I don't like my psych nursing job

[Jeans93]

Hey guys,

I'm a new grad nurse at a psych facility. I went into nursing because I knew about psych nursing and I always wanted to work with this population. However, my job isn't what I had hoped for. We have over 20 patients and I rarely get any patient contact. I'm still in training so I'm still learning and I only get 10 days of training. This place is also understaffed and everything's done by paper, even the MAR. I just don't want to risk losing my license and I already want to leave. I wanted to go into psych nursing so I can talk to them but there's no time and you don't even know more than half of your own patients.

Are there any non hospital jobs in psych that I can look into? I also don't like all of the running around that the hospital nursing job entails. I was also looking into school nursing. Is it hard to become a school nurse as a new grad? Would I be able to advance my career if I became a school nurse though? I would want to get my masters. Are there any other non acute jobs? Any suggestions would be wonderful! Thanks!

[dmiller2720]

I always recommend getting 1-2 years on a med-surg unit or ICU before going into a specialty. It will really help you down the road and also give you so much more experience. Starting off in psych or school nursing will really limit you. So I would bite the bullet and work a couple years on the floor. You will be just fine.