jennerRNer

Update! I have a med-surg interview in the near future. I have good interviewing skills, but any advice based on the above would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the support!! I really don't understand the stigma of transferring depts though, that is really boggling my mind. They would rather hire a new grad rather than one that is trained and experienced in their own facility? It just amazes me. In any event, I plan on putting out resumes. Thanks for your words of wisdom!

As the title mentions, I am a psych nurse and have been for several years. I started psych right out of school. I love my job, my patients and my coworkers. Before I started in psych, I was also interested in a few other areas. I applied for those but got the offer for psych. I would not trade my experiences here for anything. I was a real "scaredy-cat" when I graduated, I had no previous medical experience and I was terrified of hurting someone by accident. Several years later, I have much more confidence in myself and my abilities. Even though this seems to be unusual in my department, I am one of the handful of nurses that will actually carry a stethoscope to a room and do a full head to toe assessment of all my patients that are appropriate (i.e. not wildly psychotic and/or homicidal.) In other words, I care as much about my patients' medical care as I do about their psych care. I have come to find over the years that psych nurses are looked down on as ones that "settled" for psych because they are somehow not proficient enough to do any other kind of nursing. This seems to be true not only in my hospital, but I find it to be a pervasive attitude with many nurses I talk to or otherwise communicate with. Even though I am fairly happy with my current job, I really find myself wanting to 'break out' of this psych stereotype and try for another area that I am interested in. Several of my friends who are also in psych told me it was now or never, too much more time in this specialty and I can pretty much kiss my chances of ever moving elsewhere goodbye. BTW, they tried to transfer departments within the institution where I work, and although they are excellent nurses, they never got so much as an interview. They ended up having to leave and go to another institution. What do you think? I am interested in hearing feedback from nurse supervisors/managers too.