LPN Psych Nurse

[mamac0805]

I am really interested in Psych nursing and am about close to graduating. I am just a little curious as to what an psych LPN does exactly? Med passes I am assuming, but what else? My mental health rotation was not very informative r/t an LPN's role. Any ideas?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I worked at a small, community psychiatric hospital last year. I was primarily utilized as a medication nurse, but I occasionally participated in the group therapy sessions.

[jmking]

I currently work as a psych nurse and I love it. I pass meds and consult with the doctor in their treatments. I work with sixteen clients and I learn something new everyday.

[iwanna]

I was an LPN psych nurse. We passed the meds, gave prn injections, took vitals, did med ed groups, and occasionally did other groups. e.g. goal group, feelings, wrap up. It really depended on what unit we were on. Sometimes we had the role of a behavioral counseling tech, and that was mainly assisting with groups. I worked on children's unit, adolescents acute care, adolsescents residential care, adult, and geri-psych. We worked closely with the behavioral counseling techs.

While working the geri-psych it was comparable to working in a nursing home. We had mainly patients with dementia in geri psych. But, we had a great team for geri. It was hard to tell who was the aide, LPN, or RN. We all pitched in.

I enjoyed working psych. However, at first, I hated it. I didn't mind the adults, but the children and adolscents took some getting used to for me. I just had no idea what to expect. Most of the children came from bad backgrounds and foster care. After reading their history, it was no wonder they had problems. Many of them had been abused. But, I learned a lot and grew to like my job.