Do I NEED Med-Surg training to be a psych nurse?

hypnotic_nurse · Jul 9, 2004

YES!!!

Those who are mentally ill grow older and older and physically sicker. You may find yourself on a geropsych unit and you will need all your medsurg skills in addition to your psych skills.

Adult psych patients take not only their psych meds but also the meds that people who have poor living skills (or just plain bad genetic luck) wind up with -- meds for hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, emphysema, hep C, AIDS...so you have to be up on a wide range of meds and have to be able to assess for health problems in addition to psych problems.

Your psych patients may have colostomies, amputations, healing surgical or self-inflicted wounds (have had several gunshot victims, self-inflicted)...the list goes on.

Yes, your psych skills are most important for psych. But the other skills are as well.

And all those of you who are wondering if you need psych in med-surg...ask any med-surg nurse! :)

LeapNurse · Jul 10, 2004

from neophyte nurse day one, i went directly into psych, focused only on psych, and developed a knowledge base and advocacy in psych. at a free-standing inpatient psych hospital, we sent medical problems to the er. when i worked in a denver co hospital we sent medical problems downstairs to the er, med unit, etc. yes, you have to be able to recognize a medical problem, but every psych unit takes vital signs and i would hope a first day nursing student could recognize a medical problem, or that "something is wrong." if you don't understand basics, i'd wonder how you passed boards. also, as a new nurse, ask others. in conclusion, med surg experience is fine, but certainly not a necessity to be a skilled, intelligent, altruistic, and caring psychiatric nurse.

EarthChild1130 · Jul 10, 2004

Here's something I thought about this morning: Would I as a new graduate (in August next year, anyway! lol) be able to float between med/surg and psych floors? So I can work both at the same time? Or could I do something like work primarily on a psych nursing floor but ask every so often to be floated down to med/surg?? I don't know how most hospitals work but that would be great! LOL :)

Thanks for the replies guys...it's a lot to decide!!

lucianne · Jul 11, 2004

It's not a bad idea, but I think the facility might prefer that you work mostly med-surg and float to psych. It's rare to have anyone from another unit willing to go to psych, so they'd probably love you on the psych unit.

EarthChild1130 · Jul 11, 2004

That sounds good to me...that way I can get the med/surg experience out of the way and still 'get my toes wet' in the psych ward. Only thing now is to get through school!! LOL Thanks again! :)

limandri · Aug 7, 2004

I have been a psych nurse for a long time (both in-patient generalist and out patient advanced practice) and I truely believe a new grad should first get psych experience before going into med-surg. It is much more difficult to develop those interpersonal and supportive skills in med surg and they are so very needed. On the other hand nursing skills in any area that aren't practiced will get rusty. Starting with a year of med-surg doesn't assure that your skills will be current, it just postpones developing psych skills. After a year where ever you are practicing you will find those skills you haven't been practicing get outdated. If you choose to be in psych, start there. I worked in med surg briefly after graduating and can't say it was all that helpful in my career except to affirm my desire and talent was better in psych.

Personally, I think this one year in med-surg is a myth promulgated by med-surg faculty and hospital employers.

I'm sure this has been posted a gazillion times before, and I appreciate in advance any replies!
Do you guys think that psych nurses need experience in med/surg before going into psych nursing? Why or why not??
Thanks!

EarthChild1130 · Aug 7, 2004

My teacher always told us that she wished med-surg folks would spend a year as psych nurses and not the other way round for that exact same reason...thanks so much for posting for me...I love having experienced views!

rachaelm4 · Aug 9, 2004

No. I'm a new graduate nurse and I started right into a psychiatric hospital. If psych is what you want to do then go for it, times have changed you don't NEED med/surg before going into a speciality.... :)

CharlieRN · Aug 16, 2004

Need it "no". But should you make every effort to get it "yes". It will make you far safer for your patients and more useful to your employers. Those who don't have med-surg experience are the ones who say you don't need it. I hated my year of med-surg, but it has saved the lives of about a dozen of my patients over my 25 year career as an RN.

EarthChild1130 · Aug 16, 2004

That's a very good point Charlie...thank you! :)

Spazzy Nurse, RN · Aug 20, 2004

I too say ideally yes. I don't know if it's my imagination, but the field of psych seems to have become loaded with medical problems in the past few years. When I first started psych. 6 years ago, it seemed there were more chronic, older patients who had been in the system for years. Now the patients seem to be getting younger and more medically fragile in some cases. Or maybe I'm just nuts. :)

As for rotating med surg and psych. as a new grad, I know that lots of hospitals won't put brand new nurses in psych. On the other hand, when my brother started his first job he floated med surg and psych, so check into it.