justdoiting

Hi all, I'm a BSN in NYC and I'm looking it get into L and D! I have a little over a year of med surge experience and I was hoping you guys could give me some advice on how to get on an L and D unit (as I am finding that it is not very easy to get an interview without any prior experience) any thoughts would be appreciated Thanks in advance

Hi all, I am an RN with 1-year med-surg experience looking to transfer to psych. I am trying to decide if I should apply for psych ER positions or go for inpatient psych instead. I eventually want to go back to school to become a psych NP. Any thoughts? Thanks

Hi all: I need some advice Here is the deal I am a new-grad RN, I work in a major metropolitan hospital system currently as a NA I recently had an interview with the director of nursing at a psych hospital and was not selected for the job (this hospital is in the network of hospitals that I work for) I still really want to work at this hospital (which is part of the hospital system that I currently work at) but I don't know if I should keep applying, or if it is a waist of time. I have an HR contact but she hardly ever gets back to me. I just want to know if all hope is lost (since it was the big cheese that I interviewed with) or if I should keep trying to get a job at this hospital. Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks again for the feedback guys. I was on one of the med-surg units when this happened and I hate to say it but the staff there just does not care for or support each other. I think I am going to write down stuff like this and once I transition from being a tech to being an RN (already registered, just waiting for a psych position to open up) I am going to bring it to the nursing office and let them know about some of my experiences and I think the switching out every 1 or 2 hours is a great idea, I am definitely going to tell them about that.

Thank you so much for the feedback and advice everyone. I have recently started journaling about my nursing experience and it does seem to help. I also frequently remind myself that these people are ill, and that is a great idea about switching out, I think I am going to talk to the charge nurse on whichever unit I am working in (float pool) about that next time this happens. Thanks again guys, I appreciate it.

Hi everyone, I need some advice. I'm a very new RN (just licensed last week) and I am currently applying for psych positions at the large metropolitan hospital I am currently working at as a nursing attendant. I feel I have found my niche in psych. I love taking the time to sit down to talk to my patients, to find out exactly what is going on, and working with them to come up with solutions. I also find psych fascinating and truly enjoy studying it and working with the patients (most of the time). I feel like this may be a silly question to ask, but I feel like I need some advice from some experienced nurses here. I had a pretty wrenched day at work today on a one to one observation. I was sitting with a surprisingly strong 90 year old women who was experiencing altered mental status due to a UTI. I could sit and write about all the things that went wrong within that 8 hour shift all night but I will try to keep it brief. She tried to lock herself in the bathroom multiple times She punched me in the chest a few times times She slapped me She screamed quite a few times (loud enough to make people come running) She tried to pull her IV out 5-6 times She kept walking over to the other side of the room to bother her roommate (insisting on tucking her in at one point) . . . there were quite a few other issues but this is already getting long. and she calmed that she was doing all this because GOD told her to. Looking at all this typed up makes it seem like I may be a bit dense for letting her hit me so many times, but I was just trying to do my best to keep her safe (since she refused to sit down for much of the day and was a major fall risk) Anyway. What I am trying to get at here is that after about 4.5-5 hours of this it all started getting to me. I started getting really annoyed and upset with the situation. I tried redirecting her and a few other techniques to get her to calm down but nothing was working. I guess I'm just sitting here wondering (after days like today) if I should even be going into the psych field. I like to think my experience with patients will be different as a nurse because you can walk away from a conversation if its not productive, or you or the patient need to cool off and re-group. So do you guys get frustrated with your psych patients sometimes? Can you still be a good psych nurse if the patients actions upset/frustrate you sometimes? Please don't sugar coat this, I would really like to know what you all think. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Thanks so much for the advice guys. I really appreciate it!

Hi everyone, I just graduated with my BSN in May and have been given the opportunity to interview for a psych position at the hospital I am working at now as a nursing attendant. The interview is in less than a week. Psych was my first choice. I really loved my psych rotations and am excited to start a career in that area. i'm just nervous about the interviews (with HR and the nurse manager). Any general guidelines/advice for psych nursing interviews?