jpRN84

When I worked 2nd shift at a State Hospital we barely ever got admissions and most of the orders were taken off on dayshift. Most of the time was spent passing meds, treatments, interacting with patients, taking them outside to smoke. Staffing wise there was the charge nurse (always a RN) another nurse to pass meds which was most of the time a RN but sometimes LPN, and usually about 3-5 psych aides. On the unit I worked on there were about 35-40 patients. The work itself was not bad at all, and by like 9:30pm the patients started going to bed. Good luck to you! :-)

I've worked in a drug and alcohol detox/rehab for about 4 years now and we give Phenobarbital for people coming off of benzo's, methadone or suboxone for opioid addicted people, and librium for people coming off of alcohol.

I think almost all of the states require you to sit for the NCLEX. Good luck to you!

It sounds like she was drug seeking. One thing to always remember is, that patients should know all the medication they are taking by name, it's their right. Just because someone asks for their med by name doesn't mean they are drug seeking. Never forget that.

You can't control what people are going to say, just ignore the ones that feel the need to talk down to people. They have the right to voice their opinion, and we have the right to ignore it.

I agree with Nialloh, you are a New Grad, with not much experience I'm guessing. You will need someone to lean on for advice and help and mentoring. I wouldn't take it if that wasn't available to you. If that is available to you, I would take it if you don't have any other job offers, as it's better than having no job at all, and in the mean time you can still look for more work else where. Good luck to you.

I like the term Psychiatric Nursing, not Behavioral Health Nursing or Mental Health Nursing. It is Psychiatry after all, I never heard of a Psychiatrist call themselves anything else.

Thank you for your reply elkpark. It's very sad that they would hire people with less education to do the therapy. But as the say, money makes the world goes around, and companies are gonna pinch their pennies any chance they can get, even at the expense of cutting down good quality care it seems. I've always wanted to be a Psych CNS, but It seems like because of the state I live in, I'm going to have to go the Psych NP route, as that what seems to be in demand in this state and I would have less of a chance finding a job for a Psych CNS as most employers just want those Psych NP's to write scripts. Thanks again.

I ALWAYS knew I wanted to be a psych nurse, and when I graduated nursing school, there were no psych jobs available, so I did medical nursing for 6 months, which now that I did that, Im glad that i have that experience to draw upon. Good luck to you!

Hello all, I was wondering if there were any Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialists on here from PA? I live in PA and am interested in getting my MSN as a Psych CNS, but when I search for jobs for it, I can't really find any. In my state CNS's cant prescribe meds, which I think is very sad. Most of the time all I find are Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner positions. I wouldn't mind learning to prescribe meds as a Psych NP, but I'm more interested in the therapy aspect, which I hear and have read is that the Psych CNS is more about. Thanks so much for all your time and help. It is greatly appreciated. :-D

post deleted

she said she did check the arm band, but got it mixed up after getting interrupted, and wasnt sure who was supposed to get what med...Now at that point, if you wasnt sure, you should have went back to medication administration record and check again. Good luck to you in the future. :-)

I know when I was in nursing school, one of our instructors who's an NP worked in the hospital as an RN, and didnt come across any problems. She only did the RN thing PRN though for a summer before our clinicals to refresh herself as working as a bedside nurse after years of working as an NP. Good luck on your job!

It's discrimination- plain and simple!

I work in a drug and alcohol detox/rehab. We use methadone and suboxone to treat opiate withdrawal, except they cant have suboxone if they have been on benzos or using alcohol. We use phenobarbital to taper people off of benzos, and we use Librium for alcohol withdrawal. Where I work it's a mix between medical and psych, but leans more to psych...all the patients have to pretty much be medically stable to be there...we dont have IVs or stuff like that. Also, know what withdrawal symptoms to watch for, for benzos and alcohol clients, the big thing to watch out for are seizures. Also, these clients can be very manipulative, so remember to be firm, fair, and consistent. It's a great field to work in. I've been doing it now for about 2 1/2 years. Best of luck to you!

Psychiatric clinical nurse specialist or psychiatric nurse practitioner for me.

I have no problems with either having an ASN or BSN. I am glad I got my ASN when I did and wouldn't have done it any other way. I am going to be starting an RN-BSN program soon as I want to get my MSN eventually. If I didn't want my MSN though, I would not go back for a BSN.

ALSO, the point of my original post was to show that each individual is different, and shouldn't be judged solely on whether they have an ASN or BSN.

I SAID people should be evaluated on more than just the degree they have. Meaning, they should take other things into consideration than just the person's degree. YES having a degree is necessary, BUT also evaluating other things should be done also.

I am an ASN grad, my sister is a BSN grad, I KNOW for a fact I had more clinical time than her. Some programs have more, some have less. I took the NCLEX-RN one time and passed, my sister the BSN grad had to take it four times until she passed. I know plenty of ASN and BSN grads that know squat, and it's like, "How did you ever become an RN?!?!" More often than not, it's all about the person, and not the program. For instance, a hospital that has a choice between a new ASN grad and a new BSN grad might make the wrong choice and miss out just by picking the BSN grad just because they have a BSN, and the ASN grad could be way more smarter and a better employee than the BSN grad. People should be evaluated on more than just the degree they have.

I work in an inpatient detox/rehab, you would get plenty, plenty, plenty of psych nursing experience working in one.

I've been a RN for a little over 3 years, and have worked in health care for 11 years, and in my past experiences, more often than not I have seen the more experienced nurse bully the new nurse.

Thanks Deb, I really don't want to prescribe meds, and I am way more interested in doing therapy. But in Pa, where I live, most of the jobs out there are for Psych NPs and not Psych CNSs, as most companies want the NPs that can do med management, as in PA only NPs can prescribe and CNSs cant. Plus most people want to hire professionals that they dont have to pay much to do therapy. It's sad. So, it sounds like Im going to have to do the Psych NP thing as I might have a very hard time finding a job as a Psych CNS.

What free standing psych units are in Harrisburg?

Congratulations! Right now I'm torn between going for Psych CNS or Psych NP. In my state, PA, Psych CNS's cant prescribe meds, and therefore there doesn't seem to be many job offerings because of it. Oh what to do...