Mental health nursing easier than Med-Surg?

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Hi,

I've been a nurse for 2 1/2 years at a very busy med-surg/tele floor. It's very hectic everyday, pt care can be heavy with IVs, tube feedings, wound care, admits/discharges. I floated a couple of times to the psychiatric ward and the work load was SOO easy. No pt with IVs or tube feedings, most were able to ambulate, feed themselves, etc. I like mental health nursing but am afraid I would lose nursing skills that took a long time to learn. I feel like I'm still learning. I've thought about if the opportunity to transfer to the pysch ward came up I would transfer and maybe take a PRN job at another hospital in Med-surg so I wouldn't forget my skills. I have heard the risk for violence is much higher up in psych ward, but I'm getting tired of the hectic pace of my job. I don't feel like I have enough time to deliver the care that was taught in school.

Thanks!

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Consider retiring to psych nursing once you're burnt out with medical care. Very popular option.

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Consider retiring to psych nursing once you're burnt out with medical care. Very popular option.

I'm in my early 30s, with many more working years ahead?

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Some folks go for early retirement. I don't want to bad mouth psych nursing; there is a potential to do a lot of good work there for an under served population. That said, there's not a lot of mandatory treatments like on med floors, and that's usually taken advantage of.

Have you thought about any other units? ICU, trauma, neuro, cardiac? Maybe something more interesting would relight your fire.

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If MedSurg isn't floating your boat, I don't think the answer is to look for the easiest option; unless you really have a desire to work Psych for reasons other than it seems easy.

The number one thing I love about nursing is there are literally hundreds of ways to go. If you've put in two years in medsurg, you've acquired very useful skills that can be used elsewhere.

Look for another job in your hospital that will use your skills without burning you out; OB, cardiac, critical care, etc. Perhaps all you need is a change of setting - it can refresh your interest in nursing, keep your skills fresh, and get you out of a floor you're no longer interested in.

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Some folks go for early retirement. I don't want to bad mouth psych nursing; there is a potential to do a lot of good work there for an under served population. That said, there's not a lot of mandatory treatments like on med floors, and that's usually taken advantage of.

Have you thought about any other units? ICU, trauma, neuro, cardiac? Maybe something more interesting would relight your fire.

There are plenty of ways to shirk work on M/S, too. What do you by taking advantage on Psych?

And there are opportunities to do dressings, EKG's, shots, physical assessment on Psych.

It is more dangerous.

Good luck with your decision.

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Specializes in Pediatric Mental Health.

Although psych nursing may not be as clinically challenging as med-surg there are many other risks posed in this field. For example working with aggressive or self injurious patient puts both staff and patient at risk for injury and infection.

I work in a school for autistic children and adolescents and there are some days that I treat more staff than students. The most common injuries I see are bites and bruises. Not small bites that you would expect from children, but large bites that require antibiotics and frequent monitoring for loss of sensation in the area.

Although the work load may seem less at times the risks of this environment certainly make up for it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.

I haven't been in psych very long, and have already seen a couple people come and go, for the simple reason they switched thinking it would be easy. That is not a good reason to go into psych. Psychiatric nursing uses it's own skill set.

I debated for a while before making the switch. I did almost 5 years in M/S, Tele/ Neuro, etc. I then did ICU for a year. After being out of work with an injury for a couple months, I was back only a couple days and realized I was ready to switch. Not because I wanted something easier. But I didn't enjoy my job anymore. I used to worry about the loss of skills. But now that I'm working in psych I realize I don't care. I don't see myself ever wanting to go back to that type of nursing. I just didn't enjoy it enough to do it for years.

I now enjoy my job, I enjoy learning about mental illness. It took me a year of feeling like I was struggling in ICU to realize that my biggest problem was myself and lack of interest in what I was learning.

So anyways, I think you just need to figure out what interests you, what do you enjoy learning about, and go from there.

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I've been in psych all of my career (>25 years now), and have seen lots of med-surg nurses switch to psych because they perceive it as "easy." I've also seen a lot of those folks crash and burn, or just switch back when they realized it wasn't really "easier" and it wasn't for them. It may look pretty cushy and easy when you're just getting floated to the floor once in a while, but doing the job competently on an ongoing basis requires a lot of effort -- just different effort than you expend in a med-surg setting.

I've taught psych nursing in a few different nursing programs over the years, and there are always students who come to psych clinical thinking it's going to be "easy" and a refreshing break from all the hard work they do in their med-surg clinicals -- but those students invariably say to me by the end of the clinical, "Wow, I thought this was going to be easy, but it's really hard! You have to think all the time!"

I strongly encourage you not to transfer to psych if your main motivation is that you're looking for an easier job. Psych is plenty hectice and demanding, also -- just in different ways than you're used to now.

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Specializes in Med./Surg., Diabetes, Med. ICU, home hea.

I've worked 2 different psych facilities over a time span of 8 years. Psych was THE busiest, most hectic, dangerous job I've ever had. I'm sure it's not like that everywhere, but KNOW what you're getting into.

In the last year I worked/last year, I was to the urgent care 3 times alone. I'm still getting blood draws for potential exposure to Hep C, HIV.

So, if you like crazy stress trying to prioritize the 50 things you HAVE to do but only the time to do 3, getting assaulted by clients that know there is no or little at risk for them if they hurt you, lower pay, STILL having to deal with medical issues like diabetes, chest pain, asthma, incontinence but with poor supplies to attend to those issues, lazy administrators, unlicensed staff that may or may not do their jobs (but you're responsible for)... psych nursing MAY be for you!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

I had to lol at your post. In my 20 years of nursing, I have worked in many, many different areas. I have never been a psych nurse although I have had opportunity to float to psych-mental health areas and I have worked with populations that had a heavy burden of mental illness such as the prison population. I cannot imagine a more challenging area to work. No you will not spend your shift doing treatments and "tasks" but you will use your nursing skills since nursing encompasses way more than dressing changes, IVs and Foleys. Oh yes, you will work. If you are physically burned out by med-surg, there are lots and lots of other options but I have worked few areas in nursing that were "easy". Good luck.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

Oh if only I had a dollar everytime I hear 'psych nursing is soo easy!'

Psych nursing is mentally draining. I've spent whole shifts running round, looking for patients cos they go out for smokes, walks etc and we have to do checks every hour or half hour. We have to actually VIEW them. Then they wander into other people's rooms, so you are running round to all the rooms trying to find them AGAIN. Bi-polar and schizoid patients will approach you and many times demand things, especially medications, and you can't be late with those. I found it hectic every shift having 7 patients to care for. You get patients with one diagnosis, but they have multiple problems and counselling/helping them and listening to them takes a lot of energy.

Yes you don't have as many procedures, but our patients still had obs that needed to be done, insulin, BSL checks, caring for pre and post-op patients, patients would have crises that you had to attend to IMMEDIATELY, some came back from leave drunk or obviously high and that needs to be addressed with a breathaliser & action taken, then there's the anorexics/obese patients to sit with when they eat, NG feeds to do - one night we had a patient go missing, couldn't find her, found out later she had left the unit and committed suicide by jumping in front of a train.

It's a different kind of busy, but is very, very draining. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's easy!

ADD: you are also always assessing your patient's mental status, and reviewing their care plan, medications etc, and then are on the phone to psychiatrists, have to sit in on psych meetings with the doctors, SW, counsellor, so you also have to make time for that on top of caring for 7-8 patients!

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