I am a new grad, just graduated in May and passed NCLEX in June. I am relocating from California to North Dakota for a job at a psychiatric hospital. I have a couple of questions regarding psych nursing.
First... I decided to become a nurse while working as an aide at a psychiatric facility and I always knew that pysch nursing was what I wanted to do. However, my instructors told me in school that I shouldn't make psych my first job because I will lose my skills. They said I should get a med surge job first. However that is not what I wanted to do. I love psych and it is what I want to specialize in. The problem is that we did not learn to start IV's in school and I am afraid if we get a patient on the unit who needs an IV that I will look stupid and not be able to start it. I am pretty ok with most of my skills, but I worry that I am not IV ready at all. Any thoughts on this?
Second... I did my transition to practice in an acute psych facility and I learned there that writing psych nurses notes is my weakness. I am ok with assessments, patient/staff interactions, meds, etc. But when it comes to writing notes, I never seem to know what to write. I always miss important stuff. Any advice on practicing writing notes would be very helpful.
Psych nursing requires some serious interpersonal skills. However, unlike medical nursing, it is easy for psych nurses employed on a psych floor to "avoid" patients. But in order to be a true psych nurse, one has to make that choice to be interactive. I've seen some amazing psych nurses at the VA where I work now who actually take time to sit and have some 1:1 time with the patients...unlike my previous place where most of the nurses hide in the nurses station unless they HAVE to come out and intervene during an escalation or crisis. Psych nursing really does take a certain type of person to make it what its suppose to be. It's the ones who hide in the nurses' station that give all of us a bad reputation.
Manual skills are a use-it-or-lose-it kind of thing. Med-surg nurses don't remember their labor and delivery skills, or any other skills they don't use often. Like so many people have already said, you can do your time in med-surg and then you'll promptly forget your skills till you are called upon to use them. At which point you will look them up or ask someone for help.
Psych nursing skills, on the other hand, are much more subtle and nuanced and take a long time to really "get". If you know psych is what you want to do, start doing it now. It will take a long while before you get good at it. Don't waste your time learning skills you will a) forget, and b) look up if and when you ever need them again.
taydian
33 Posts
Psych nursing requires some serious interpersonal skills. However, unlike medical nursing, it is easy for psych nurses employed on a psych floor to "avoid" patients. But in order to be a true psych nurse, one has to make that choice to be interactive. I've seen some amazing psych nurses at the VA where I work now who actually take time to sit and have some 1:1 time with the patients...unlike my previous place where most of the nurses hide in the nurses station unless they HAVE to come out and intervene during an escalation or crisis. Psych nursing really does take a certain type of person to make it what its suppose to be. It's the ones who hide in the nurses' station that give all of us a bad reputation.