Stephalump

Adults who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial...so inmates. Mostly male. I honestly love the population. My goal is to get into detox/addictions.

How would that even be possible?

I love me some Nike Air Max!

You are loved, Esme. Best wishes for your recovery

It's not out of line. It's my opinion, which I'm entitled to. Out of line is "monitoring" people's freedom to express such opinions on a public message board. But I suppose you're entitled to your opinion about my opinion.

I love forensic psych. Love, love, love it and intend on starting grad school soon and hopefully working with the same population. That being said...yes, it can be horribly boring at times. I can be finished with my paperwork by 1000 and spend the next 9 hours doing nothing but counting down the hours and passing out meds. My pts stay with us anywhere from 60 days to a year, so once they're stable, not much changes from day to say. I spend the hours hanging out with my pts and assistants. But there are also the times when I spend the entire day dealing with aggressive patients, ETOs, and wishing there were more hours in the day. 99% of the time it's calm, but that 1%...busy busy. That being said, I'm more the "busy, busy" type. I think I'd probably be more suited to the constant bustle of outpatient as a floor nurse. I'm just looking to the future at this point. Down time gives me time to get through school and then I can join the hustle and bustle of the APRNs.

I don't work in a benzo-free facility, per se, but very, very few of my patients receive them outside of an ETO. Their reasoning is a bit more straight-forward. I work in a forensic facility where all the patients come from jail and all will be returning to jail - and there are no benzos in jail. I can somewhat understand the logic there and I can say a good number of the patients (but not all) are managed pretty effectively without. But in some cases I feel like a joke throwing Atarax at someone who's had to depend on Klonopin to be low-functioning at best for the past twenty years. I honestly can't imagine NEVER using Ativan in a cocktail. Sometimes it's the only thing that stands between a patient and constant violence. I love when providers make decisions like that...because they don't have to deal with the consequences.

I had to laugh out loud at the idea that all of my medication restraints could've been avoided by something so simple....JUICE!!! I'll admit, sometimes if you know a patient well enough and they're maybe just stubborn or feeling like they need to be in control there are non-confrontational ways to get things done. I had one patient who would ignore me when I asked him to come take his meds and it would turn into a battle . So instead of telling him it was time, I would tell him I had them ready whenever HE was ready, and he'd come to the med room within 10 minutes on his own. But for the most part? My patients refused because they're psychotic/paranoid. Juice ain't gonna solve anyone's problems.

We have four safety officers per shift and usually around 90 or so patients.

It took me four years to get my ADN as well. Trust me, those kinds of thoughts only matter when you're at the starting line. You won't be the least bit concerned about the details of getting there once you hit the finish line.

Less desirable doesn't mean "bad career choice." I'd be willing to bet money that the difference in the number of applications for every home health job and the number of apps per hospital job is exponential. I work in psych...it's less desirable because droves of new nurses leave wanting to go to the er, icu, l&d, and med surg jobs. Not so many sit and dream of doing what I do every day!

I knew right away that I wasn't going to do med-surg, l&d, nursing homes, or OR. I wanted ER or psych and ended up in psych with no regrets thus far!

I haven't read the book, but I definitely need to! I have very little experience dealing with people like her. My normal method of keeping my head down doesn't seem to be working. Probably because of what you said...she can sense my hatred of confrontation. This woman knows when she's being avoided and doesn't like it. I work for a private facility and there's really nowhere else for me to go. All I could do is maybe switch shifts, but she's notorious for continuing to harass people who have switched shifts to avoid her. How sad is that? I have a good relationship with everyone at my job except her and her few minions, which is probably the only reason I've stayed this long. I work with some great MHTs and nurses, but they all seem to leave too soon. Ugh. I don't know what to do anymore.

Turn yourself in to someone you trust . Boundary violations beget more boundary violations and it's a hard cycle to stop with manipulative populations or struggling nurses. You can get some help. I haven't quite been in your situation, but I have been on thin ice in the past, which I shared in the "Dating a Former Patient" thread. Had I thrown in the towel and ran away, I would've lost an amazing career with patients I care for. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about boundaries. And I learned a lot about codependency and how to NEVER get in that situation again. If every nurse who ever screwed up quit, our hospitals would be quite empty!

4 months ago I started a forensic psych job. It's stressful and challenging, but I love it. Watching my patients improve has been an amazing experience. What hasn't been amazing is my experience with my supervisors. Both are extremely unprofessional, and one seems to have more mental health problems than any of my patients. She frequently lies, staff splits, and speaks inappropriately to the nurses and aids. She took an immediate disliking to me and has taken every opportunity to "counsel" me over ridiculous things. I haven't actually gotten in real trouble, however, because the things this person "counsels" me on aren't backed up by evidence or even a breaking of policy. I'm 90% all the complaints she's claimed to receive from other people are completely made up. She's used my name as a "complainant" when accusing someone else of something that I most definitely never complained about, so it isn't beyond her. I've been told independently by multiple people that her MO is running off nurses she feels threatened by...and (I'm dying as I write this, because I roll my eyes every time I see it on AN) because I'm young and not ugly., I'm on her radar. I love my job, but I absolutely HATE going to work every day because of this environment. I'm not a drama person. I strongly dislike conflict, and this situation is causing me a lot of anxiety and having a negative effect on the rest of my life. Complaints to higher ups have just seemed to cause her to try to find more legitimate ways to get me in trouble. My other supervisor hasn't directly engaged in these activities, but they're best friends and she's just consistently rude. I really want to put in my two weeks tomorrow. As much as I enjoy my work, it isn't worth my marriage or my sanity. Thoughts?

