Loved Psych, but Drugs Got Me Down

[firstyearstudent]

I thought I'd hate it but I ended up loving my psych. rotation and most of the patients. I am thinking about being a psych. nurse but at the hospital I was in it seemed like it is all about getting them stabilized on meds and in and out ASAP (I guess that's the realities of managed care).

Are there other work environments that focus less on drugs and more on patient/family support that hire psychiatric nurses? Maybe private hospitals, residential hospitals, clinics, partial hospitalization?

Just drugging people seemed so sad....

[elkpark]

Yes, the (appropriate) goal of an acute inpatient psych hospitalization is to get the person stabilized and out of the hospital, into some level of community-based treatment, as soon as possible. It's not just about managed care/reimbursement issues, it's also about the principle of treating people in the least restrictive setting that will meet their needs (a good thing! :))

In general, residential programs and outpatient clinics & programs are less focused on "quickie" stabilization and discharge, and can take more time to work in depth with people.

I hear what you're saying about "just drugging people" (I am an old-timer and was working psych back in the "good ol' days" when people stayed on inpatient units for weeks and months at a time and we had the luxury of doing all sorts of intensive therapeutic interventions with them), but it's not so sad if you think in terms of acute inpatient hospitalization being just one individual piece of the larger continuum of psych treatment options and settings, and one that is (typically) intended to be a very brief stay for the purpose of quick crisis stabilization, with the person then moved on as soon as possible into another level of treatment.

[MarkRN]

I hear ya, elkpark! Yes, acute inpatient units anymore are really meant for stabilization and a quick discharge. I would say to look into the outpatient setting (continuing day treatment programs, partial hospitalization programs, mental heath centers, etc.) if you really want to have more time with patients and their families.

[CharlieRN]

Only problem with directing you to look into outpt tx settings is the question of what a nurse's role in such a setting is. It may very likely still be to manage the medication aspect of the patients' threatment.

[elkpark]

Only problem with directing you to look into outpt tx settings is the question of what a nurse's role in such a setting is. It may very likely still be to manage the medication aspect of the patients' threatment.

V. true, Charlie, esp. for a generalist RN, but at least one would be working in a setting and as a member of a team that was implementing a broader range of treatment modalities besides just medicating people, and focusing on goals other than immediate crisis stabilization.

Also, when I used to work as a staff nurse in an adolescent residential treatment program, giving meds was just a small part of what I did -- in terms of simple quantities of time, I spent much more of my time leading groups, interacting individually with the kids, and supervising activities/outings than I did administering meds.