Laurean

This is why we have ethics. Yes, there are those who would take advantage of those who are experiencing possibly the worst time of their lives. In my eye, those people need treatment as well. I have in the past, and will in the future, call anyone who is in a power of authority over these patients on inappropriate behavior. With that said, here are the consequences of choosing to prey on these patients; 1. You will be turned into APS/CPS for emotional, physical, financial or sexual abuse. If founded, that has its own ramifications. 2. You will be blacklisted from our community of Healthcare workers. We are small and we had a meeting. You will never work in psych again. 3. You will run into a nurse/caregiver like myself and trust me when I say, we have no fear. We have our facts straight before we approach and we know how to get our point across. Thus the work we do. As you can tell this is a passionate issue for me. We work VERY hard to stop mental health stigma and taking advantage of our patients is part of that. This has happened in the past and until mental health is FULLY accepted as part of our medical care it will continue. To your statement that we too have mental health issues is partially true. However, remember the stats regarding this. 1 in 4 people have bipolar mood disorder. 1 in 2 will experience debilitating depression at least once in their lifetime. We ALL know someone with a mental health issue. I had severe depression, successfully treated (yay!) But it was my own mother that I saw as a kid in a mental hospital, drooling and shuffling because of her fighting spirit with her mental illness. I decided then, there had to be a better way. Now that I'm winding down my career I just want to say one thing... make good choices. Take care of our people not advantage. ❤️

As a psych nurse of over 20 years I can only offer this sound piece of advice. NO!! NO!! NO!! That is unless you plan on never working in the psych world again and know it is true what NEO Soldier said... what got the guy there in the first place? I can't stress enough NO!!

I have worked in psych for over 20 years. I love it for several reasons. I got into it due to my own mothers illness, she had a history of paranoid schizophrenia and as a child of a patient it was hard to have a relationship with her or have any kind of stability growing up. Working in the field has been helpful for me to understand why she did what she did. Working with these patients and my own personal experience has given me the opportunity to be able to fully understand my patients and be genuine with them. When you are genuine with them they will trust you, remember that you were the one who helped them even when they were saying ugly things. Because I am able to genuine and able to not have fear in my job, BUT, it makes it VERY DIFFICULT for me to work like on a medical floor or with the general population. Why? Because sometimes the truth hurts and surprisingly enough a lot of people do not want the truth. I also get to be a strong advocate and am involved in the community to help change the stigma surrounding mental health. Most people who get involved like myself have someone close that has touched them and changed their path towards mental health. Yeah you could call it transference/countertransference, I just call it having the back door open and able to help someone with this pain, simply because I wasn't able to help Mother. I witnessed how the general population treated her. So yeah, I have a lot of insight. I apologize for the length, but it's more than a job for me.

Meningitis? She is anemic due to the simple fact that she is vegan and of menstruating age. But meningitis is one illness that is a pretty good clue. She has malaise, it has sudden onset and continues to worsen and it will cause hallucinations. I also wonder if maybe she doesn't have leukemia? Again at the right age. I also agree that maybe a mood disorder however, it is due to her medical condition. I would want to look at the labs, THEN I will give a solid guess. I am glad she agreed to medical treatment and is on the mend! A good Auntie you are!!

I am in triage. The department is called the PES, short for psychiatric emergency services. I think 2 pieces of advice I can give is to understand that some of the medical issues in our patients presents as psych issues, and to always stay calm. I have had people present after they have cut their arm open in the parking lot, present with lith tox or better yet in serotonin syndrome. You must be aware of the early onset of psych crisis issues such as an autistic meltdown or a psychotic break. This will decrease behavioral codes. Don't let medical facilities try to explain psych s/s to you. They do not understand our patients or the process it takes to get them hospitalized. Know your legal system and patient rights. Know that you will make many APS and CPS reports and you will learn to multitask while on hold. Most of all enjoy the experience. I do it now because I have just the right amount of patient contact without getting burned out of the day to day 12+ hour shifts that deal with the stress. After doing this I would not want to go back to the floor full time. Have fun and good luck.

