Allie_G

Hi there! Just some advice from a newer nurse- I started working in inpatient psych at a hospital straight out of school like you, I began my career September of last year. I absolutely LOVED it and would sometimes get floated to emergency mental health which gave me anxiety because it was a whole new environment with a quicker turnover, with brand new people so that was kind of stressful in itself so I know what you mean about the whole floating thing- I just tried to stick it out and kept reminding myself "It's only 8 hours!". I, unfortunately, was laid off this August 2017 because administration downsized our unit from 23 beds to 13-14. I now work in an observation unit (part of the ED) which deals with an array of different types of patients including r/o stroke, MI, cellulitis, etc. Honestly, I miss psych nursing every day! The unit I worked on had very supportive employees and co-workers often gave off a sense of safety where you knew if anything bad were to happen or you had any questions there would always be someone to help you. Where I am now lacks that sense of security, could be where I am but also could be the way of med-surg nursing. I also have extreme anxiety going into work every day because I feel like I lack medical skills, even hanging an antibiotic I recheck everything 6000 times before I do it because we never dealt with IV's in psych. It's definitely a lot more stressful and I seriously praise anyone who can do it with ease everyday, just like some of these nurses tell me "Oh I don't know how you worked in psych! I could never do it!". Everyone has their niche and if you feel like psych is yours, I would stick with it because you never know what you might be getting yourself into. Hope this helps :)

Hi all! I am interested in becoming a RN case manager but I'm not entirely sure where to begin. I have only one year experience as an RN (I know, not so much) but I have always been more interested in coordinating care for patients rather than actual bedside nursing. I was looking into getting my CCM but that requires experience as a case manager. All the open positions I've seen require experience as well as a CM. So my question is—where do I begin? How do I get my foot in the door? Interested in hearing anyone's experience as a RN CM, how you started your journey and how you are enjoying it so far. Thank you! (Sorry if this is a repetitive question, I searched the forum beforehand and didn't find much info).

Hi everyone! I'm sort of a newbie here, looking for some advice. I graduated from nursing school last May and immediately started at a larger city hospital in a new graduate program orienting on an inpatient psychiatric unit (which was my dream job). I started on my own December 4, 2016 and was notified that same week that our unit was closing half our beds and I would be laid off beginning of August 2017. There was so much emotional baggage that came with this because I loved my unit, the people I worked with as well as the patient population. My hospital has a union which helped me bump into a new position in the clinical observation unit (part of the emergency department where patients sit waiting to either be discharged or admitted depending on labs, etc) and it has been SO different. I started orientation 2.5 weeks ago and I know that this type of fast paced, medical based nursing is not right for me. I went from focusing on mental health to putting in IV's and drawing labs and assessing post-MI or post-stroke patients and now I'm wondering if I even want to do bedside nursing. I don't want to leave the hospital I'm in because of the union benefits, pension and the pay is the best around my area but I know that is a small cost for my happiness and my own personal mental health. I'm basically reaching out to see if anyone has been in this same position or can offer some type of support during this time. I've been looking into trying to become a case manager to get out of bedside nursing but I'm not sure how to go about starting that. Thanks for reading :)

Having recently just started nursing school about a year ago, I wish I would have brushed up on how to effectively do APA format because it's frequently used (I'm struggling with it right now). It may be useful for you to start reading some study books that pertain to the classes your taking in the fall! Best of luck!