Hello. Another post actually influenced me to start this thread. The OP was a psych nurse like myself and she actually posted something that was recently said to me. I was having a conversation with a nurse friend of mine (CCU nurse, I really admire her, she's a brillant nurse) we we're having "medical talk." In the midst of convo she says, "You actually do know real nurse stuff (laughs)." I just laughed and said, "I am a REAL NURSE, duuuuh." It's not the first time I've encountered this insinuation that us "psych nurses" aren't as smart as other nurses. Another "psych nurse" comment I hear often is, "Wow, you work in psych? You know eventually psych nurses end up crazy like their patients.":eek: I could go on and on about this. I feel each speciality requires a special person to do the job well, and you must have knowledge in different areas to perform most specialities, not just in your specific area. When I worked in MedSurg I encountered psych patients, so I needed some knowledge on mental illness. Now that I work in mental health, many of my clients have a range of other diseases that are not mental in origin, but physical, so I must be prepared to care for these things as well. I think people assume psych is really easy, but I know that many people couldn't handle this career (especially because my clients are off their medications because I work in research, so you can imagine some of the issues we deal with. The police know the nurses by name, due to high flight risks, attacks on themselves or others. We literally have to be trained in self defense.) Anyhow, I'm going towards left field here, LoL! Any others heard some insulting remarks, or misconcepcions about their particular speciality?
