ccoombs

I am an RN with an assertive community TX team. Much of my job is home visits. I do med management, lots of injections, assessments, individual and family education, and informal counseling. It's rare that I feel unsafe and even then it is usually due to environment and family or neighbors.

I work as an Assertive Community Treatment nurse 1: All of our nurses are BSN but that is not a specific requirement, excepting the team lead who has to be a BSN 2: My pay as a relatively new nurse is slightly better than that of my classmates who work in a medical hospital (by about 2 dollars an hour) 3: Never a dull moment. There's more of a focus on relationships and getting to know the patients. a lot of critical thinking. a lot of autonomy 4: No way, not right now. 5: Every day is different.

There are a number of positions open within the georgia state hospital system. Go to http://www.dbhddjobs.com and see whats available

I'm a relatively new RN working with a very busy ACT team (rapidly approaching 70 patients) in south Georgia. I worked inpatient for a about 6 months prior. Having done both as a new nurse I will say that the best way to describe ACT is career broadening. As an ACT Nurse you will learn about all aspects of psychiatric care. Your assessment skills need to be sharper and you will have to find novel ways to solve complicated problems on a daily basis. If you do your best then I'm sure you could make the transition to inpatient, especially considering you will be in contact with most agencies and institutions in the area.

I wouldn't sweat it. It is important to understand principles of therapeutic communication but in practice patients differ dramatically based on a multitude of factors, so these techniques are rarely applied in a textbook way. Additionally deescalation varies a lot from situation to situation and even if you understand completely what to say you may find it difficult to articulate these things in a crisis. a psychiatric emergency is rarely pretty and rarely looks like it does on a test. Again, try to understand the underlying principles and try your best in practice.

and every day is different from the last.

at my hospital the RN rarely does med pass, thats more of an LPN function. The RN does do a good bit of charting and paperwork. Initial assessments and discharges are RN jobs as well. I actually spend most of my time talking to my patients, trying to make our conversations as purposeful as possible, and trying to build strong therapeutic relationships.

ha, I took too long responding.

EPS refers to a broader range of symptoms such as dystonia, akathisia, and pseudoparkinsonism. Tardive Dyskinesia is a more specific, often irreversible disorder that causes bizarre facial grimacing, involuntary tongue rolling, lip smacking, and pill rolling. Cogentin, Artane, or Benadryl are commonly prescribed for most EPS, benzos are sometimes prescribed for Akathisia. there are a variety of approaches to managing TD symptoms.

I'm a new grad working in a state hospital in GA, and while it's certainly not med-surg patients can have any number of medical issues. Additionally many state hospitals have infirmaries or med-psych units. If you are planning on returning to school in 2013 I would say go ahead and get the inpatient psych experience.

Georgia state hospitals accept new grads. Best of luck!

I work in a state hospital and we get almost no voluntary admissions.

I have a previous degree in Anthropology so I have an interest in cultural and supernatural explanations for mental illness. I work in southwest georgia and it is not uncommon to hear schizophrenic patients say that a "root" has been put on them. For people unfamiliar with the term a root is curse of sorts, that is prevalent in southern African-American mythology.

Im at a state hospital in south GA and we work 8s.

The unit I work typically has 1 rn, 1 lpn, and 3-5 techs. Our census runs anywhere between 10-30. We've had a couple of quiet weeks but I'm sure it will be wild again pretty soon. My unit is an acute male unit, most individuals are actively psychotic, and occasionally violent.