alb402

I'd also recommend looking into Collaborative Problem Solving, which is a newer model developed by Ross Greene. It teaches you to see children as lacking the skills to do well and teaching them these skills vs. taking an authoritative approach to int...

I was in the same mindset as you when I graduated nursing school a little over a year ago. I applied for a PRN position at an urgent care center and got it. While it's not med-surg and I'm not sure it would be enough experience to land me a job there...

A co-worker of mine who was hurt (kicking multiple times in the stomach and had to go to the ED) by an aggressive 17 years old patient on our C&A unit was discouraged from pressing charges and told by our HR department that she could "lose her li...

Those of you that work on C&A inpatient acute psych units, what is your current staffing matrix (specific numbers per census)/HPPD and/or staffing guidelines? I've presented some literature to our management re: appropriate levels, but they'd als...

NurseKris is your unit a child and adolescent unit? I can only use data from these units due to the specialty and them usually requiring more staff.

If an order is written for Tylenol 650 mg po PRN headache/fever can the Tylenol be given for pain/menstrual cramps (outside of the order parameters) with "nursing judgment"? I'm a newer nurse (a year) and tried to get a Tylenol order changed so we co...

Thanks for the feedback! I'll be less nit-picky next time :) Ativan was a bad example as narcs are way different than Tylenol. I've just heard horror stories of nurses getting fired for giving a med in any way other than ordered.

Every facility is different, but mine requires a bachelors in a human service related field (psychology, social work, etc). A nearby facility only requires current coursework in one of these disciplines. Definitely use your interest in psych nursing ...

I agree with Orca and elkpark. I'm a charge nurse on a 16 bed child/adolescent unit. We always have 2 RNs on - one to pass meds and the other is charge. With only 16 kids - some shifts are beyond crazy with admissions, discharges, medical issues, res...

Joint Commission recognizes ANY time you tell a patient they can't leave a room or physically prevent them to do so as a seclusion. I work C&A and we got dinged when they asked a kid if he was allowed to come out of his room and he said no. We're...

I'm a charge nurse on a psychiatric unit where patients on suicide watch need to have a body/room search done each shift. One of the staff forgot to document that she completed this the other night. When she went to initial for doing the checks the n...

I thought about talking to him but he could easily deny it to me and it would go no where. If it were a different nurse I might think it was done innocently, but this nurse is notorious for cutting corners and not doing his job. He sees psych nursing...

That's exactly what I did. I didn't want to point fingers without knowing for sure and figured it would be best for her to investigate who it was that signed it. There are only 4 staff that worked that shift (we're a 16 bed unit) so it's pretty clear...

Amen. I really wish people (upper management/the admissions department/ERs) knew what goes on on a daily basis on a psych unit. There are not numerous nurses waiting to take admissions. There are 1-2 nurses who are responsible for med passes, verifyi...

What kind of groups do "techs" run on your units? I work evening shift on a C&A unit. Over the years are programming has become more lax and the evenings have a lot of free time. Seasoned staff and administration want the kids to have more struct...

IMO and experience, you have to be fairly laid back and not upset easily by things. Especially working in C&A, you'll be called every name in the book and children have a way finding flaws and pointing them out. You just have to be very aware of ...

I did the same and despite people telling me to get Med Surg experience, I went right into psych. I had been working on the same floor with my previous bachelors and knew that's where I wanted to be. I couldn't see making myself miserable for a year ...

We're allowed to ask our admissions department for 15 minutes to get things settled and finish up whatever we need to quickly. If we're swamped we usually let them know the situation and tell them they can bring the admission to the floor but to let ...

What state are you in? I guess I should be grateful as it sounds many other places are staffed a lot worse than we are. But working with kids (and their families) I want to provide the best care possible and not have to worry about liability issues ...

I work on a 16 bed child/adolescent (ages 4-18) unit and we ALWAYS have 2 nurses no matter what the census. Where they short us is not giving us adequate support staff (ours are Behavioral Health Specialists and all have a bachelors degree in mental ...

Yes, we have two goals groups and a wrap up group at the end of the day, RT activities and therapy groups until 4 pm, and 2 hours of school with IU teachers M-F. Unfortunately we don't have a gym or a lot of options for the kids to get their energy o...

I've worked on an inpatient child/adolescent unit since getting my bachelors in psych 5 years ago. I've recently graduated from nursing school and have transitioned to a nurse on the unit. I'm really trying to be a leader on the unit as our managemen...