Hello,anyone in Psych rotation or have been?

icesk8ie · Aug 23, 2003

Hi! I just started my psych rotation too. We do both a children's subrotation and a substance abuse rotation, then I spend two weeks on a women's unit. Should be fun! I start off with children's next week. We'll see how it goes. I did have to go purchase clothing though, as we are not allowed to wear khaki-colored anything as the jail wards wear that color, and the majority of my clothing is khaki! But I don't want to be thrown in the jail ward! ;o) I would love to hear of any else's experiences as well!

NurseStacey143, ADN, RN · Aug 23, 2003

I loved my psych rotation. we also had to wear casual dress clothes and our hair pulled up. Our unit was a lock down unti but we all recieved our own keys. I think this rotation was my favorite as of yet. I loved the Psych ICU which is where I spent most of my time. We only had 5 8 hr days there. I envy you that you will get to be in there much longer.

Have fun! I am starting my pedi/ob rotation this semester at one of the best pedi hospitals in the nation...i think it is number 5.

RNIAM, BSN, RN · Aug 24, 2003

To be honest. I didn't like it at all. I spent 7 weeks with depressed people and they tossed in a few others mental illnesses for good measure. All I can say is,it was an experience.

jjbaby · Sep 4, 2003

The psych rotation is a step outside of "hands-on" nursing. You have to adjust to using your brain instead of your skills. It was a great learning experience, and a big boast to your communication skills. You will work with depressed, suicidal, schizophrenics and many others, it is about the communication. I liked the rotation, although it is not my choice for my field after graduation. It is mostly about listening to the clients when they want to talk, and being supportive..You will learn a lot from the people you care for in psych. Good Luck.

Mithrah · Sep 4, 2003

I am doing my psych rotation now as well. It is interesting even though I know this is one aspect of nursing I am not interested in.

We will mostly be observing and using therapeutic communication with the clients. It sounds easy enough right? Well, our instructor has given us so much paperwork to do that I am starting to hate everything about psych. ARGH!! Only 3 more weeks of this!

Mithrah · Sep 4, 2003

Does anyone know of any good care plans online for psych disorders?

jjbaby · Sep 4, 2003

We had a psych care plan book it was very good it also had all of the psych meds in it. It was a required book. You might just do a search for pstchiatric care plans and see what you get. Luck!

Wren · Sep 4, 2003

Tara, remember that your psych pts may have physical problems in addition to their psychiatric disorders and those are occasionally overlooked.

When I was in nursing school I had an older, schizophrenic woman assigned to me. She was described as essentially non-verbal, avoidant and non-participatory in any unit activities, choosing to stay curled up in her bed. I learned quickly that she had an enormous fungating breast cancer lesion that was draining copius amounts of exudate and she was wrapping it in a t-shirt! The nurses knew of the tumor of course and tried to do dressing changes but the patient was difficult so they left her alone. When I read her chart I realized that she did not have an order for ANY pain meds nor appropriate wound care. Now the nurses there weren't bad guys.... their focus and attention was on psychiatric symptoms and they tended to interpret her behavior that way instead of considering that she might be having pain. They were quite open to other approaches once it was brought up.

My nursing instructor helped me to get her transferred to a more appropriate care setting which in her case was a palliative care unit in the hospital. She died of her breast cancer a few weeks later.

Moral of the story......assess the total person and be aware of non-psychiatric causes of or contributors to behavior!

Good luck with your rotation!

PJMommy · Sep 4, 2003

I agree with jjbaby in that it doesn't test your clinical skills but your thinking/therapeutic skills. I enjoyed it tremendously as I learned a LOT! I found kids' psych depressing but the adult psych unit was interesting. I found it included something I'm quite good at....TALKING!! The pts loved us because we sat and listened. Our pts included lots of depression, quite a few schizophrenia, a few with borderline disorder (now THAT'S interesting), and one or two with post-traumatic issues (related to past abuse). I felt the whole experience will make me a better clinical nurse because so many ppl suffer from psychiatric disorders.

One thing I took away from the whole experience was the abysmal state of mental health care in this nation. But that's a soapbox for another day.

JuicyJem · Sep 5, 2003

In our psych class last spring, we went to one of the State Institutions for three days and did rotations there. It was mostly acutely psychotic patients, which was quite interesting. I definately dont want to be a psych nurse but the clinicals were cool.

nekhismom · Sep 6, 2003

I LOVED my psych rotation!!! Granted, it was only 2 days on a lockdown unit (the only one in my area), but it was great! We actually wore our all white school uniforms to the unit, even our name pins. The patients were actually kind of funny, except for the depressed ones. All of the other disorders I saw were very interesting. The only scary part of my rotation was the fact that it was winter and had started snowing and we had a power outage. Now, being on a locked down unit during a power outage was quite scary. I thought some of the patients might not be able to tolerate the darkness, but everything was fine. The emergency generator turned on after about 5 minutes. We didn't have any heat or air, though. Kinda sucked. But, overall, the rotation was GREAT!