Nurses and Mental Illness

Nurses General Nursing

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Question: If someone is diagnosed as bipolar and is successfully being treated with medication and therapy, can they still be a nurse?

Absotively and posolutely.

As has been stated, look for a lower-stress venue.

And good luck!

Suesquatch, can you give me an idea of which areas in nursing are lower-level stress. Every time I ask my personal physician, he just says that all areas of nursing are stressful!

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Suesquatch, can you give me an idea of which areas in nursing are lower-level stress. Every time I ask my personal physician, he just says that all areas of nursing are stressful!

Heh. He's right.

Doctor's office. A school.

What are you doing now?

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Heh. He's right.

Doctor's office. A school.

What are you doing now?

Suesquatch, right now I am a full-time student. When I decided to change careers, I commited to go back to school full-time. I have one more pre-req class this coming spring and then I should be able to get into the fall 08 nursing program. I think my GPA is good enough and will be going higher before the semester is over in December. Hopefully, the waiting list is not too long to get in. I will graduate with an ASN in nursing, and then plan to continue on to BSN after a short time of experience in the field.

Not trying to be negative, but I really wanted to work in a hospital in the labor and delivery, maternity or postpartum. What are your thoughts on that?

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I think it will depend on a lot of things, most notably the facility and how stable your condition is/has been.

If your dream is being one of the babycatching crew go for it. Just be sure that you are in therapy or at least in touch with someone who will recognize and be able to reach you if you are going off-kilter, y'know?

Go for it. Enlist those you love to help you stay stable.

:)

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My nursing instructor had bi-polar disorder and openly discussed it. She was a great instructor! I don't think you should let this disorder prevent you from becoming a nurse if thats what you really want to do.

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My nursing instructor had bi-polar disorder and openly discussed it. She was a great instructor! I don't think you should let this disorder prevent you from becoming a nurse if thats what you really want to do.

Thank you for your encouragement. I have been praying about it, and I have decided that if God opens the door for me into nursing school, He is also helping me with my bipolar. I've worked really hard so far to keep my grades up and am excited about getting into the Fall 08 program, which I should know by the spring if I'm accepted. I would love to work in labor and delivery, maternity, or postpartum. Maybe they are all lumped together. I don't know, but I look forward to learning so much.

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A day at a time.

I'll keep you in my thoughts.

:)

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Nurse2b2010:

I currently work with a RN who has Bipolar illness. She is wonderful at her job and the consumers respond very well to her. There are many people working in mental health who have a mental illness.

Bipolar illness is one illness that has a better prognosis then other types of illness. I encourage you to discuss your specific situation with your healthcare provider and that way you can get feedback from someone who knows your situation best. I can not and would not comment on your situation. Good luck!!

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Dear TiredMD, I know this is totally off the subject we are discussing, but I want to know your opinion about whether we are in a nursing shortage crisis? Is this true or a sham as others say?

Off-topic, my appologies. But let me just sketch out my opinion on your question, and thereafter I won't hijack the thread anymore:

Honestly, I have no idea.

I know what nurses do (since I write the orders), but I don't know how long it takes to do it, or how you structure your day, or how many patients is too many patients. I know that I love our surgical nurses and OR nurses, and have endless problems with the medical nurses and ER nurses. Sometimes they seem really busy, other times it seems like they spend all day shopping online and talking on their cell phones.

Nurse managers set staffing assignments, hospital administrators set facility policy on staffing levels, and lawyers/union reps work out pay. None of that means squat to me. I just want the orders carried out and the patients taken care of. Beyond that, nursing issues belong to nursing. You don't want MDs handling those issues anymore than MDs want to deal with it. So I make no assessments about a world I'm not involved in, and limit my involvement to whether or not the patient passed gas today.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.

:lol2::lol2::lol2: Bless you, my son! LOL

ebear

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Specializes in Psychiatric, medical.

Hi,

It is important to remember that Bipolar Illness has 2 types, Bipolar I and Bipolar II

Patients with Bipolar I almost always need medication, either mood stabilizers or antipsychotics. On the other hand persons with Bipolar II often do not need meds.

Virginia PMH-NP

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

I'm going to add a little thing I've noticed. To those I may have disclosed my illness to some have had a tendancy to blame any friction to my MI and not to take any responsibility for their own actions or personality. Its like they clutch on to the fact that I can me an ideal scapegoat yet my MI is very mild and I've been on the same meds for years with no symptoms. I often think I'm in a better situation than others as I do have a care team and make liberal use of my therapy, I use cognitive therapy techniques to identify distortions in my thinking process.

Just because you have an MI doesn't mean that you are the problem all the time.

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