edisonnurse

I have been a psych nurse for 10 years now. To say I hate it would be a HUGE understatement!!! Honestly, I deal with very few true psych patients and more with drug addicts. I have zero respect for these people. They lie, steal, manipulate, have no appreciation for anything and would rather collect disability checks monthly than to get off their lazy butts to work (most are more than capable of working). Here's my question, when you know a patient is abusing either pain pills or benzos but part of your job is to call these in or even better, deliver them( currently home health psych) and this conflicts with your beliefs, how do you continue this and feel okay about it? 2 of our patients recently died because these drs. Keep giving these drugs like M&M's . I am starting to feel more like a drug dealer than an actual nurse!

I graduated nursing school one year ago and started working in psych upon graduation. No med surg for me!!! (although I question that decision daily). I really thought had I worked med surg I would have quit nursing immediately. I hate anything medical and have a very weak stomach. I've always been facinated by the mind, so psych seemed like the perfect fit for me. I work with children, ages 4-18. I work Monday-Friday with all my weekends off (seems like a dream job right????) In the beginning I really loved my job...Now, things have changed drastically. I dread even the smell of that place. In the past month I witnessed a doctor being seriously harmed ,so much in fact, that he now wants to install plexi-glass and recently was bitten by a patient to the point where he broke my skin. Not to mention the swift kick to the leg I suffered. Besides the physical harm, there are staffing issues...I'm usually assigned 10 patients daily and I rarely get but 5 minutes with each patient(if I'm lucky) because my day is spent in meetings with parents, charting, passing meds, orders, phone calls or my favorite..dealing with a borderline who sucks the life right out of me (as you can see, I have very little compassion anymore). Not to mention the parents of these children...95% of these parents have caused these children to be the way they are..then they complain about everything we try to do. DONT THEY REALIZE WE ARE THERE TO HELP???? I dream about a job where I don't fear for my safety daily, where I'm not giving a 4 year old Abilify because he was sexually abused and now his life is a mess, where I'm assigned 5 patients at the most and I can actually talk to them!!! Sorry, but has anyone ever felt this way, and what have you done to regain that compassion. I have become numb and that has always been my greatest fear as a nurse.

I work as a psych nurse in an adolescent facility and I distinctly remember our medical director, who has been a psychiatrist for over 29 years, telling a patients family that very same thing...the lower the dose the more drowsiness the patient experiences. I myself also looked for the data on this and came up empty. Makes no sense logically, but it might just be true. I'll keep searching and if I come up with something I'll let you know.

I just recently graduated from nursing school and went immediately into psych nursing because it is my passion, but something happened today and I'm so upset. I was told that when giving Ativan to small children to just go ahead and give Cogentin with it to alleviate any potential EPS symptoms!! I have been doing that since day one. Well tonight the Dr. informs me that Ativan doesn't cause EPS...what gives...have I been giving out the wrong medication for the past 3 months...does Ativan cause EPS, and do you guys ever give Cogentin with it????? I am confused. I looked online, but nothing...some help would totally be appreciated..

A little about me....I just graduated nursing school May 11th and took my Nclex on June 13, passed, and got hired in an adolescent behavioral unit. I just completed my first week of work last Friday. When I got hired at this facility I was told that they wanted me to do some time(anywhere from 1 week to 6 months) on a med surg floor. I was totally against this because I HATE MED SURG. Well they called me to work last week and they haven't mentioned anything about med surg and I'm certainly not going to mention it. My first week of work was absolutely amazing. It was the first job that I've ever had where I feel totally satisfied. I love everything about it. During nursing school, mental health was the only thing I loved. I found myself rushing home to read each chapter in our mental health textbook because I found it so fascinating. There's only one problem that has been bugging me. At this facility we do no "skills". By skills I mean no IV's, no catheters, no NG's...none of that. That is fine by me because those things make me so uneasy. I have no desire to do any of those things ever... I guess my question is....do I need to learn those things to be a nurse? If I know I love psychiatric nursing, if I know it's my passion, is it necessary to learn those skills? Am I selling myself short and putting up barriers to my career??Thanks in advance.......

Well today was my 4th day and I made my first big mistake. Here's the story... We have a book with the names of the people who are allowed to talk to the patients on the phone. The people in the book must know the password before we can confirm that the patient is even in our unit..well my understanding was that the book was a list of people who we were able to give information to....anyway I was in a meeting with a family and grandma, mom, and aunt were present. As soon as the meeting was over I got a call...the woman on the phone said this " hi this is so and so's grandma and the password is blah, blah" I said, "Oh, hi this is your grandson's nurse. I looked in the book and she was in there, so I proceeded to tell her what happened as soon as I returned from the meeting. So I went on this big spill about this and that trying to reassure her that he was fine...then she said "OH NO, I'm not the grandma that was in the meeting, I'm his other grandma!!!!!!!!!!. So first, I find out it wasn't the same grandma, and then second I find out I wasn't supposed to tell grandma anything. I misunderstood the meaning of the book and the whole password system. I'm so scared that mom is going to find out that I gave the grandma information that maybe she didn't want her to know. I immediately called mom and told her that I spoke to grandma and gave her some information, but didn't go into detail... I really didn't know what to do in that situation...I made a big mistake, and I'm terrified that I will be in major trouble tomorrow....For you nurses who have been doing this for a while, how would you have handled that situation??? What consequences could I face because of that mistake?????AARRGGHH this is just so new, and trying to remember everything when there are 1000 things going on around me is absolutely overwhelming!!!!! I hope it will get easier over time...Thanks

Hi,I am a nurse who graduated from Edison in Ohio...I wish it were Florida!!!! ....

