Eating Disorder Patients

HMP83 · Jan 23, 2007

Hello,

welcome! your job sounds very interesting. Eating disorders and psych issues have always been very interesting to me. I've searched for jobs similar to yours but have not been able to find any. I'm an RN with less than a year of experience behind me. I've been working since June 06 on a onc/hematology unit. What kind of experience are they looking for in a job like yours? Do you work with other nurses? is it stressful? I think I'm just not cut out for hospital nursing and am hoping to find my niche. Thanks for sharing your experience.

tlc365 · Jan 24, 2007

I'm glad you are interested in psych and eating disorders not many people are. Well Remuda Ranch is the facility that I work at and they hire nurses from all backgrounds. I think they prefer if you come in with an open mind and a willingness to learn. Working with E.D. patients is a little different than typical psych patients so in a way it is good to be a "clean slate" and the facility has a wonderful training process that all nurses go through and I have learned mostly through that process and my co-workers. As far as stress goes on a scale of 1-10 day to day stress is about a 3. Some days is more but it is not high impact or a rushed strenous job. We all work as a team and get things done and often there is a lot of down time. I had to get used to not moving and rushing all the time like in a hosp. setting. Ther is always 2 nurses each shift for 14-16 pts. and they prefer an lpn and an RN each shift but we seem to have more LPNs because of the shortage. You can log onto remudaranch.com for more info on the facility.

student456 · Feb 7, 2007

Hi,

I am very interested in psych/eating disorder nursing...next semester I am probably going to have my clinical at an eating disorder clinic.

I have a few questions about your job.

Do you have to have a car to live and work at Remuda Ranch? Also, would you know the starting salary in Arizona or Remuda Ranch? Ive checked out the website and it just says generous salary and benefits, etc. Any other tips about it would help too

I would love to work in psych specifically eating disorders when I graduate from nursing school. Id have to take the USA Nclex and then move to the states from canada....would be very interesting though!

vrhodes · Feb 7, 2007

Hi TLC

I work in a peds hosp. in the adolescent ward. We have a lot of patients with eating disorders. I enjoy working with the girls, my problem is that the philosophy on the ward is that we do not treat the ED, we treat them for dehydration, or hypotension etc. They have the psychs come to see them, and we give them NG feeds. We are not a psych ward, but it just seems strange that we dont treat the illness, only the effects of it (hope that all makes sense!).

Do you find many of your pts/ clients recover? Ours never seem to get better, they are discharged even if they are not eating.

What is their treatment like?

tlc365 · Feb 7, 2007

WOW that is so sad:scrying: . The girls will only continue to be hospitalized until 1. the get treatment or 2. die. It is important to stress that ED is the most fatal psych condition to have. Many people with ED commit suicide if the don't die from heart attack or malnutrition first. So it is extremly important to do pt teachong and involve the parents. Our success rates are at 95% after 1yr post- tx.

ED is so complex as you are aware from you little pts and some pts are being abused at home or by friend and trauma can trigger an ED. When the girls come out of the hospital many of them tell us " I am better now and can continue my ED its not THAT BAD." SO many of them are in denial and really are not aware of long term effects and are so young they are "invincible". I have had the unfortunate experience of knowing a 19yo pt who came to us x2 then 6mos later died of a heart attack because she went home and relapsed. So it is sooooo important to stress that the ED is not a form of controll it controls the vitim and there are better ways to deal with your problems. At Remuda we teach the skills they need to cope effectively with their problems and offer stress management during meals and anti-anxiety meds help 1hr prior to meals. Many pts tell us that when they are in hosp. they hide food or manipulate their TF. So watch out!!!

elkpark · Feb 8, 2007

Hi TLC
I work in a peds hosp. in the adolescent ward. We have a lot of patients with eating disorders. I enjoy working with the girls, my problem is that the philosophy on the ward is that we do not treat the ED, we treat them for dehydration, or hypotension etc. They have the psychs come to see them, and we give them NG feeds. We are not a psych ward, but it just seems strange that we dont treat the illness, only the effects of it (hope that all makes sense!).
Do you find many of your pts/ clients recover? Ours never seem to get better, they are discharged even if they are not eating.
What is their treatment like?

The reason for this is that you can't treat ED on an acute inpatient peds unit -- it requires longer-term, specialized treatment. The point of an admission like that is only to stabilize them medically so they can (we hope) pursue ongoing treatment of the underlying disorder somewhere else (whether residential or outpatient). Same as folks who get admitted to hospitals for acute ETOH detox -- the acute admission is just for the acute medical detoxification, not to treat the underlying alcoholism. Alcohol/drug rehab is a longer-term, specialized treatment.

Recovery from an eating disorder is a long, complicated process.