LaurenJulia

We're seeing a serious reduction in new admissions lately at my hospital. My floor actually has been shut down for low census and we're down to one acute adult floor and one geriatric floor. When I last worked about five days ago we had stopped allowing visitors and a security guard was positioned at the door asking everyone screening questions. More could have changed, but as of last week we were still holding group therapies and communal dinning. PPE's were being kept by the supervisor and given out as needed.

Hello everyone, I'm wondering if anyone not working in specialty areas seeing COVID19 has any ideas on how we can be helping out our nurses who are seeing these patients? I'm a psychiatric nurse and right now my population is staying out of the hospital. It's at the point where my floor is shut down and I'm being utilized to float to the other psych floors to prevent overtime or just being called off. The idea that nurses who are at an elevated risk (older, comorbid conditions, pregnant, etc...) are being asked to put themselves at risk while I (young, healthy, no kids) am not being utilized is awful. I understand that I don't have the experience necessary to be on the front lines as a nurse in the ICU or ER, but surely there's someway to help? Does anyone have any ideas?

Hi everyone! I'm a brand new psychiatric nurse trying to get better. The area I find myself having most difficulty is with running group. Don't get me wrong, I'm not horrible at it, I'm just not great. I've sat in on a few groups run by other nurses in my Practicum and have kind of come to the conclusion that no one is really that great on it and a class on it for psych nurses would be beneficial, but thats a whole other conversation... Do you consider yourself great at it and if so why? How do you engage the patients, keep it entertaining while still being useful? Do you ever utilize games or worksheets and if so where do you get them from? Are there any books or websites on the topic that were helpful? Any topics that were amazing? How do you personally decide if a particular topic is within your scope or not? Sorry for all the questions, again I just want to get amazing at this. Thanks in advance!

I'm really surprised that you're having such trouble! I'm a new grad BSN with a minor is psychology who just got hired with HCA west Florida branch. They're willing to train GN's. I did my Practicum on a psych floor on the east coast which was also a HCA facility and they were always short nurses. It's definitely not over-saturated, good nurses in psych are very much needed! Have you tried applying to the position anyway? A lot of times managers will make exceptions. The other suggestion would be to work at a facility with a psych floor and transfer over after a year. Transferring within facilities seems easier. If you're looking to add certifications, CPI has been used at every facility I've been at. I wouldn't personally recommend it, it's expensive and in my experience if a facility wants you they'll pay for you to get it. The facility I'm working for paid for me to get ACLS and CPI...and oddly enough ECCO (critical care cert) and EKG. Another one that may look good is Mental Health First Aid, a lot of places offer it for free and I had that one before being hired. If you're looking to volunteer in mental health, I would suggest some sort of crisis line. I personally volunteer at Crisis Text Line, but I have no idea if that was factored into their decision. I really got the feeling they hired me because I was passionate and a BSN. Don't give up!

I'm a little under a year away from being done with nursing school, and I want to be a psych nurse. I'm a CNA on a neuro unit, and I have no doubt for my love for those with silent problems they are stigmatized. TBIs, conversion disorders, PNES...I'm the weirdo that loves them all. The only thing holding me back from pursuing it from the start is the idea I might lose my skills. Your comment about YouTube is spot on, and I'm less worried about that now. Thank you for this post.

Congratulations to everyone who got in! It's difficult, but incredibly worth it. If anyone is interested in the apartment Sarah mentioned, you should message me here or text me 321-432-2829

Dang, they changed them. I thought I was getting a really good deal. Thank you for posting! In your experience, can we get by with just the top and plain black scrub pants? I already have plenty of those, and $50 is just crazy!

Does anyone know what the uniforms look like this year? I found a couple of white scrubs tops with the UCF logo at Goodwill and snapped them up, but I don't know if that was a mistake.

I made a group for Cocoa. Same name as Daytonas, but with Cocoa instead. https://m.facebook.com/groups/541902055942272

Sarah- I'm going to need a roommate now that I know where I'll be for the next couple of years. I'll private message you my number, just text/call when you're going to be in town and we can meet up.

I'm Cocoa bound!!! Is there anyone who lives in Brevard county already who would like to meetup? It'd be nice to start school with friends.

Thank you for calling!! Does anyone else wonder why this process takes so long? If they only go by our GPA, pre-req GPA, and TEAs score, it seems like a computer program could determine which stats were the best.

I'm sure they're used to it by now. I know people call every year. My personal guess is we won't hear this week. If the past few years are any indication, we'll be lucky if we hear back by October 10th.

We're so close to decision date! Tomorrow is the first day we could feasibly get an answer (first buisness day after the six weeks from application cutoff). I'm going crazy!!

If you are actually out of work at 3, in some long term care and assisted living facilities second shift runs from 3-11. You could also work weekends, easy. They always need weekends. I think home health care is more flexible as well.