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.

5 hours vacation, and 5 hours sick time per pay period. so 120 of each per year.

Maybe. It depends on where you go next, and how you sell yourself. Being comfortable with psychiatric patients is a definite plus, also health promotion is a big part of psychiatric nursing (ideally) so you get a lot of patient education experience. The flipside is that you wont use many psychomotor skills in a psychiatric setting and many of your medical issues are chronic not acute. I would be sure to continue to study up on med surg stuff so you stay fresh and current. Another benefit of psych experience is that the vast majority of what you learn is not taught in school, especially the psychopharm, so that will help you to stand out among other recent grads.

I work on the acute male admission unit at a state hospital, and on a typical day we have a census in the teens, but I have seen it creep into the twenties, and have one RN, one LPN, and 4 or 5 Techs, depending on the census and levels of observation. Also some days we will have an additional LPN to handle order processing, coverage during breaks, etc for our unit and the adjoining unit. Usually the unit feels well staffed, but some days you could use an entire army.

http://www.augustareg.dhr.state.ga.us/

It is unfortunate but just like the individuals we serve, mental health professionals are often stigmatized.

I honestly think if you know what you want to do, then do it. If you have the desire to stay current on medical issues then you will and psychiatric patients have a lot of medical problems anyhow. Also skills are skills, if you learned them once you can learn them again.

I'm a new grad who is currently working at a state hospital in GA. I'm sure things vary greatly from state to state but state hospitals are great places to cut your teeth. I have been orienting on the acute male admission unit and typically the patients we see are the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor. It often feels like a psych icu. A lot of schizophrenia, schizoaffective, and acute mania. Many of the patients also have substance abuse or personality disorders. State hospitals can be great places to practice in crisis identification and deescalation using both pharmacological and non-pharmacological techniques.

If you hate your current job that bad then I say just go for it. I'm a new nurse but I knew for a while that psych was my thing. As a specialty it is incredibly rewarding and there is never a dull moment, if things are quiet or the census is low then you can just spend more time with your patients. As far as the pay goes, I was started at a rate that is slightly higher than my classmates and with a benefits package that is vastly superior (yay, state work!)

I work in a state hospital, and generally wear business casual.

Sat for boards yesterday and my license was posted today. Quick turnaround!