ScenicRoute

Is it just the hours you are having trouble with? There are nursing jobs that do not require 12 hour shifts. Maybe look at jobs in doctors' offices, schools, clinics that keep more regular hours, or even hospitals that offer 8 or 10 hour shifts. Nursing does require quite a bit of flexibility, and we don't always get our breaks on time. But if you are saying you just need to be able to sleep a solid 8 hours, that isn't so unreasonable. Good luck to you!

I certainly understand your anger. These kinds of things affect professional relationships for a long, long time. My question is, though, how did the staff from other units know to respond? Is it possible that these techs had to leave you for a moment to go get help? I agree with other posters that this is a traumatic situation, you're entitled to your feelings about it, and you should talk to someone who will help you debrief. Good luck to you, and I'm so sorry this happened. It's the worst part of our job.

I think this just comes with the territory of working with people, honestly. It's not the family practice settling that makes your receptionist bossy. She's just a bossy person (I'm assuming.) All workplaces have office politics, and you just have to navigate them and the personalities involved. My manager is fairly "hands-off," but I have been floated to units in my same hospital who serve the exact same patient population my unit does, and dealt with managers who were terrible micromanagers. It really just depends on the people involved, not the specialty.

In my hospital group happen off the unit at a treatment mall. I do run groups, but so do techs, rec therapists, psychologists, even my manager leads a group. I have done journaling, collage, music listening, coping skills, symptom management, and craft groups. Your facility will probably have some flexibility if they require you to lead groups. You might not have to actually stand in front of the class and teach from a curriculum if you're not comfortable with that

If be happy to help too, if I can

I'm not exactly in your area, but I am in the northwest. I'm a mental health RN, and I can give you my opinion if it's helpful. 1) I work on a forensic psych unit. My patients have been charged with a crime and are being evaluated to see if they are able to aid and assist their attorneys. My job as a nurse is to help them prepare for their competency evaluations, medication education and administration, work with the other unit staff, doctors, social workers and rehabilitation specialists to make and implement care plans that will help our patients get ready to go back to court and ultimately return to the community. There can also be a lot of behavioral emergencies to manage, and a ton of documentation! 2) Unfortunately the first thing that came to mind was that our resources are always getting cut. :-) Also, and this is just my observation based on the population I work with, there seems to be an increase in patients who were not genuinely psychotic before they became frequent drug users. We seem to be getting more and more patients who don't have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder... they've just fried their brains on meth. They may be experiencing genuine psychosis now, but not as the result of some organic mental illness. 3) One of the biggest challenges, at least in forensic psych, is maintaining a balance between a patient's rights and their safety. Mentally ill people often do not make the choices you or I would say are the best, but they still have the right to make those choices. Mental health has come a long way, and that is a positive thing. As nurses, we always want to promote independence with our patients. Where it becomes a challenge is when the choices someone wants to make poses a threat to themselves, other patients on the unit, or you as staff. For example, we have plenty of "frequent flyers" who we know are assaultive if they're not medicated. We can't forcibly medicate someone unless they show us that they are unsafe without the medication. So even if we have seen a patient come in unmedicated, assault staff, and then stabilize and do really well once involuntary needs are started 10 times during 10 previous admissions, we can't stay involuntary medications on this admission until that person attacks someone. So even though I believe it's good that patients rights are more recognized and protected by law, it is a challenge to be the nurse who has to show up and take responsibility for that unit when you know a patient has a high probability of being assaultive. I hope this is somewhat helpful! If you have any more questions or would like me to clarify anything, please let me know. I'd be happy to!