Scooter59

I understand what you're saying, but facilities can also burn bridges. For example, in my city, there's a large clinic which has a bad reputation for firing nurses right and left. It is so bad that the two large local nursing schools here do NOT post openings for that clinic anymore. I told a person in the clinic's HR department of this, and she was horrified that her employer has such a bad reputation. So it cuts both ways. I am very assertive, whether it's for my patients or myself, but I am never disrespectful.

Nursing is a second career for me. I made waaaaay more $$ in my first career, but am totally happy as an RN. I work in behavioral health and the satisfaction of helping someone through a psychotic break or a suicidal depression is beyond description. I'm really glad I chose nursing. If I'd done it earlier in life, I might be an MD now. But hindsight's always 20 20.

Early one morning recently, I was on the way to my PRN job on a behavioral health unit. I was literally in my car, and it was 30 min before the shift was to start. I got a text telling me I'd been canceled. Not even the courtesy of a phone call. At this facility, if an RN calls in, it can't be any later than 0430 for dayshift or 1630 for night shift. If I'd have called in with a half hour's notice, I'd have been written up, or worse. I was livid. This comes on the heels of asking to work just Sats and Suns and being told ''we don't allow nurses to do that,'' when our unit had TWO nurses with that exact schedule. I complained to HR but they weren't helpful at all. So I found a job at another hospital in town, but stayed on PRN at the other place...until they canceled me with 30 min notice. I felt that was rude and inconsiderate and told them so, and I also said it was the culmination of months of frustration with their shoddy way of doing things. I am 58 and while I realize no perfect job exists anywhere, I also refuse to be treated with a glaring double standard and total disregard for courtesy.

In my time as a psych nurse, I've seen far more nurses ENTER the specialty than leave it. I work on a behavioral health unit at a huge hospital, and I honestly can't recall even one nurse who's left the specialty because they disliked it. If anything, I've worked with far more people who entered psych because they were tired of vomit, sputum, pressure ulcers, feces and other nasty aspects of med/surg. Sure, in the realm of psych, you get the occasional patient who flings unpleasant body fluids on you or at you, but that's not an everyday thing. Some people are cut out for ob nursing, some for dropping in PICC lines, some for assessing and treating wounds, and some for working with schizophrenics. We all have our gifts.

I've worked in Behavioral Health for two years. Prior to that, I worked on medical-surgical units. There is, I think, a common belief among nurses that if you transition to BH, you're going to ''lose your skills.'' Sure, you won't be doing IV sticks or complete physical assessments on a daily basis, but you will acquire OTHER skills. Defusing potentially violent situations, mediating disagreements between patients, and performing mental/emotional assessments on every patient to determine risk for suicidal or homicidal ideation are just some of the things you'll need to learn how to do. Acquisition and development of these skills are critical to not only your career in behavioral health, but physical safety for everyone on the unit. While I'm glad that I worked for years in med-surg, I personally get a lot more satisfaction out of working with the mentally ill. We each have different gifts; feel free to explore BH to determine if you have an interest, and a gift, for it.