Nursing is my second major (former is psychology), I switched my major with the sole reason of going into psychiatric nursing...and I can't lie the money/job security was also a contributing factor.
I worked incredibly hard through the pre-nursing classes to get into my nursing program,and have not started classes yet. However, after hearing what the program entails and looking through the skills that we are required to learn in our clinical skills checklist (a good 60 med/surg skills and maybe 10 psych skills?) my intuition is screaming that this was a wrong decision (figures it would kick in once I made it in my program).
However, I have heard that psych nursing is nothing like nursing on any of the other speciality units; this is actually what I like about it! Is this true?
When I think about walking around a hospital, passing meds, and doing vitals everyday (yes, I know nurses do much more; i'm just generalizing) for the next 30+ years it makes me cringe. I don't want to change dressings, and hook my patients up to an IVs. My psych rotation isn't for another year, so would anyone be kind enough to tell me what being a psych nurse is REALLY all about?
I know psych is where I really hope to end up, so I really hope I didn't chose the wrong major!
Thanks everyone!
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Hi everyone!
Nursing is my second major (former is psychology), I switched my major with the sole reason of going into psychiatric nursing...and I can't lie the money/job security was also a contributing factor.
I worked incredibly hard through the pre-nursing classes to get into my nursing program,and have not started classes yet. However, after hearing what the program entails and looking through the skills that we are required to learn in our clinical skills checklist (a good 60 med/surg skills and maybe 10 psych skills?) my intuition is screaming that this was a wrong decision (figures it would kick in once I made it in my program).
However, I have heard that psych nursing is nothing like nursing on any of the other speciality units; this is actually what I like about it! Is this true?
When I think about walking around a hospital, passing meds, and doing vitals everyday (yes, I know nurses do much more; i'm just generalizing) for the next 30+ years it makes me cringe. I don't want to change dressings, and hook my patients up to an IVs. My psych rotation isn't for another year, so would anyone be kind enough to tell me what being a psych nurse is REALLY all about?
I know psych is where I really hope to end up, so I really hope I didn't chose the wrong major!
Thanks everyone!