Do you have enough time to help yr patients?

[mrs.captain.kangaroo]

Hi I'm a student and interested in psych nursing. I decided to go to a therapist myself to work out some issues before entering psych nursing - mainly social anxiety.

Do you feel you have time to interact with your patients and help them?

My therapist disturbed me when he said that I wouldn't have any time to really interact with my patients in psych nursing and it would mainly be just giving meds. Is that what it is like or is he wrong or would it depend on the facility?

I'd really like to deal with the patients personally as one reason I want to go into psych is close friends who committed suicide when I was younger (incredibly sad to see a 19 year old only child kill himself), an anorexic classmate starving herself to death....I'd like to think I could make a difference in someone's life and maybe help them make the decision to turn them away from suicide or destructive choices.

[Hokie]

I'm a RN on a dual-diagnosis unit and previously worked on the chronic psychiatric unit. On both units, I have had the time to sit and talk with the patients which is the reason to work psych. As has been noted earlier, there are CNAs which work with the team who can provide much needed insight as they spend the majority of their time with the patients.

[Altered]

Have you considered working at a residential treatment center?