Is Psych Nursing Easy?

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I have a girlfriend who swears that psych nursing is the easiest nursing job there is? Coming from a med/surgical floor and feeling tired in my first trimester of pregnancy, I see the job announcements and am tempted to apply? Is it as relatively laid back as she claims? Also, can you get career pigeoned-holed afterwards? Like once a psych nurse, always a psych nurse?

Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

if you like to be the only RN on a unit with up to 35 pts......then it is easy....

if you don't mind being cursed at, threatened, manipulated, constantly surrounded by pts. with no time to chart....then it is easy.....

if you can juggle a new admission, discharges, calming pts., giving meds, and talking with visitors all at the same time...........then it is easy............

if you don't mind missing lunch, missing BR times,.........then it is easy........

Yes, we psych nurses have it made !!!!!!!!!!!

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
To answer the original question. I've done med/surg, tele, ICU, and currently work in the ER. All along the way, I've worked per diem picking up extra shifts in Psych. I look at Psych as paid days off compared to the other areas! And before you start bashing me, I'm very active in the milieu - I don't sit on my can behind the safety glass. The facility is acute care. I like working with the pts - even the ones that tell me the voices are telling them to rip my eyeballs out because I'm seeing into their head!

SAFETY GLASS ???????????? What is that???????? I wish we had that at our facility.........

we are in the middle of it all.........groups, assessing each pt. q.d......we have nowhere to hide !!!:lol2:

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as with any other types of jobs, there are good days and bad days. if you think you really like it, give it a shot. also, i went straight to be a psych rn after graduation-----and i am fine with that decion. if that’s what you really like to do, follow your heart. if in my heart i really wanted to be a med-surg rn, that's fine. but i wouldn't apply to be a med-surg rn if i know in my heart i always wanted to be a psych rn and had the chance to be one-----i wouldn't also apply to be a med-surg rn just because someone else told me to do so. nursing is already a challenging profession. wouldn't it be nice to at least be able to pick your specialty? wouldn't it be good to find your niche early on?

i always hear that you will lose some important clinical skills if you become a psych rn right away. but how will it really help if you work one year on the med-surg floor then be a psych rn for the next 20 years of your nursing career? will you still recall all that you learned in that one year some 20 years ago? you can always use you assessment skills and other clinical skills in the psych unit because some patients in that unit also have medical conditions/issues that you as an rn address.

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I have read a lot of good posts here from psych nurses, bravo ladies. Psych is no joke, but it is fascinating. Our patients contrary to popular opinion also have medical illnesses both chronic and acute. We also get patients with isolated illnesses such as MRSA. Last week we had a blind patient come in with her guide dog, we cannot refuse any patients because of the disability act. So contrary to what is thought psychiatric nursing is not a walk in the park. We just do not chase down IV poles. Some of our patients are also total care; the geriatric patients are not immune from mental illness either. The lab comes to our psych hospital seven days a week and we do have patients that are on coumadin. Sometimes our pharmacy monitors the dose other times the medical doctor that is on consult does.....we are just as busy as the medical hospitals and guess what else ...we get admissions all night too...

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To also add I don't think that there are any easy jobs in nursing regardless of specialty. I think that people are coming into nursing now from other fields because they know that they will always have a job regardless of the economy. A nurse cannot be replaced by a machine. We can do the nursing assistant's job and everybody else's pretty much if it comes to it, but they cannot do our job.:nurse: Sometimes we do it too well and our job limitations expand to the extreme.

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I think it's funny how offended some of the people on here get when the idea that psych nursing is easier is mentioned. I think in general most people will agree that it is "easier". Having said that, like any workplace, the job depends on the efficiency with which the unit/hospital/etc. is being run and more importantly in my opinion, staffing. An understaffed psych unit is probably going to be harder than an appropriately staffed med/surg unit. But, in my experience, there are very few adequately staffed med/surg floors. There are very few days that go perfectly enough to allow a nurse to meet all the needs of 6 different patients on a med/surge floor. I think the heart of the issue is staffing, and more psych units are adequately staffed vs. med/surg units, conidering the amount of work required.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Ortho, Psych, Case management,.

If by easy you mean no IV's, few dressings...I guess yes. But it is more mentally taxing. This week in 3 days I had these events:

A guy who somehow got out of the locked hospital door, and tried to dig under the heavy iron fence.

Two take-downs to time out.

One take-down to seclusion and restraints.

A patient yelling at me in close range, as loud as she could yell. At me.

A diabetic patient's sugar dropping and needing immediate attention.

A guy admitted with sexual issues who I needed to keep a male tech with me, while I did the admission.

A manic bipolar, slightly hallucinating man, who would not take his meds, with a very loud voice, who was upsetting everyone in the unit by his loudness and not taking "No' as an answer.

Dozens of patients who are med seeking, and want their Ativan or Seoquel, or whatever narcotic, as soon as they can get it, and who try to hang out at nursing station to get them.

The usual MD's who are sarcastic and not exactly helpful when you call.

That's just a few of the things right off the top of their heads.....

I wouldn't call all that "easy".

