Inpatient mental health position

elkpark · Feb 23, 2010

You may want to look around the psychiatric nursing forum here, if you haven't already:

https://allnurses.com/psychiatric-nursing/

NurseThis21, BSN, RN · Feb 23, 2010

Mental health is just like any other field of nursing. The only difference is that you are really using your communication and intervention skills more so than technical. You need to have the emotional stamina in order to interact with all your patients because they've experienced a much different lifestyle and you may find that they are more clever than previously assumed.

There's a lot of interaction with the psychiatrists because they want to know how the patient has been progressing or deteriorating. They also want to know how well the patient has been with med compliance. The interdisciplinary teams are very effective in mental health and help the patients reach a level of stability over a period of time.

I've only been in mental health for 7 months, but I will say that you need to develop thick skin very quickly or else the patients will run you over. They can be verbally abusive and threatening. They can be manipulative and intrusive. Your responsibility is to identify such behavior, request for it to stop and find help to back you up so that you as well as the patient are safe.

In the end, there is a lot of interacting throughout your shift as you help people with their coping skills, med management, anger management, and improvement of well-being. It basically is the core of holistic care. If you don't have mind, you don't have anything. We're there to help them build upon or even start their foundation of recovery and learning how to live in a tough world with a mental illness.

At the end of the day, while med/surg nurses are physically tired, psych nurses are emotionally tired and we are constantly reminded to leave our work in the workplace and focus on ourselves when we get home. It only helps us in the long run and with each day, we get a little stronger when dealing with challenging patients. Of course, there's the crap ton of paperwork or computer work, but I have yet to find a nursing position that doesn't have random information requirements.

It's beyond rewarding when a patient tells you that you helped them learn how to cope with their depression or anxiety and it's even more rewarding when that challenging patient says thank you and listens to your advice. It's mighty rare, but I cherish it when it does occur.

I hope you consider a position with mental health and good luck on your endeavors!

ItsTheDude · Feb 23, 2010

main things, if you get your feelings hurt easily, watch out. if you have to see a tangible improvement in a patient to feel good about your job (patient comes in not walking, leaves walking), watch out. in psych patients will come and go looking about the same, they may just act/think differ (not very tangible) and some will return again and again. if you have a need to be thanked/appreciated by patients, watch out.

Morning-glory · Feb 23, 2010

I love psych. It did take about 6 months to get comfortable on the unit, but I have been doing this for 5 years and I am not planning on going back to acute care. I landed this job by accident and I wasn't really sure that that was what I wanted.

In acute care I never felt like I got everything done. In this job, I can get it all done and more. You do not need to be a battleaxe to work in psych. Even if you are a bit thin skinned, you will develop the skills to keep yourself comfortable and safe without changing who you are.

These days, i would take a job in psych before anything else. You are not so tired at the end of the day, you can have a life and do your job.

Good luck.

rn4ever? · Feb 23, 2010

Take the job if you really want it and you're really interested in it. Psych can be very demanding and challenging but there are days when it's rewarding as well of course. I went straight to be a Psych RN after graduation, and I don't regret it.

SlightlyMental_RN · Feb 23, 2010

I would say that, yes, it's stressful, but of a different nature than med/surg or L&D. Personally, I work a 0.7 position, as I can't handle the patients on a full-time basis. Many of them are incredibly manipulative, and you have to be on your mental toes constantly. It is less physically demanding, but the emotional/mental toll can be equally draining. I truly enjoy my work, but there are days where I just want to run out of there and give thanks to God that I have a few days off. You still have all the charting and meds of any nursing position, but you will use various skills less than before (IV's, catheters, for example) There are those times, though, when you do have a patient that needs those interventions, and your skill base in L&D with IV's and caths will be much sought-after, as the rest of us get rusty on that stuff. Also, you will hear life-stories that you will have a hard time shaking-off and forgetting, but if you have a good group that you're working with, you can vent to them. As a side note, I have also found that it helps to have a bit of a warped sense of humor. :bugeyes: