Noah'sRNMom

Hi! Thanks for your reply. I have no experience in Peds, so I want to make sure they offer proper training. I know I wouldn't want a nurse taking care of my child with sub-par training. If you would tell me some more about them, I would appreciate it. What is the pay and schedule like if you don't mind me asking. You can pm if you'd like or my email is thisisnicole19 at yahoo. thanks!

Hi! I am currently a psych nurse who just finished my bachelors. I am getting ready to apply to NP program. I would really like to work in Women's Health, but haven't been able to be hired as an RN. I'm torn between applying to a FNP program or a WHNP program. I have some general questions if anyone would help me out. I don't have anyone in my personal life to ask! Thanks so much! 1. Is it feasable to be hired in Women's Health as a FNP? 2. Do you feel that WHNP limits your job marketability. I'm asking because I live in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. One of my fears is that I will go for WHNP then not be able to find a job in Women' s Health and not be marketable to any other specialty. 3. How do you feel about online programs? The FNP program is at Carlow University, just down the street. However, like I stated before, I really want to do Women's Health. There are no close programs. I can do Temple's online program, which is all classes online, and I believe 680 clinical hours. You also have to travel to Temple 4 days a semester for practical skills testing. I'm just wondering how good these programs are. I don't know that I would want to go to a NP that got her degree "online." However, I also feel that clinical is where you learn most. Any thoughts? Thank you to anyone who takes the time to answer. I really appreciate it!

Koi or the Greys Anatomy brand. They are thicker too!

Thank you SO much! I would appreciate it. I haven't been able to seek advice from anyone in my community, so I'm willing to take whatever I can get!

It's not THAT bad! Find a friend that's AT LEAST as smart as you and study together. I made a couple friends there that will be close friends forever!

Hi! I am a fairly new RN. I graduated with my ADN May 2010. I went right back to school for my BSN, and I am going to be graduating in Dec 2011. I want to go on to get my NP, and the college I am currently going to has an accelerated BSN-MSN FNP program. My dream job would be work work in OB/GYNE, however I have not been able to find an RN position. I am currently working in Pediatrics. My question is.. if I know that I want to work in OB/GYNE, should I find a different school and go for Women's Health (my current school does not offer)? Or, do I stay at my current school and go for FNP? I am leaning toward staying at my current school due to lack of experience in OB/GYNE, and also because some of my BSN courses I can use toward my MSN there. It should take me around 3 years to complete, possibly a little less. I'm afraid that I won't be hired once I graduate. I also know that FNP is more broad, and I feel that I might have an easier time getting a position somewhere, even if it's not in OB/GYNE. Ultimately, I would love to work in Women's Health, however, I want to be employable! Another factor that has got me thinking is that my current school offers NO online classes. So, it's hard to accomodate my shcool and work schedule. I know that other schools have more online options. I really have no one to ask for opinions, so PLEASE if anyone can help me I would appreciate it!!!

Hi. I graduated from CCAC Boyce, and you will be fine. The advisor is correct!

Anyone??? I can't ever get anyone to answer my questions lol

Hi! I'm a relatively new nurse, and I have been working in adult psych for 9 months. It is just not for me, and I am currently in school for RN/BSN/MSN. I already have the BSN and I am continuing on in hopes of becoming a family nurse practitioner. I really wanted to get into peds, so I applied to a children's institute that I did clinicals at when I was in school. I just found out today that I got the job! I know that I really want to do this, but I am just so nervous because I feel like it has been forever since I've used any good nursing skills. I also am not sure of the day to day operations of a pediatric rehab. I know I will be working night shift. Can anyone give me any insight/tell me what I can expect to help me calm my nerves!!? Thanks!!

I'll admit that we take 2 hour breaks on nights, and some of us sleep in our cars. Some people sleep in treatment rooms. Yuck!

Seated holds don't work, are hard to do, and don't work. We used to have an excellent program, but have recently traded it in for a program called "Response." It's a crock. The seated hold is one person on either side, you slip your arm under their armpit from the back in sort of a hook fashion. Then you are to back that person to a wall, and slide them down the wall. When they are sitting down you are to sit on either side of them with your closest leg on top of theirs and the person on the other side does the same. To prevent spitting and biting another staff member is supposed to hold their head. The patient is usually so violent that their thrashing, so you and them end up being slammed off the wall instead of slid down it and it doesn't prevent spitting and biting in the least.

I agree. Psych isn't that hard to get into, and you don't use hardly any medical skills. So, if you got into psych first and it wasn't for you, it might be harder to find a job since you haven't used your skills. Also, with you having close family members with these disorders it might affect you negatively. Psych nursing can be absolutely draining at times and I couldn't imagine having to deal with it at work and then come home and have it compounded by personal issues. If you are the type of person that doesn't think it will affect you, then don't worry about that then. But, I woudl try LTC first definitely.

