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

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

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!

Specializes in Psychiatric.

What I have found interesting during this rotation (OB/Gyn) is that some of the hospitals here have floors specifically for GYN surgeries, which is interesting to me...perhaps I could do a year of THAT type of med/surg and then hit the psych floor running...

I am starting to think that no matter how hard I try I can't get away from med/surg LOL...so I think I will try to do at LEAST 6 months of it before my psych job, unless I can get a job where I can do psych primarily and float down to med/surg (or something)...Thanks for all the replies on this thread guys...I really appreciate everyone's point of view!!

Specializes in Mental Health, Orthopaedics, MedSurg.

Hi, I am a comprehensive nurse with a grad dip in psych working in Australia. When I was doing my Bachelor of Nursing, I indicated to some nurses that I would prefer to work in psych, and was advised that I should do med/surg first before 'retiring' in psych. Since I cannot resist challenge, I started in psych and then did one and a half year in a number of med/surg wards and I yearned for psych all that time. I have now gone back to psych but the experience med/surg gave me was/is invaluable. I can now relate to med/surg nurses' frustrations with psych patients and vice versa. And I am able to be a 'real' nurse when the need arises. The hospital I work for allows psych nurses to be seconded to med/surg if the nurse request it.

My advise..............if you are passionate about psych nursing, do psych first and then venture into med/surg part time or PRN, if possible. Hope this helps.

w/psych, you gotta be familiar w/it all....usually psych pts have a co-morbitiy of some sort! is their mental illness being exacerbated by an underlying medical condition? etc. does the facility you plan on working at detox on their psych units? some do.... the potential for a medical emergency can arrise at anytime, any unit. i went fresh out of school to an acute psych unit that detoxed, so i got alot of that type of exp. right out the gate...iv's, frequent v/s monitoring etc... s/p gsw's, stabbings, ingestions of foriegn bodies etc, etc, etc....then your iddm's, copd's, htns,reactions to medications, nms, sz disorders...the list goes on & on.... the meds in psych have numerous side effects & interactions (most all meds do i guess)i dont feel i needed any med-surg, as i am an lpn & my practical in med-surg was long & extensive and the last rotation i had, before going to work as a gpn, a week after graduation. also as i said, the facility where i work, exposed me to alot of medical in the psych setting..and still does....you will always gain knowledge from any experience...

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!

The only thing I would add to all the great replies is if you do only Psych. Nursing first I have seen several RNs that personally felt limited when they wanted to make a change out of psych nursing. I had the experience of needing to assure an interviewer one time that I did do/could do "regular" medical type nursiing which I was easily able to do as yes in Psych you are the person resonsible for your patient's health. They are really almost more complicted to "nurse" medically because they are often non-compliant and not accurate reporters/historians and you have to be that much more vigilant.

I agree. I went right from Nursing School into Psych and there have been many times that I wished I had more of the "medical" experience as a RN, mainly because that would make it easier for me to land more jobs that are not psych. related. However, on that note, I have been a Psych RN since 1973 and never have had a problem getting a job as a RN in psych. When I have been a patient in a hospital and saw how overlyworked the Nurses seemed to be, I did not regret not getting into that field.

All of Nursing includes the whole person anyway. I found the "medical" nurses very helpful for me emotionally when I was in the hospital.

As a psych nurse, I do lots of the more "Medical" things, as vital signs, blood drawing, injections, going over lab. results, referring to a PCP when I determine a problem, etc.

Another point; Frequently on a psych unit, the "Doctor" is a psychiatrist. He or she is even more of a specalist than the RN who went direct to psych from nursing school. Psychiatrists very often depend heavily on nurses to alert them that something is physiclly wrong.

Hukilau said she was lucky to work with a team having varied backgrounds and strenghts. "When teamwork and trust are working properly the combination of skills of 3 or 4 nurses can handle just about anything." Indeed you are lucky. At my facility there are 4 nurses in the entire hospital on the night shift. One on each of the, locked, inpatient wards and one, me, supervising them, giving nursing support to the 5 unlocked, residential, units, and doing admissions.

+ Add a Comment