Interested in Psych

[Cahst3]

Hello All! I would like some advice if possible... I started out college majoring in Psychology, realizing how overpopulated that world seemed to be, I switched my major to nursing, but always keeping psych in my heart. When I graduated nursing school, I moved with my (now) husband to an area that did not have any type of psych nursing available. Fast forward 4 years later and I am left with 4 years of working in a very busy operating room. I took my job in the OR knowing that this was what was available and keeping in mind that it would be short term. Now, we are getting ready to move this summer and I would like to finally get myself into psychiatric nursing. (I particularly would like to work in ped. psych) The problem is though, that I have been out of touch with traditional nursing since I graduated. Soo, my questions are what do you all recommend I do to successfully step my foot into this new area? Should I consider med surg before psych? Should I start with adult or geriatric psych to help me get into the groove before trying to work with children? What should I expect overall as a psych nurse?

Thanks!!!

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Psych nursing covers a lot. There is another thread I posted on on here - if you click on that, you can get some answers.

In Oz we do a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health to become a Registrered Psychiatric Nurse. Or u can work in some psych units if you are just a RN, but it depends on the facility. Maybe u could look into external study thru a college/university?

[HeatherPsychRN]

I work in a behavioral health hospital where they have RN's with no background in Psych, they even hire new grads. I personally had my BS in Psych before nursing school. I work adolescents, and other than knowing the meds and CPR, the rest of is pretty easy in my facility. We have mental health counselors that do most of the counseling, rn are expected to be supportive to the counselors and step in when needed. I worked med surg for 4 years prior, and there is very little that I can carry over... It is almost frustrating at times knowing I am not using some of the skill I acquired... We do also have RPN as mentioned above, and they are usually a charge nurse or supervisor.