Hello all!
I recently got hired as a PCA for a new children's Behavioral Health Hospital. I'm very excited, but I can't help but feel extremely nervous. I have never worked with any kind of psychiatric patient before. The closest kind of experience that I have had with this would probably be briefly working in the Memory Care unit as an STNA, having to deal with the aggression and confusion that came with it sometimes, but I'm almost 100% sure that it doesn't even begin to compare to psych. I am in Behavioral Health training at the moment, learning about what to do, and what not to do, in certain situations, along with verbal de-escalation, which I happen to think I won't be very good at, at all, and learning holds, restraints, and blocking techniques to protect ourselves when a patient does escalate. I haven't visited the new building that I will be working at yet; I will be going in a few days. The more I think about actually starting soon (in the next few weeks), the more nervous I get. As embarrassing as it is, I also can't help but feel as though I will be intimidated by these kids 😟 I really do not wish to feel intimidated and show these kids that I somewhat fear them, I want to do nothing but help them. So, I guess my questions to you guys who have had some psych experience is: What do I look out for when I begin working at this new Behavioral Health Hospital? What do I need to do to not feel so intimidated by them? Could you give me any situation that you were in with a psych patient, and what you did in that situation?
Please, do not take any of this the wrong way. It is just how I feel. I went into this field because I have a passion for it, but I guess I just didn't thoroughly think about it, and how it might make me feel; fearful. Nonetheless, I am still very excited.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
