jimkusters

I've been an LVN working in Psych for over 6 years. I actually became a nurse at 35 years old. It's been my experience that most men tend to gravitate towards Psych or Emergency. You can find male nurses in almost every specialty, though. There are some difficulties that men might find working in maternity or L&D, but from certain patients, not the staff.

Along those same lines, a couple days ago I found out just what Mgt at my facility thinks about nurses. I work in a Psych facility. Our cilinical director left and they are hiring for a new one. They told our DON that he could not apply because they wanted "Healthcare Professionals only"So now nurses are NOT healthcare professionals??! I mean who the heck is then if not nurses?

I don't know if this was posted before in this thread, but when flight stewardesses started (that's what they were originally called) they were actually required to be registered nurses. Obviously, this changed over time, but they did start out as RN's.

My advice would be to check her chart and find out why this patient is seeing a Psych NP. That would be a good start on finding why this lady acts the way she does. I've been a Psych nurse for over 5 years and routinely get yelled at and insulted by my patients. You just have to remember, when dealing with mental illness patients, that you will have to ignore most of what she says, do your job, and kill her with kindness. And of course, document, document, document. Good luck, if she is a borderline, this situation might get slightly better, but will always be there.

The lowest dbp I ever saw was not even while I was working. It was when my wife was giving birth to our youngest son. The doctor giving her an epidural inserted it right before she went into active childbirth, so he had to administer the medication faster than normal. During childbirth, her b/p went down to 50/20. They had her on 1:1 with an RN for 4 hours afterwards. Luckily, she ended up just fine.

I've been a nurse now for about 5 and a half years. Before that, I was a Marine. There is no medical professions in the Marine Corps (the Navy takes care of that for Marines), but I still chose nursing after I got out. I DID worry a little about that stigma for about the first 5 minutes of nursing school, but was quickly relieved by instructors and fellow students alike. The one problem I still have is the label "male nurse". Why is a lady in nursing called a nurse, but a man in nursing called a male nurse? Is there really any need for the distinction? On a side note, I have been mistaken for the doctor before, but I just joke about it, and it really doesn't bother me.

I'm sorry, maybe I phrased it poorly. I'm just saying that some psych clients, because of either being disorganized, delusional, and/or paranoid, what we say to some clients can be interpreted by the client as something very different from what you were trying to say to them.

First of all, remember, Psych nursing is unlike any other kind of nursing. What seems like a simple, logical request to us, can sound like you just asked the patient to jump off a bridge. I often find myself trying to step back and think about what I'm saying to patients. Being nonconfrontational is almost always the best approach to start with. Sometimes, unfortunately, you will have to resort to taking a more authoritative tone. As for having to have report in the Day Room, at the facility I work at (a stand alone facility, also), we have a room designated for report, and taking breaks for the staff. It is locked from the outside of the room so patients cannot enter it. Maybe you could suggest this to your management.

I live in California, close to San Francisco. LVN's here can start at about $20-22 per hour or more, depending on where you work.

I work in a long term mental health facility. When I accept a new admission, the first thing I try to do is ask the new patient what he/she would like to be called. Most of our patients prefer to be called by their given first names, and some like to be called Mr./Mrs./Ms./Mz. *****. While other nurses call some of the patients "Dear, or honey, or something else", It seems wrong for me, as a man, to be calling a patient something like that. It is also a step towards self-protection where I work. Working in Psych, some patients, either through delusions, or trying to manipulate the staff, try to accuse staff members of all sorts of things, especially female clients accusing male staff of things. So, calling a female patient with a petname is just opening a window for those accusations. Just my 2 cents.

Working in an adult psych setting, I may have to treat HIPPA even more carefully than some others here. We have patients ranging in age from 18 to 65. Sometimes, we have young patients (18-25) that tell us very clearly, DO NOT talk to mom, dad, or whoever. Being a father also, it breaks my heart to have to tell a worried mother/father that I can't tell them even if their son/daughter is even at our facility or not. BUT, the law is the law and I like keeping my license.

When I was in nursing school a "few" years ago, my first clinical instructor told all of us the importance of changing sheets and bathing patients. As we all know, hospitals are probably the most infectious place you could possibly be. Bathing a patient not only helps them get clean, but it also helps them feel a little more like a person and a little less like a chart AND it gives you, the nurse, and chance to do an even more complete assessment of your patient's skin condition. Changing the patient's sheets daily helps to cut down on the spread of infection in the hospital. While charting completely, performing needed procedures, and assessments are all very necessary and important parts of nursing, another important part of our jobs is to help our patients remember that they are people. So, if the nursing aides in your unit can't get to bathing your patient or can't get to changing the sheets, take a second and do it for them. Your patients will be better off for it.

In my humble opinion, Psych is by far the best unit to work in. New challenges every day. No two days are alike. I get to wear normal clothes, not pajamas (scrubs). Wearing jeans is not only allowed, it's encouraged. And, of course, my co-workers are awesome.

Like all the other Psych nurses out there, my top 5 would have to be. Ativan, Zyprexa, Risperdal, Klonopin, and Depakote. Although we give more common drugs too, like Novolog Insulin, Metformin, ASA, Propranolol....

Well, being a nurse now, my training as a Marine for taking someone down doesn't really apply, as we were trained to kill in the Marines. OBVIOUSLY, I'm not going to be trying to kill my clients. But, as I stated, I was frozen with fear this time. Think of the biggest Hell's Angel biker you've ever seen, and you about where how big this guy was. During any other assault I've seen at my unit, I've always been the first to intervene, but this was just different somehow.