LoveAura

Thank you for your advice, all. I was beginning to think this was the norm for psych. While I get that the behavior may be standard, how we deal with it is lacking severely, right? My facility administrator has said that they are in the process of hiring an RN to oversee this unit and telemed with an MD for individuals who come to us without prescriptions. On hospital units or otherwise inpatient facilities, is it standard to have security, restraints, on-call for when staff calls in, is medication required, etc? We were at the point of having ONE person manning the facility this week and I don't see how that is safe at all!! The guy I mentioned as being such a problem is now medicated and calmer, not threatening. But he is now sexually harassing staff and other residents. We "redirect" him verbally but I feel this scenario is verging on ridiculous. The only thing we can do is call the cops to come out and talk to him or take him to jail. I get that this place is going through some changes, taking on these patients, and I have one week left before I'm out on leave. Hopefully they will have gotten us some training and set protocols by the time I'm back or this job is just not going to be worth the anxiety of showing up.

::edited for specifics:: Okay so.. on a psych unit I get that violence may be more prevalent than in other work environments My issue is this -- I've been a psych tech for a few months now on a crisis unit trying to feel out the field to see if I want to go into nursing. We aren't a hospital, we take medically stable individuals who need short term help for a variety of disorders. They oversee their own meds and can refuse.... but if they become belligerent, until now, we've been able to discharge them. A state hospital has just announced they are downsizing and possibly facing closure. This means our 16 bed unit will start taking on more acute individuals and we have just gotten three of them, two of which are court ordered to remain here. One individual in particular doesn't have a diagnosis but he's severely delusional and violent. He came to us unmedicated and remains so. We have no training on how to neutralize physical aggression other than to prevent it, and we have no means of segregating this individual. As someone with specialized training, it is my job to "talk him down" when he's beating on walls and screaming about how he's going to kill us all just like he killed jesus..... But I'm almost 8 months pregnant. I feel like I have a lot to lose by engaging him, and when he acts out, at least one of the others starts off like a domino effect. The other residents don't even have a way to lock him out of their bunk rooms and they are uneasy. We usually work with three of us on the unit and most of the time we are all women and we feel pretty darn uneasy too. I feel like our unit is unprepared and things are going to escalate in a short time. Is it time to turn in my notice?

Let me just be clear for those of you who have said CNA is a good fit; I have worked, unlicensed, in that capacity for a while -- although not in a hospital. I'm just verifying that for someone who has experience in the bed-change, ambulate, toileting, bed-bath skills (I'm summarizing) arena, it would not be much use having those other skills, but to have the license? And maybe work more as a CNA? Just making sure! I really need to shadow some nurses

My mother in law is a nurse and has been for about ten years. She cannot tell left from right (although this may be due to differences in anatomical R/L or perspective R/L), often misspells her own son's name, and generally cannot have a plausible "if this, then that" thought. (for instance, a movie scene included a grown man grabbing onto a shark fin and hanging on as both he and shark leapt out of the water and back in, ultimately the man catching a ride to his final destination -- she exclaimed "That can't be real!" and we were all with her... until she followed up with "must've been a baby whale.") My point is, she's dingy a lot of the time... but she's a very good nurse and really loves her job. If you enjoy it, I think you'll pick it up (whatever "it" is that you have to check, recheck, or be clear on at all times). Some types of nursing may not be for you due to this, perhaps a very fast paced specialty would cause some trouble, but nursing is a wide field (:

Hi, all! Looking for some guidance. I took basic nursing 10 years ago and did home health for a little over 2 years- forwent the certification, which I could kick myself for!! But I had a job so I was happy. Looking to go back to nursing and I would like to expand upon those skills but not sure what would be most helpful. There is a local medical assistant/phlebotomy course which leads to certification for both. The internship, however, is cut in half and split among MA/phleb. The phlebotomy-only course is 300 dollars less than than ^^^ the dual course, but that's not a big factor. However, the internship is only phlebotomy so I'd get more experience doing that. I've heard medical assistants don't do much applicable to nursing, but I've also heard phlebotomy is something you learn mostly on the job anyway. Would having both certifications be of help, or overkill? I would like to get into a direct entry program, if that changes anything.

I have a family and my husband just finished school and launched his career -- I've always wanted to be a nurse, but I maxed undergrad loans and threw it away as an option until I heard about direct entry. Please, please read and tell me if you think I could make it!! My undergrad GPA was a 2.9 at one college because I have a few Fs to replace. My allied health GPA was 4.0. Prereqs (part of my healthcare degree) are "expired" by most school standards and I'll have to take them at the 2.9 institution so those will also bolster my GPA if I can make As again. I worked as a patient care tech for 2.5 years and have been volunteering one shift a week (for the LAST EIGHT MONTHS) to keep Medical Assistant skills fresh while I go to grad school because the market is so saturated and until now we couldn't move. I have 30 graduate hours and a 4.0 graduate GPA (do they look at this?). I have 200 hours of volunteer work at a local non-profit that houses and provides resources for families of sick, long term hospital admits and I teach professional first aid/CPR/AED through the American Heart Association. I have a STELLAR letter of recommendation from a clinical preceptor (who also is the director of the allied health program I graduated from) and a STELLAR one from my boss as a caregiver. My letter from a Psych professor where I headed a senior research team of six speaks very well of my ability to conduct research and critical thinking skills but doesn't sing my praises exactly like the other two... but the other two in a certain light border on gushing. Some programs want two so how would you weigh these?! How would you highlight your interest and fit for nursing if you were me?