deza

Many nurses and NPs love having lots of letters after their name. You don't see physicians do that because it is not professional to have your lower degrees listed. No one cares if you started off as an associate degree RN or as an LVN. It does not make you better than those that did not start the same way that you did.

I would switch. That pay is low, though hard to say since it depends on what area you are in. I had a lawyer look at an agreement for me for peace of mind. I wanted to see if there would be any ramifications for me turning down a job I had agreed to. It was 750 dollars. He looked over the agreement.

There are cheaper schools than Walden. Spend more time searching. I live in the central southern US and it was known to be one of the more expensive less reputable schools. Check out husson university. It was around 30-36k 3 years ago. Wilkes is cheaper than walden.

You could try picking up a PRN psych RN job and talk to the providers or observe them on the job. If you have any psych places near where you live.

That's really low. I made 50-56hr working nights as an RN on a psych unit. And that was a fulltime W2 job employed by the hospital in Texas. That hospital payed higher than most. As a PMHNP I make 62/hour W2 in Texas. I would get multiple state licenses and consider moving for more pay.

Most places I think do 60min evals(30min for ADHD companies). And most do 15-20min follow ups. My current job is at a community mental health clinic doing 60min evals and 20mins follow ups. I can request 30min follow ups for some patients. I get 40mins if they haven't been seen in 6 months or if recently out of a psych hospital. I feel rushed some days when I have a long eval then need to catch up by having a couple of quick follow up appts. I'm an PMHNP. Never been an FNP.

https://www.sbs.txstate.edu/billing/rates-g.html https://www.nursing.txstate.edu/prospective-nursing-students/MSN-pmhnp-admission/curriculum.html Looks like it may be around 31,000. I think it was less when I attended. You might want to email/call someone in their nursing department. Remember to budget for preceptors.

My last job I think we were supposed to get another nurse to verify the patient when they didn't have an armband. Most of us would grab our pt's labels at the beginning of the shift and scan it after verifying name and DOB without another nurse.

I agree with sindoriel. I wouldn't trust that the ones interviewing you would be understanding of your past. As a nurse I doubt you'll be doing cbt or dbt, so they may not care that you know about those types of therapy. I would be more impressed if you knew psych meds, side effects and deescalation techniques or something about eating disorders. You'll probably get asked how do you feel managing techs, how do you deal with conflict between a coworker and why you want work in this field.

You revived a 6 year old thread LOL.

In TX some places do. My last job the bedroom cameras did not record. My current job the cameras do record in the bedroom. They are a tool used to review personal restraints, chair restraints, unwitnessed patient claimed falls, observing a patient that was recently highly agitated etc.

14 patients is pretty average for freestanding/private psych facilities where I live. If you can find an inpatient hospital position they will probably have a more reasonable ratio. My first job was a geropsych facility and we had up to 24 with an lvn to pass meds. My last job was part of a hospital the ratio there was 6-9:1. Mu current job at a hospital is 5-7:1. You will most likely learn more at a teaching hospital and working day shift. Congrats on going into psych.

Some of the classes have few lectures and power points. Very little teaching from the instructors in some courses. This program does not help with clinical placement. They may if you live in the Austin area. The new clinical placement coordinator is rude. The program director is also rude. No sympathy when things are delayed or costly to the student when the school messes up.

Also if you fail a class or change to part time it could delay your graduation 6months to a year having to wait for a course to be offered again.

The program is extremely disorganized. Most of the faculty are FNPs with a post masters in psych, so they are not very experienced. A few of the teachers that are not full time are experienced PMHNPs. Look into UT Tyler's program. I did their RN to BSN and it was very organized and overall well done.

I would do UT Tyler's RN to BSN instead of UTAs. UTA requires an extra literature course. And it takes longer than 9 months, their website is misleading.

There is an NKU PMHNP facebook group. That would be the best place to talk to current students.

I've only done psych. Finding a place where they medicate early and have good agitation protocols helps. And decent staffing of course. I hardly ever lift or turn patients in psych. The most stressful thing to me is getting my medication pass done in the morning and taking care of the one patient that is difficult, aggressive or more medical. Also I find that not knowing which patients are going to be in my group in the morning to be stressful. It has taken me 2 years to be more relaxed. I just tell myself you can't prevent everything and when something happens we'll take care of it as a team.

Sending you a PM

I think you made a smart choice AlcRoc. I would love to do outpatient psych full-time and pick up inpatient. It would be beneficial to pick up shift inpatient, so you can see everything(emergency situations, all the bizarre things pts do, EPS, policy and procedures on seclusion and restraints).

Look into cheaper online schools. People tend to go here cause there co worker is a student at Walden and because the admission process is extremely easy.

Most of the patients that I care for have a dual diagnosis. They leave, quit taking their meds, do street drugs and usually the police bring them back. The ETOH and substance users will most likely be on a withdrawal protocol.

There are plenty of affordable schools out there. A co-worker from a previous job works in geropsych as a pmhnp. We had both worked at an inpatient geropsych facility and that is where he got his connection. He has a decent salary too.

My first orientation as a new RN was at a private geropsych facility. We did CPI and had an orientation class. I had 3 or 4 shifts orienting with the charge nurse. My position there was charge nurse for one hallway. Definitely not long enough.

Offlabel never said that a trans woman is more likely to masturbate in front of someone. Offlabel only gave an example of what could be a bad situation. It is not the most unusual thing to see in psych anyway. Although I think a trans person is less likely to pull out their genitals. In my state we cannot prevent male and female patients from socializing with the opposite sex, so we do not have male and female "wards".