MSN Student

Fabulous! Money has kept me back for a while too. Here's hoping it'll will be a great program, and we'll get our moneys worth.

I'm starting Western Governors in December. Looking for others who are also going to be doing BSN to MSN in Education. I'm a serious student and would like to talk to other like minded people. Excited to get started!

I've a Bachelors in Nursing from an American university. I'd like to move back to UK. My passion in nursing in psychiatric/mental health, and I've worked in that field for a long time. However, from what I understand, I would not be able to register with the Nurse Midwife Council and then work as a psych nurse. Does anyone know of top-up courses, or how I would go about being registered as a UK psychiatric nurse? I'd hate to have to start at the beginning and do a whole new nursing degree. Thanks for any help!

As much as I love my psych nursing job, I would never say it was not stressful or in any way easy. You have to be thinking ahead of your patients, some who are always looking for a sneaky way to kill or harm themselves, or someone else. You have to be on a constant state of alert and this can be incredibly draining. Physically, you have to be able to withstand the take-down of a patient who may be acting out in a dangerous manner. It can be terrifying at times, and the strict rules and policies can delay what need to be quick actions when a patient becomes violent. Just as any nurse needs to deal with mental problems in their unit no matter what unit that it, psych nurses have to deal with patient medical problems. Pain is huge, as it alcohol/drug related issues. We also have the geropsych patients who can be sicker than their peers. Give it a go and try it. You will love it or hate it. Perhaps more than any other specialty, psych nurses work best when they have a strong interest in psychiatry, and a passion for helping those with its demanding and challenging problems. No nurse should go into the field for a break from the demands of the med-surg floor. That would be a disservice to your patients AND your fellow nurses. Good luck. It is certainly not a boring field.

I work for a large Magnet hospital. As nursing becomes more popular, and nurses not in short supply, I have noticed something ominous has being going on lately. Several of our older and very seasoned ADN nurses are being fired. The excuses for firing are ridiculous. I have sadly seen some excellent nurses lose their jobs. I am wondering if they want to get rid of the ADNs so they can look "better" with an all BSN staff. Or perhaps they want rid of older nurses who have been there longer because they are higher on the pay scale. Either way, it is very scarey. I myself am BSN, and i am not ashamed to say that what I know does not hold a candle to these fired nurses. Any thoughts?

That's the problem with our unit. We are not a geripsych unit and we don't have the resources to keep them safe.

Our doctors are consistently accepting elderly dementia patients on our psych unit. These patients are then in amongst other patients with psychosis and other psych problems. The dementia patients often become violent towards the nurses. We are not allowed to use a geri chair, and basically have no way of keeping them save. The patients are a huge fall and violence risk. The other patients become afraid and agitated. Dementia patients are often 1:1 with one nurse. Thus far we've had 8 nurses injured from being punched. Two nurses now have back injuries, due to the patient falling to the ground and the nurse having to catch him. Does anyone else experience this problem? And what do you do about it?

Oh yes, I see people with mental quirks all over the place too. All I have to do is look in the mirror and I see someone with whose kids describe as hypomanic, irrational and totally out of touch with reality. And that's all in the hour BEFORE they go to school!! Really though, I think we do tend to pick out characteristics of people's natures, and subconsciously try to pick out a DSM-IV diagnosis for them. The other day in Walmart I saw a person happily talking away to themselves and gesturing at an invisible person. I was thinking that it would be nice if all psychotic people had such nice hallucinations but then I noticed that she actually had one of those blue tooth phones in her ear and was actually having a conversation with a real person. Thankfully, I didn't try and give her reality orientation, LOL. That could have been embarrasing.

Thanks for your help. I appreciate the ideas you gave me! I will be presenting probably for 30-45 minutes. I will definately try to dispel some of the urban myths. I did think about playing a recording of auditory hallucinations, and am still wondering whether to do it or not.

I've to go to my kid's high school and give a presentation on psychiatric/mental health nursing. Needless to say, the thought of standing before a bunch of 17-18 year olds makes me very nervous! Does anyone have any ideas as to what/how I should present information??? Thanks.

Thanks for the answers! I appreciate not having to ask anyone at work, LOL.

I feel too stupid to ask anyone this question but can someone please tell me what I do with my CEU's? Do I post them to the Board of Nursing? Or do I just call them and say I've completed them?

I'm finding many, many psychiatric patients are addicted to benzos. I'd like to do an educational group suitable for patients in an acute care inpatient setting. They only stay about 5 days. Can anyone give me ideas on materials I can use. Are there any videos or handouts I can get? I'd like to address the physiological and psychological aspects of addiction and how to deal with withdrawal. Of course, as a nurse with very little time, I'd need to fit it into about an hour! Still, anything is better than nothing in my opinion. Thanks for any information.

How many CEU's do we need to get by the end of our first year of nursing? I thought we needed about 30, but my friend said we don't need any at all this year. Can anyone shed any light? Thanks.

Thanks so much for the help!

Thank you for your very quick reply. It is very appreciated.

I'm a new nurse. If you have a patient say on Ativan tid and PRN q6h, can you give the PRN Ativan one or two hours after you've given the scheduled dose of Ativan, if the scheduled dose isn't doing the job. Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Buttercup, I found that there were plenty of posts available in psych. Strangely, the posts don't seem to be advertised the way they are for med-surg RN's. Like you, I thought I'd never be hired right out of school so when I applied online for a nursing position, preferably psych, I figured I'd never hear from them. I did. The following day! And I was hired to work in the psych unit before I even passed NCLEX! And I work in one of the best mental health units in the area. So, do not be discouraged! Call up the hospital's recruitment and ask about their psych positions. And, by the way, you will find that you will have LOTS of med-surg stuff to do as well as psych. We do IV's, wound dressings and all the other stuff too. The nice thing is, we don't do it so often so it doesn't become boring. Good luck, and if you think psych is for you, go for it. If you change your mind later on, you'll easily find a job on a med-surg floor.

Edorn, thank you very much for offering to help me out. I have sent you an email. Pam C

I too have wondered about this. My unit doesn't have filter needles and I hate to give meds from an ampule without one. My pharmacy said they don't have them.

You'll do fine. I got 900 and passed with 75 questions. Don't freak out though because you WILL think you flunked the NCLEX when you take it.

I'm a new nursing graduate and am working as an RN in a short term psych unit. We are very busy and I don't get as much time as I would like to ask questions. Is there anyone who would be a mentor for me? I come home at night wondering if I did the correct thing and whether I could have improved on it. Thanks.

I'm a new psychiatric nurse and could use some help. I'm trying to make a one page assessment sheet that I can use to help me with my assessment and charting. Being new at this, however, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Can anyone give me some ideas, or if anyone else has made a sheet like this, would you be willing to share it. Thanks. I would to do the best that I can for these patients.