Feeling trapped in Psych Nursing

Bruce_Wayne, ASN, RN · May 23, 2012

Is the psych unit you work in associated with a bigger company that owns any nearby regular hospitals? That could possibly be your in. I would say to put your feelers out and apply for jobs that you want. You might want to stay at your current job for one year though since that seems to be the most respected minimum stay.

Zookeeper3 · May 23, 2012

Way back in 1995, in NY jobs were tight and I started in geriatric psyc. was thrilled to make $13/hr back then. Did this for about 9 months to a year. This is how I sold myself, to every hospital, and i applied, reapplied, called, and borderline harassed to get hired....

I assess, mental and physical status every shift.

I administer and monitor all medication administrations with close monitoring of side effects to continued titration

I am skilled at providing education to disease process, meds, short and long term planning

I am skilled at providing the needed community resources to transition discharge to provide optimum outcomes.

I am skilled at interpersonal patient and family relations to adjust the plan of care to be individual and meet their needs.

These are actual skills you have honed, that are a true asset to a med surg or intermediate or step down floor. This is the basis of nursing. What you lack is hands on skills or tasks which are easily taught and learned through practice and time. What you have gained meanwhile, can't be taught, had to be learned through real experience.

I wish you the best.

amoLucia · May 23, 2012

An alternative thought --- if you're in a general hospital which has an in-house psych unit, can you approach your HR/mgt and ask to be considered for a med-surg float/prn/pool position that would be in additon to your current psych position? Perhaps they could arrange a specialized orientation for you. I think it would be to their advantage as you already know the basics of your facility's operations.

You'd need to emphasize how much you've learned from your current psych position but you find the MS side of nursing interesting with its more indepth knowledge of pathophysiology and skilsl performance. Yada, yada, yada. Build it up as a learning experience for you and potentially useful to them to have someone cross-trained (one who's ready, willing and able to do MS). Offer some creative scheduling options if you can think of some possibilities. You get what I'm saying???

But a word of caution...consider this if it only is safe to do so. You wouldn't want to jeopardize your current position with any hint of dissatifaction. Of course, this may be a moot point if your psych position is in an independent facility without the other services in-house.

But just a thought to help you build some MS experoence opportunities. Good luck.

allnurses Guide · May 23, 2012

A couple of years ago, I worked at a psych facility. The DON loved

to hire new grads; thus we had quite a few. I know of at least two

of those nurses who went on to jobs on medical units; one of those

nurses managed to get a job at a very large and very respected

hospital, on some sort of critical care unit.

I agree with Zookeeper; when the time comes that you search for

a new job, play up all of the skills that you've learned that will be useful

in a medical job. Oh, and do stick with your current job for at least

a year. Good luck!!!!

gryffnsgram · May 23, 2012

Anywhere you practice, you will be interacting with people with addiction issues and mental illness whether you know it or not.

So Zookeeper is correct, value the therapeutic interaction skills you've acquired as they are not easily learned. Anyone can learn to do a task, but human connection is a whole other thing. Don't take the value of that for granted. Some people never acquire this gift, so they work in OR or ICU where there isn't as much patient interaction. Stay where you are for 1 year and then explore what's out there.