Hi. I work for a state run facility and I can tell you a little about what I think are the pros and cons. The pros: We are in a union, which means that once you are hired, it is very hard to be let go because you have the union backing you always. Another thing I like is all of the vacation and sick time you get being a state employee, as well as the retirement benefits. Depending on the facility, if you put in 20 years you can retire with a full pension. Other facilities it is 35 years or age 60. The starting pay rate is much higher as well. For example, when I started, I got offered a job at a local hospital on a psych unit for 17.00/hour. I got offered the job I am currently in and it started at 24.65/hour, that's a tremendous difference. Plus, we get 2 raises a year, which brings me back to the union. That is in our union contract. I would say the cons is that while being in a union is great in ways, other ways it is not. Everything is based on seniority. If you are newly hired you are on the bottom of the totem pole until people above you quit, transfer, or retire. So, when it comes to vacation selection you get last picks, also when promotions come up, they are usually based on senority. Also, you have to pay monthly union dues that come out of your paycheck. I would say the thing I dislike most about working where I work is our schedule. We work 7 days in a row with 2 days off, then work 3 days with 2 days off. We also have to bid into shifts due to the union. I am currently on 3-11 shift. If a daylight spot opened up and I wanted it, I could bid on it but if someone with more union senority wanted it they would get it before me. I hope I've helped a little and if you have any more questions I'll try my best to help ya out!

before I looked at elkpark's post, I was going to say that your first paragraph sounded like schizoaffective disorder type personality. As far as tx, I would say that would be individualized depending on which methods have already been tried and have failed, or by the patient's symptoms. Schizoaffective can be of a bipolar type, so they can be tx for the bipolar as well as given an antipsychotic for the psychotic symptoms. I hope that didn't confuse you! lol

I was pregnant with my first during nursing school. I had my son in the middle of a semester, and was back within a week to finish up because I was required to. Nursing school is hard, but doable. If you have the drive and are self-motivated. As someone else mentioned, work on your prerequisites first and try to do as many online as you can so you are not away from your family. Then, when you get accepted into the actual program, try to find one that has an accelerated or evening/weekend program if that fits your sechedule better than all days. That's what I did. Good luck!

Try going to your states department of public welfare website. There you can apply to any Psych RN postings at their State run mental health hospitals. As a state employee you get awesome benefits and get paid much more than if you were to take a psych position at a hospital. I don't know where you live, but around my area they are desperate for psych RN's just about everywhere!

I know in my facility, we try to accomodate pregnant staff members. We wouldn't want you to sit 1:1 with a violent patient or anything like that. So, you definitely need to speak to your superiors so implementations can be made for your safety. As far as the HR goes, you were hired. End of story. They cannot now turn around and fire you. You are under no obligation to tell them that you are pregnant in your interview, so you did nothing wrong. Should you have told them? Probably. But would they have hired you? Probably not. So, it's a catch 22. But, I wouldn't worry about it. As long as you are off of probation before you need to leave for maternity leave you should be fine!

ugh, that's tricky. I was pregnant in nursing school, and when I got to my psych rotation they would not even let me out of the office. I would actually be afraid for you to work a unit that pregnant. I know where I work, there are a few patients that I can think off the top of my head that would love to see a new pregnant staff member. You would be their new favorite target. Can you wait until you give birth? If it was any other specialty, I would suggest wearing a suit jacket and trying to cover it up, and see if you get hired. Then, they can give you the time you need, but i don't know if I would risk it being in psych because you just never know what is going to happen. You could still interview, but even if they would decide to hire you, most facilities would have you on a probationary period that wouldn't be over by the time you needed to go on maternity leave. You are in a tricky situation

Hmm.. let's see.. I have a lot of down time after my patients go to bed at 9pm till 11:30. I will usually do homework (I'm in a BSN program now), puzzles, crosswords, magazines, etc. Sometimes I will bring in my scrapbooking supplies lol.. When my son's birthday was coming up, I worked on invitations, and then thank you's! We recently got internet *thanks the lord* but we are ONLY supposed to use it for nursing related things.. yeah right. So, I usually surf the web while keeping my email minimized incase my nurse supervisor decides to pop up! I mean if you have everything done and your patients are in bed, what are you supposed to do?!

When I started working at my facility, I found it helpful to get to know the staff. I'm not sure about where you work, but I work at a state facility, so my patients are here for 6 months at least. We have regualr ward staff and they were able to tell me who I needed to watch out for, who would attack me, who would try and sneak off the ward, who would try to bully me around, etc. They also were able to tell me how to handle different patients. Just always try and observe. See how seasoned RN's and psych aides interact with certain patients and try to do the same, if that makes any sense. As for getting patients to do things they don't want to do, like take meds.. it's different in each situation. At my facility, we have patient levels. When they are a certain level they get to do certain things. I don't automatically say "you are going to lose your level if you don't do this" I usually try to find out why they dont want to take it and see if it's a resonable answer. I work from there and this is where your communication will come in handy. If you cant get them to do it then you have to find their currency. Like I said, where I work it is levels. "You know that you are prescribed this medication and if you don't want to take it, it is your choice, but the consequence of that action will be to decrease your level." Then tell them what they are going to lose by chosing to not take meds. "I know you like to go outside and smoke, and if you lose your level, you won't be able to do that." You will find that the longer you are there the easier it will be to talk to the patients and find out what works for different patients!