I don't have any expert advice, I just had my first day today, but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry that you are being treated that way. You graduate, you are excited to start a new career, then BAM, you are hit with that!!! Nasty, Nasty women!!!No person deserves to be treated that way....Keep your head up. Do your job to the best of your ability so that when you go home each day you can be proud of the nurse you are. Use their ugliness to remind yourself that no matter how long you are a nurse, you will never treat the new grads in that way....OH and remember Karma is a *itch. Boy are they gonna hate it when you surpass them professionally!!!!

Thanks everybody...well I did survive. I really just watched and tried to take in everything. Obviously some of it I have already forgotten, but thankfully they don't expect me to come in tomorrow and run the unit. The people were nice, I love the facility, so for a first day, I'd say it was great......One thing I found really odd....we have meetings with the doctors in the early morning. This one doctor (she is female and from another country) doesn't carry her own charts. She had me gather all the charts and put them in the meeting room. When we were done she asked me to gather them and bring them to her office for review. I almost thought that they were playing a joke on me until I asked the other nurse and she said it's a cultural thing!!! ODD considering we are in America...I'm sorry it's just so odd to me. I guess it's not a big deal, but I didn't think I would graduate nursing school and be required to carry charts for the Dr.....anybody else think this is odd???How would you handle that????????

wow i knew the answer when it wasn't even there!!!!..guess all that nursing school did teach me something...

my two cents...pain... I would have picked vitals first, but that wasn't an option..my rationale..the question doesn't say anything about them losing blood or experiencing any fluid volume deficit so I would discard IV fluids, it didn't say anything about the patient eating or bowel sounds, so I wouldn't pick NPO first. You definately would monitor electrolytes, but pain would definately come before that. It would be very important to get pain under control first. When pain in controlled, patient will be able to take deep breaths thus avoiding such things as hypoxia, when pain is controlled you will be able to ambulate patient thus decreasing the risk for DVT, anxiety will be decreased. When a person is experiecing pain they tend to breathe faster increasing fluid loss....etc etc...I would choose pain...I think

Hello everybody...well tomorrow is the BIG day...my first day of work. I wrote another post a while back about how stupid I feel. That has changed somewhat. I certainly don't feel ready, but I did pass nursing school and the evil NCLEX, so I couldn't possibly be stupid...like someone said, I'm just inexperienced! I'm writing to see if anybody has any good advice about what I should be doing during this orientation.Any tricks that helped you get through it. I know I will feel overwhelmed, as well as uncomfortable, unsure, and lots of other scary, scary emotions, so please tell me what you did to make it through... OBTW I will be working in a behavioral facility, so any psych nurses out there? I would love to hear how you handle stressful situations, and what you think is the most important thing for me to remember as I learn the ropes???thanks in advance

I felt that way the entire time I was in nursing school!!! It was so much new information that after each test I felt like I cleared my brain of that information in order to make room for the new stuff....the reality is that although you probably don't remember everything, you do know enough to pass the nclex. As I studied for my nclex and did question after question, if I stumbled upon something that I couldn't remember I would look it up and immediately say...oh yeah!! I remember that...I passed the nclex with 75 questions, and you will do fine. You still have a while to study, so don't sweat it, you will be more than ready.

I too graduated in May (the 11th to be exact) and took and passed my nclex on June 13th. I remember thinking to myself, wow!! why did I wait until I graduated to start studying for the nclex...I should have started many, many months ago...but to be honest, you could study everyday for 10 hours straight and still feel like you don't know enough to pass, but the truth is you do. If you passed nursing school, then you are ready. Most people who take the nclex pass it their first time. Remember that before you walk through the door. Could you get someone to watch your boys the night before and just have a night all to yourself..not to study, but to relax and clear your mind. I got a hotel room and brought my books, but didn't do much studying. I relaxed, watched some tv, ate a good supper and just prepared my mind by having NO STRESS around me. Please don't stress...the test is difficult, I won't lie, but it is certainly doable...I didn't take one of those classes that prepares you for the nclex, I didn't study for weeks and weeks for hours a day, I didn't buy any extra study material, I just checked out books at the library, I didn't crack open any of my nursing notes or books, and I wasn't part of any study groups yet, I passed with 75 questions my first try. Also, I wasn't a top student in my class, I was average at best.....Good luck, you will be fine. OH!!!One other bit of advice...do not read the posts on here about people who have failed...it just tends to put fear into you...only read positive stories until after you pass....can't wait to hear how you passed!!!

That is NOT a stupid question. I was thinking the exact same thing. Why in the world did my SON require me to buy all those books that have NO questions like I took on my Nclex. We used ATI which I was told was most like Nclex....that was not the case....I would not recommend ATI...I did not take a review class, I didn't have Kaplan which I heard was very good. I went to the library and checked out three free books that were loaded with questions...that's all I did and I passed with 75 questions. Don't stress about not being able to take a class. I don't know if you've heard of Saunders. I did some of that and found it helpful...when I say helpful this is what I mean...reading chapter after chapter and trying to absord the info is not worth your tme. The Nclex is about reading a question and determining the best answer...that takes practice. Practice comes from doing question after question about information you might know nothing about. Doing questions that provide rationales with the answer are the most beneficial. After you do tons of questions you will realize that, although you might not know the information, you will be able to critically think about the answer. When you are able to do that...you are ready....OBTW on all the test I've practiced with I got between 70-80% also. Don't stress...you will do fine...you passed nursing school, so you are READY