I'm still trying to understand why you went into nursing. It is not an easy job no matter the area you want to work. I am also unsure why you are thinking nurses get high pay. For our bio and tech skills we don't get paid what we are worth in any hospital ever! Maybe private duty you can name your own price if you are able to. The only thing I could suggest to keep you from being drained after work is to find an area of nursing you enjoy. Usually that helps, as far as the higher pay let us know here on this forum so that we can enjoy higher pay as well. Good luck!

Most new grads are not able to choose a speciality as I remember when my training occurred everyone wanted to work days on ob/gyn or in an office. Both require extensive organisational skills and discipline. However I went to nurses training TO BE a Psychiatric nurse. So unless you are ready to pay the dues( nights, evenings, weekends and holidays) you will never catch the area you want with the hours you want. Good luck!

Yeah cuz after you get so old you can't get another job. I'm counting down my years now.

The boy who shot up Santa Fe got the guns from his legal gun owning father. Just like folks who drive drunk. They have a license and a weapon and the mentality that it will never happen to them.

I read this article at the beginning of my day and now ready to try and contribute. It made me sad that we have to come up with a plan to keep our kids from killing each other but i took a concensus at work and this is what we thought. Btw i wor in a psychiatric er and have doctors social worker and pna's involved with this answer. We think that those who are suppirted by certian monster lobbies in the Senate and Congress should set aside some of that PAC money to 1. Hire more teachers to decrease the amount of students in their classroom. The teachers are afraid for their own life when there are 32 to 40 kids in their room and they must redirect them from being out of control. This would mean more schools, teachers and all that would run the school. 2. The counselors in the schools are even fewer numbers than the teachers and they have those same kids. They don't even have time to give career advice to the kids anymore because of their caseload. 3. There is going to HAVE to be money for mental health. I live in a city of 800,000. The hospital i work in has 7, yes 7 beds for children and adolescents. The private psych hospital of course has more but we also know that it is children who live in poverty and often don't have insurance especially since the Obama care has been cut. And finally, we must have stricter regulations on weapons. I hear you gun advocates, I have my own gun. But when we regulate driving far more than guns it really needs to be looked at. Maybe the same amount of regulating because we know where there is a will there is a way. I apolgoze for the length of this. My first loss to suicide was by gunshot to the head. My grandson will be starting school soon. I am truly scared for him.

A psychiatric patient has just as many rights as any other patient. If females are being followed into the bathroom by males then I would say something because I would not want that done to me! I work in a psych er and we automatically aquire patient belongings and secure it so the property does not get lost. The patient is at a psych hospital because they do not feel safe so I am ok with securing property. However, I won't take a wedding ring or religious artifacts. Again that is the patient right. The reason why psych patients are treated differently than medical is lack of knowledge from the caretaker. But thats my opinion.

I am nearing the end of my psych nursing career and I believe that a telehealth job would be the perfect wrap up to a great career. Suggestions anyone?

The company deemed you a non rehire because you did not finish probation. Thats all. 'They' the company does not want to waste resources on someone that will not finish the probationary period. In turn, you did not have to give notice. A probation period is for both the employer and employee. If you decide it won't work out for you all you simply have to do is state 'I am going to exercise my right in this probationary period and resign now. It is not for me'. Thats it.

Wow this article is long overdue! The reason, I believe that violence is condoned towards nursing is because ADMINISTRATION does not hold the patient and the individauls chain of command accountable. It is directly given to the one who is attacked. This is so prevelent that even the nurse who was attacked is not even supported by their co workers! The co worker is afraid of retalliation(really?! you say) from their managers. We work in an age of computers and video and still the nurse is blamed for being attacked. This will not change until accountability to the correct individauls is held. And that means the suits who have no idea how the attack started in the first place. Myself, I was sexually assaulted at my job. When I went to my admi istratiin I heard the following, 'it's part of your job,we all go home with bruises every now and then' oh and my favorite from a cop' if I didn't think he was truly sick I would be the first to arrest him'. Yeah to say I am jaded is an understatement. Oh and juat because a person works in psych is not a free for all. Nursing is nursing, we all care.

..."are situations I am asked to speak with a particularly malignant attending or "impossible" family because "they will hopefully listen and at last hear what they got to hear". Ridiculously, it usually works" Working in psychiatry we are taught that when a person, I won't say patient as I have had others do this, but when a person is acting out we are taught to speak quieter and quieter so that they have to decrease the volume of their voice and subsequently calm down. Yeah it does work. Do it daily.