I work 3-11 at a state mental hospital. Unless you work day shift at my hospital, you are not going to get to participate in any type of groups, etc. Here is my day. I come on the ward. As I'm walking down the hall I usually get stopped by the same 3 patients asking me various questions. Some want me to feed into their delusions, some ask me when I think they will be discharged, etc. But, it's usually the same people. When I finally make it into the nurse's station, I get report from the daylight nurses. They notify me of any med changes or any new orders that were written during the day. Then, I make my ward assignment sheet. We have 28 patients on my ward. The RN runs the ward and I have 1 LPN who passes the meds and usually 2 aides, unless I have a 2;1 or 1:1, then I will have more help. I assign my LPN his tasks and my aides their's. I also assign breaks. Then I peer review all charts. If it's treatment team day, which is once a week, I make sure the orders are right and taken off correctly and that the necessary changes have been made. My dr. also stays late, so I usually have several orders that need to be taken off as well. I have a 4pm accucheck that I have every day because I have a brittle diabetic. During this time, I have to stop to answer the door to the thousands of times that patients are coming to my door asking for various items or various questions that usually aren't that important. 5:30pm is dinner. I send an aide to do diningroom and I usually stay back because I always have patients that have to eat on the ward for various reasons. After dinner, is when we rotate breaks. I also will do any treatments that need to be done. 7:30 is when we get everyone ready for meds and have a wrap up group. After that it's meds and snack, then everyone is usually in bed by 9:30. I do have some patients that are up later. After 9:30, you pretty much have the rest of the time to do whatever you need to do. I will usually finish up my ward report that needs faxed to our nursing office by 10pm, then I chart on whoever needs charted on. Keep in mind that this is just the routine and that there are usually several incidents that get thrown in there from day to day. Example: A patient who gets off the ward (AWOL), two patients fighting, a patient assaulting staff, a patient banging their head off the office door, etc.. When anything out of the ordinary like this happens incident reports need to be done and mounds of paperwork. hope that helps a little!

I'm at a state mental health facility right now. It was actually my first job out of nursing school. I find it to be fun at times, emotionally draining at times, humorous at times, and just about every other emotion out there! I can say that you NEVER know what your day will bring you! You never say that your ward is the "Q" word (quiet) lol.. that's just asking for trouble! Its a whole different kind of nursing. The only thing is that you really don't get to use your medical skills very often, and you can become "rusty" without practice. The only medical skill I do on a regular basis is IM's lol.. But, as far as therapeutic technique you will become a pro. I think by now I can sell ice to an eskimo! I'd be happy to answer any questions :)

I just saw the question about nights.. I work either 3-11 or 11-7. I would say on the 3-11 shift there is more acting out and behaviors because the patients where I work usually do not have groups at night, so there are limited things to keep them occupied. Night shift where I work is usually very quiet. You have a few things to do that usually only take up an hour or so of your night. The rest of your shift is yours to either read a book, or work on any annual reviews or documentation you have. Sometimes the patients sleep all night and you have nothing going on, but if you have patients that are very manic and not well medicated, then they will be up all night. They could be yelling, or banging things around, or just pacing the halls. It depends on the patient. I would say that for a new nurse I wouldn't want to work all night shift because you really hardly ever get to do any nursing. I would want to be in an environment where I was learning everything I could if I were new, and then eventually go to nights!

I work at a state mental facility, pretty much the worst of the worst there. The thing about psych nursing is that you never know what a violent situation is going to stem from. You always have to be hypervigilant. I've had full out fights stem over a can of pop. I think the key is your staff. It is vital that you have good staff around you and that you trust them. When I first started, the staff really took me in and taught me everything I needed to know. Where I work you aren't allowed to use restraints, only "seated holds." Let me tell you, it is ridiculous. When someone is spitting at you, punching, and kicking at you, it's pretty hard to put them in a seated hold. You asked about doing whatever necessary in order to save yourself.. That's tricky.. I would say if you trust your staff then do whatever necessary to get out of the situation, and then document your ass off. Meaning, documenting that you used all of the proper holds and procedures. If your are working with good staff members they will back you and also do whatever needs to be done to make sure athat all staff are safe. But, you can still be charged with patient abuse at the same time. Its a tricky situation..

Hi! I know this is a long shot, but I am a psych RN and I am looking to transition to Pediatrics. I have an upcoming interview at The Children's Institute in Pittsburgh, PA. I wanted to see if anyone out there works there or has ever worked there, or even has any knowlege of the facility. Thanks in advance!!