I work forensic psych and I love it! Sometimes the lack of freedom can be annoying - there are downsides to working on a locked unit and dealing the with extra rules/restrictions that go along with working with that population - but I mostly enjoy it. Safety is always a concern, but you learn to keep your distance, always know your exits, and to never turn your back on a pt. You also learn how to de-escalate and when de-escalation isn't going to happen and it's time to take other actions. The most important thing to me is trust in your coworkers. Your lives can depend on each other, so it's important to work in an environment where you all have.each other's backs. Our ratio is 1 nurse and 2 MHTS for every 20 patients. The benefits are good because the job can be tough and undesirable for a lot of people. Staffing would be atrocious if they couldn't lure people in with what I consider to be "hazard pay."

Same here (TX). With the exception of physicians office nurses and the like, hospitals pay $3-7 dollars less an hour to new grads than places like rehab, ltac, nursing homes, psych, etc. I'd have to take a pay cut to in order to take a more "desirable" job.

It's happened. Relationships between staff and patients have ended, and the trauma has put the patient right back in the facility where they met and I bet they're info is EVERYWHERE. Humiliating.

I forgot to label a med in clinical once. Technically, my preceptor drew it up while I watched and then left it for me to give with my instructor - common practice where I was. All hell broke loose when my instructor came in and I tried to give an unlabeled med that someone else drew up. It threw me for such a loop, and made me so anxious, I couldn't function and I ended up being sent home for the day with a big, fat F. Ah, memories ?. Just remember...eventually all this will be a distant memory. As other people have pointed out, yes, you have to label meds, and YES, you have to be responsible for your patient, even if your instructor is pushy and gets in your way. I know I struggled with really being "in control" and taking full responsibility when I was in clinical (too many irons in the fire, not enough time for me to process without other people jumping in), but it's something to work on. Don't beat yourself up. You're there to learn, and lots of lessons are leaned by making mistakes. As far as her behavior, it was totally inappropriate to talk to you like that in front of your peers, and you're right...she could've took the time to educate you, vs whatever she did. I had an instructor like that in my 3rd semester. I burned her effigy in our graduation bonfire.

I have plenty of time for a social life! What gets in the way is my schedule. I'm sitting at home 3 days a week in the middle of the week when everyone else and their mother is working. But two weekends a month, it's on. I'm booked from morning till night. ✌️

I fell for a psych patient once, before I was a nurse. He was smart, funny, loyal, and kind. We had similar senses of humor and shared the same hobbies. It was one of those otherworldly instant connections when we first met. Like you've known that person for a thousand years. Serious stuff. He protected me multiple times when I was attacker by other patients, which only solidified our bond in a non-professional way. He was also a heroine addict. I think he thought I could save him. I know I thought I could. Nothing ever inappropriate happened. We were both always on our best behavior. It tore me apart to let him go. I still think about him sometimes and wonder if he's still clean. The thought creeps into my head that, if he isn't, my presence in his life could be changed it, but I try to shove the thought away. If he was going to stay clean, he needed to do it for himself. And I never would've been able to forgive myself if a relationship with me would've caused a relapse...or something worse. It's been years now, and no one else has gotten to me like that. Anyway, I'm putting this out there just in case anyone finds themselves in a situation like the OPs. The rules are pretty black and white in psych - no personal relationships with patients, current or former. But feelings are normal and not always easy to walk away from.

I wish there were more resources for issues like this. It's completely normal and reasonable to find love/attraction at work. Walking away can be extremely difficult. And talking about it can be scary.

I agree that they need support and relationships are important. 100%. But what are we signing up to do? Be a source of professional support? Or a source of personal support? Dual roles rarely work - so many blurred lines.

People in inpatient psych generally have deep seated issues, or they wouldn't be there. People don't have severe major depression, schizophrenia, bpd, bipolar disorder, ptsd, WHATEVER, because they haven't had the love of a good man or woman. They're there because they need professional help. On the other side of the coin (our side), we can't get pulled into the idea that we're the white knight a patient needs to be whole. That's how we get used, abused, burn out, or hurt are patients. Look up stories of staff dating psych patients. There have been suicides, murders, return hospitalizations, and claims of rape and abuse.

.....no. Just no. This kind of thought process is exactly WHY these relationships are doomed from the beginning. That pervasive idea that we can "save" someone or "fix" them with our love.