy to see your post. I will be graduating in June and was told be an administrator that Arizona has a law prohibiting new grads from becoming psych nurses. Does anyone know this to be true? I often see job postings asking for 1 years psych experience, but I have never heard of a state law concerning this.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.
I was actually happy to see your post. I will be graduating in June and was told be an administrator that Arizona has a law prohibiting new grads from becoming psych nurses. Does anyone know this to be true? I often see job postings asking for 1 years psych experience, but I have never heard of a state law concerning this.

I'm not from AZ but haven't heard of anything like this. What administrator told you?

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