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This is not true-----based from my experience.

I think the heart of the issue is staffing, and more psych units are adequately staffed vs. med/surg units, conidering the amount of work required.
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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I think the heart of the issue is staffing, and more psych units are adequately staffed vs. med/surg units, conidering the amount of work required.

ROTFLMAO :lol2: Seriously, great joke there. But I have to break it to you: staffing sucks as much in psych as it does in med-surg.

We are so horribly understaffed at my facility that rarely a shift goes by that the charge nurses are not getting into it with the supervisor over staffing. Weekends are really fun at my place: either I don't have enough staff or they want to take one of the few I do have because some other unit is short or has a close watch patient. I occasionally end up with two techs...occasionally. Usually it's just one tech and he/she is as overworked as I am...because after all, psych nursing isn't only "pass out the meds and stare at the patients for 8 hours."

I'm usually the only RN on the unit for upwards of 12+ patients--if I'm really really lucky I'll get an LPN for passing meds, or maybe even another RN though it may just be for a few hours. I'm grateful for any help I can get.

And its not just my facility: it's the same situation at many other local psych units and facilities. We're suffering just as much as the rest of them. So if you really do know of a consistently adequately staffed psych facility, let me know so I can jump ship and join them :)

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

I do both med/surg and psych. They are both "hard" but in their own ways. In med/surg it is run run run playing beat the clock. And people going bad, constant admissions, discharges, phones ringing, missing CNA's, etc. You are BUSY.

In psych, there isn't all of the running and crazyiness for the most part. But it can wear you down. Some are so attention seeking they will cut themselves for attention, rip open old wounds for attention, you have to sometimes break up fights, etc. The paperwork is horrendous. NOT kidding. Not to mention you have to talk talk talk, run groups, and constantly listen and watch for subtle cues that someone is going to go off.

I prefer psych. But you can and will get pigeon holed if you don't work in/on a psych hospital that does medical stuff. I worked at one like that. It was hard switching to med/surg after. Now I do both. Mostly psych, but a little med/surg just to stay current in it and to keep from being pigeon holed.

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ROTFLMAO :lol2: Seriously, great joke there. But I have to break it to you: staffing sucks as much in psych as it does in med-surg.

We are so horribly understaffed at my facility that rarely a shift goes by that the charge nurses are not getting into it with the supervisor over staffing. Weekends are really fun at my place: either I don't have enough staff or they want to take one of the few I do have because some other unit is short or has a close watch patient. I occasionally end up with two techs...occasionally. Usually it's just one tech and he/she is as overworked as I am...because after all, psych nursing isn't only "pass out the meds and stare at the patients for 8 hours."

I'm usually the only RN on the unit for upwards of 12+ patients--if I'm really really lucky I'll get an LPN for passing meds, or maybe even another RN though it may just be for a few hours. I'm grateful for any help I can get.

And its not just my facility: it's the same situation at many other local psych units and facilities. We're suffering just as much as the rest of them. So if you really do know of a consistently adequately staffed psych facility, let me know so I can jump ship and join them :)

:D Ditto ...

As for whether psych nursing is "easier" -- I guess so, if you are defining "easy" purely in terms of physical labor (we don't do a lot of lifting, bathing, etc.) But, if it is significantly "easier" than med-surg nursing, how come so few nurses will even consider working in psych? Most of the nursing community wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole, however much they were going to get paid ... To me, that says a lot.

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I've decided that I get defensive about being a psych nurse because the prevailing opinion in the nursing community is that "psych nursing is for people who are not bright enough to make it in 'real" nursing specialties such as med -surg or for people who are ready to retire and need an easy unit." Upon reflection, I remember that I DID find psych much less stressful when I changed to it after working primarily in peds and NICU. How nice to get an admission and just have to stabilize psych needs (even if a patient came in acutely psychotic and in restraints.) It was a far cry from getting an admission where I had to get lines and tubes in place ASAP to prevent further deterioration and even possible death--and, oh yes, done with several family members breathing down my neck! So, yes, I'll change my original post and say that psych IS easier.

However, easier doesn't mean any idiot can do it RIGHT. We don't "just talk and push pills." And it can be extremely busy and hectic on psych units as well as on other units. I haven't found the staffing better.

Nurses come from the general population and the general population is uncomfortable being around people who display "different" behaviors. So it's no surprise to me that most nurses do not want to work with patients who have psych issues. Getting to an "easier" specialty does not outweigh feeling uncomfortable with certain types of behavior, so they stay where they are.

And again, at risk of overkill, NOT ALL PATIENTS WITH PSYCH ISSUES ARE ON PSYCH! When they are acutely ill they are right there on med surg and ICU and ER. We psych nurses have the luxury of having them when they have only comparatively mild medical conditions along with psych issues. The other specialties may have ACUTE psych behaviors along with ACUTE medical. So, yes, I'd say they have it harder.

Just remember, though...just because I have it comparatively easier does not mean I'm stupider than you medical nurses or that I'm not capable of doing your job if I had to. I just happen to have found a specialty I love. Please try to respect that.

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