RatchedAfterMidnight

I did not have an issue finding preceptors, I did have significant problems with the paperwork process with UTA. In a couple of short years I had three or four clinical coordinators and they were constantly losing paperwork. I had to resend stuff several times. The process itself was very taxing. I worked in Psych before going today school and developed a good support network of doctors, NPs, therapists before going back. That’s why I didn’t have a problem finding people. If you aren’t in psych now I would get a RN position ASAP even it’s just PRN. When it comes time for clinicals your employer usually gives preference to employees and you can network with coworkers. If you don’t have any good leads when it comes time for clinicals send me a message and I can give you some leads

Walden has an extremely poor reputation among employers. I’d tell you to go anywhere but Walden

You have a terrible attitude. You have a savior complex and it's not cute. If you believe you're the most intelligent person in the room, you're super nurse I don't know why we're having a conversation. You don't want feedback, you already know you're right. I don't know what you expect people on the internet to say when we weren't there. Context matters and you have presented that you will be an activist anywhere, even on the job. That is inappropriate, hospitals aren't paying you for social activism. If you're bringing up these topics at work you cannot control how people will react. Based on the tone of your various posts in this thread I strongly doubt things went down how you say they did and you were the instigator. Just like you want to control the narrative of this thread you want to control how your coworkers think and feel. If you don't want constructive feedback this thread should end.

I would never want to work with you. Not because you're gay, not because you're liberal, but because you're toxic. Words are not violence. No one came up and punched you, threatened you, or fired you because you're gay or liberal. I don't have time to talk about politics, people's lives at work. I'm with the patients talking, doing treatment planning, talking with family members. Psych is not handing someone some pills and watching them for the rest of the day. If you do not have appropriate work boundaries and talk about your personal beliefs you cannot shout "oppression" when other people from a variety of backgrounds disagree with you. You are not morally superior because your personal experiences have shaped you as others have their own beliefs based on their experiences. No one's experience in life is the same. I would hate to see how you treat the psych patients who are cis, older, their ethnicity based on your preconceived notions of what all people in those categories must be like. Drop the victim mentality, do your job. If you can't do that at work I would suggest something other than psychiatry and going to therapy. You can be an activist but the place is not at work. You have a responsibility as a nurse to care for people equally regardless of race, gender, sexuality (yes, heterosexual too), religious beliefs (yes, conservative too!), age (yes, boomers too!) etc etc etc

It would be ideal to become an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner if you want to work in the ER. I have seen a couple of FNPs in the ER but it's controversial whether working in an ER is out of the FNP's scope.

Experience on an inpatient unit or in a Psychiatric ER will give you the experience to work in any kind of setting. Also note that nurse psychotherapists must have a masters degree. Therapy is not in the scope of practice of an RN but therapeutic communication is. Most NPs have a medication management practice, not a therapy practice because the insurance reimbursement is very low. If you do a quick online RN to BSN program you could look into an NP Program in 1.5ish years. NP programs are taking 2.5-3 years for most people full time (6 hours). I would suggest a campus based program because they are mostly hybrid now and designed for the working nurse. When I was finishing school I went to campus about once a month and the rest was online/clinical. I would dissuade anyone from a full online program due to poor reputation to many potential employers.

I have seen it done, especially in community/county hospitals. Psych is in every floor of every hospital but depending on the population the Psych RN in the ER can be very beneficial. The Psych team is essentially a consult and embedded in the ER. How I have seen it done is the Psych RN in the ER triages patients for transfer to a psych ER/inpatient admission, works with a team of social workers/a Psych NP/a Psych Tech. The Psych NP/PA/Resident/attending, is consulted for medication management in the ER, Psych Social Work is consulted for level of care determination and community resources, and RN/tech help with triage, milieu, psych codes. I personally enjoy the variety and the challenge of Med Psych.

I’m a Millennial but the Instagram stories/reels, Tik Toks nurses make trying to be clever or cute drive me nuts. Most of them are not funny, what I see is a full group of people making a video at the Nurses station when they could be helping a patient. Maybe I’m dense, but I don’t think these videos contribute positively to the image of the profession as they are likely intended.

I would recommend EMDR therapy specifically. As healthcare providers we take on the trauma of our patients daily and if not addressed you will burnout, be your own worst enemy at work daily, and experience moral injury that builds up. Burnout and moral injury are different and moral injury applies more to your case. Moral injury “occurs when we bear witness to, perpetuate, or fail to prevent an act that transgresses our deeply held moral beliefs.” 99.999% of healthCare providers seek to do a great job and want our patients to be well. You did not go to work to purposely not pass on this information. It’s not just you there either. If I am the RN I know my patients, can walk past my patients and know they’re in distress. You are putting the blame solely on yourself when there are other licensed staff members on the floor and you work in a system that has many things out of your control: understaffing, acuity. If you reframe this experience in this way while going through trauma informed therapy, you may have failed to pass on information that could have helped but you did not cause your patient’s death. With cardiac events the patient may get treatment and still pass away. There are so many unknowns that you cannot place the blame solely on yourself. By doing so, you prevent yourself from giving thousands of future patients your 100% because of your own fear of failure. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6752815/

I would never work in any psych environment without another staff member with me. I know too many people that have been injured on the job to ever give the patients benefit of the doubt. Some patients can become delirious while detoxing from alcohol/Benzos and quite violent. If something happens to me I want someone to know right then, not in the morning when they come in for shift change.

I would strongly advise against online only programs. Most campus based programs are hybrid with a large online component. By the last year I went on campus once a month. As a previous poster suggested, talk with some NPs in your area about where they went to school and the reputations of programs.

I would not bring up personal health history in an interview. Think about what you like about psychology, specific conditions you are interested in, why you want to work in the hospital, and what personal qualities you possess that make you a good candidate. If I were the person interviewing you, I would be most concerned about your ability to maintain appropriate boundaries with patients due to your age. Many psychiatric facilities do not consider applicants until they are at least 21. It sounds like you are a great candidate but trust me when I say it is difficult to be a healthcare worker, especially in psych, at a young age. I was first a psych tech at 21 and my limits were pushed daily by patients and the staff. Be prepared to be tested in the job and think about how you would answer questions about your age.

THR, Baylor, JPS and others have a Fall, Winter, and Summer Cohort. JPS’s application period ends in 2 days. If you do not secure placement soon, you will have to find an RN job without a residency. Most programs have date cutoffs for when you graduated... Cook Children’s gives specific graduation dates you have already passed, JPS 6 months. Some others have similar policies that aren’t advertised online. DFW is a very saturated market for new grads and you may have to a settle on a position you don’t find ideal. When I was a new grad I had more than 50 applications out and got 2 interviews as a graduate with honors. Get creative and look at the VA, the prisons in Tarrant County, freestanding ERs (they’re all over and understaffed due to COVID), psychiatric facilities.

Group One is a “credit check” agency that was founded in part by HCA. Includes manager comments that can be trivial. DFW area hospitals are notorious for blackballing people with a GroupOne report which is why I’m familiar. HCA is rumored to have used it in places other than DFW.

Only you can decide between ER and Psych, I don’t know your personal preferences. If you like to travel there are PMHNP Locums positions all across the country. If you like the rush of ER consider a psychiatric emergency room as a PMHNP. These are two ways to combine your love of both.