How to handle new psych nurses

[nurseEsteve]

Its been 3 weeks now since our new psych nurses in training joined us in the unit although they are fully oriented about the policy and physical setup im not sure if they already know how to handle psych patients on their own especially decision making and crisis management on the unit, now my question is how can i teach them without stepping on their stress buttons? and what concerns me most is that our unit is specializing on addiction and rehab and to be honest these kind of patients are very manipulative and has tendencies of emotional withdrawals which can blow up anytime if they encounter a trigger, i just dont want them to be outsmarted by our patients

nurse.Esteve

[TerpGal02, ASN]

The best teacher for these kinds of things, IMO,is experience. Gosh I remeber being a fresh faced psych nurse and some of the situations in which manipulative pts had me going, or when patients with very elaborate delusions had me thinking "well DID that really happen" lol. I think the best approach is just to hang back, make sure that there arent any safety issues, and just let them learn. There is no better teacher than having a manipulative addict get one over on ya. Once is enough for it to never happen again.

Otoh, as far as patients in crisis, the best thing you can do is model effective methods of de escalation. I have gotten myself to the point that I can attempt de escalation with almost anyone with relative confidence. I learned that by watching more experienced nurses and borrowing stuff I liked from each of them. Hope that helps.