Don't be a Psych nurse if.....

[IMustBeCrazy]

I've seen a lot of questions from new grads re: psych nursing. In that vein, I offer up the following:

Just because you want to go into psych nursing doesn't mean you should.

Stay far away from Psych nursing if:

*You come to the psych floor to exorcise your own demons or address you or your family's mental health issues.

*You find it difficult to keep a clear head at all times, in incredibly challenging situations.

*You escalate your own behaviors or get scared/freak out easily.

*You enjoy using your coworkers for your personal therapy group.

*You exhibit high-strung, attention seeking, drama entrenched behaviors

*You feel an uncontrollable need to talk to coworkers about your aberrant or highly personal behaviors outside of work.

*You are on meds for depression/chronic pain/bipolar etc and feel the need to share this fact with everyone on the unit

*You come into psych because you believe you won't have to do 'real nursing'

*You step away from conflict, i.e. your coworker is body slammed by an unruly pt and you decide to 'wait for security' rather than helping the poor schmuck out because you "wouldn't want to ever put myself at risk," or "I have family to think of you know"

If you should fall into any of the above scenarios, please reconsider psych nursing. If not, welcome!

[WANTAFUNJOB]

Psych Nursing is facinating! And, as in everything else, there are different areas of psych nursing which some nowdays refer to as BEHAVIORAL HEALTH! (I had a mother get angry with me for saying that her child was admitted to a psychiatric ward.) Do you want to work with the children and adolescents or with the Alcohol and Drug/Chemically Dependent or would you prefer and Adult Psychiatric Unit or perhaps Gero-psych.

My personal advise would be to attain some good Med-Surg skills prior to going into Psych. Basic med-surg skills will play into any area that you choose as a specialty. You need these skills. Lots of Nurses skip over this very basic step and later do not feel qualified to do a lot of jobs because of not having good basic skills. I feel that it would be harder to go back and get these skills later. I personally started out in NICU. When my husband transferred and I took a job on a med surg floor it was like starting all over.

People expect a nurse to have certain skills. You are really not able to develop those skills in some specialty areas.

[JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP]

My belief is that all patients should be treated with dignity and respect, whether they're admitted for psych issues or any other type of treatment. While there is no reason to disclose intimate details to a patient, I see nothing wrong with "personal" information like, I'm married, I have a daughter, I like the color red (assuming that it comes up naturally.) Refusing to discuss anything even remotely personal can come across as unfriendly, especially if you have a long-term relationship with this patient.