How to transition into Pysch nursing

Davey Do · Mar 23, 2015

You've got a great background, Inori, to merely offer your services to any sort of Mental Health Nursing Institution, whether that be Inpatient or Community.

You might also do a Search on this Forum, for many others have asked a similar question and received good information in reply.

Good luck to you, Inori. Keep us posted on how your endeavor turns out.

B52, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 23, 2015

Emphasize your case management/depression patients background on your resume. That's a big plus. I started out as an LPN in a dual diagnosis residential center and moved from there to a hospital psych unit when I became an RN.

DanaerysTargaryen · Mar 24, 2015

I feel your pain on this one- most psych positions where I live are the same, requiring at least a year of acute inpatient experience. Very hard to transition between specialties in this market. My background prior to getting a job in psych was a little different from yours- I was in long term care for several years, as well as having done some work with developmentally disabled clients. While I'd dealt with a lot of behavioral issues and psych meds along the way, it never seemed to be enough to "count" when it came to applications for psych positions. The way I finally broke into the field was through work on a geri psych unit, which wanted experience in psych or long term care. I used my experience there to get an additional part time job at an adult and adolescent psych hospital. I don't know much about your fields of experience so I can't give more specific advice but I feel like the way to go in this market is to look for positions that utilize your current skill set enough so you count as "experienced" in the eyes of those who will be evaluating your application, but are a step closer to the environment where you would eventually like to be, if that is possible.

I hope that helps, and very best of luck to you in your job search!