NightOwlPsyRN

Do you ever have issues with fatigue or feeling rested? I will be doing night shifts at both, and have been doing nights for awhile, so my sleep schedule is irregularly regular if ya know what I mean ...but wonder if it catches up to you after awhile?

Yeah we definitely want a small wedding, ideally 100 or less...however I have a HUGE family. So we are trying to max it out at 200 (hopefully not as many will RSVP ). I'm pretty good at cutting corners, so right now I'm finding deals on wedding essentials since we are in no rush to get married. :) I was considering starting my NP since I work mostly nights, and our nights can get super slow...which can be turned into good study time! Still doing research on that part, since I'm still up to my neck in loans from my undergrad and nursing school. As for the house, we moved into my parents' home and are stash-piling money away because where I live, rent isn't cheap! Pretty pointless to throw away money on rent for a place that I can't call mine, so I am super thankful that my parents have been so kind to let us stay there until we can get our own home. Thank you for your input!

I currently work full-time (1.0 FTE) in a sub-acute psych setting and just recently got a part-time job in the psych ED doing two 12-hour shifts. Maybe I'm being too overly ambitious, but I am planning on keeping both jobs. I'm still fairly young, have no kids, and am saving up for a house and future wedding. I also would like to pursue my mental health NP somewhere down the line, and think that the additional experience in the psych ED would benefit my psych nursing knowledge overall. I started off doing inpatient psych, currently in sub-acute, and adding on the psych ED experience. So my concern is I'm going through the feels of starting the new job...you know, the general anxiety you get about going into a new work environment, meeting your new co-workers, acclimating to the new facility's way of doing things, etc. Furthermore, wondering if I'm being too overly ambitious when I think I can manage both jobs? I've always been a workaholic...I worked 32-40+ hours as a PRN in my inpatient psych job right out of nursing school doing 16-hour shifts all the time. Even as of now, I do my full-time hours in the sub-acute setting, picking up extra shifts there or at my inpatient psych PRN job. I had 24 hours of overtime on my last check. Anyone else like me who works (or has worked) more than one job and/or ends the week with 60+ hours? Would love to know if it was doable or if it ended up being too much. I don't start orientation until mid-July, so the way I see it, I can get a feel for things during orientation and my shadow shifts and if I feel like it's too much, I can let them know that I won't end up taking the position after all (or if they have a PRN slot, I could do that instead). I hate quitting anything, but ultimately I gotta take care of myself first. :) Let me know your experience(s) and/or feedback!

Got the job :) start orientation mid-July. If I don't forget, I'll update on how it goes!

I guess that's what I'm trying to find out, maybe it varies from facility to facility? The description I got from the nursing manager during my interview sounded a bit different from the work you and I seem to share where we work. I guess I will have to wait and see how it's like if I get offered the position!

No worries, I totally feel where you are coming from - I work at a psych hospital and a campus with both a crisis stabilization unit and acute treatment unit. Your workflow sounds similar to mine. :) I was just wondering what the difference is compared to our workflow and that of a psych ED.

Yeah the full-time nurses can be sour about it sometimes...I think mostly because there are times where there isn't sufficient coverage if someone calls in sick or takes vacation leave, on top of staffing issues, if any. Many expect one person to be super flexible (especially if you started out working a ton) and fill in the gaps when needed, but a lot of times they forget that normally you give your availability up to a month in advance, and if you aren't available to work that shift/day for whatever reason, you already let your supervisor know in way in advance. Each facility should have a pretty large amount of pool staff with varying availability anyhow, so that if any one person can't fill it, they can look at persons A, B, C, etc. I was PRN at my first job for 2 years, and a common misconception for PRNs is that since you aren't core staff, your knowledge and skills were at a deficit. However, because I worked full time as a PRN and floated to every unit in the hospital, I knew a lot more than they took me for. If there's any confusion about your facility's policy on per diem, I would request it in writing. But if you are at least fulfilling the minimum, I wouldn't have anything to worry about. You have enough on your plate with grad school!

The internet is a crazy environment of word vomit, and some are right...by asking for advice, guidance, etc. on a public forum, be prepared to receive the good, the bad and the ugly. However, I don't think the bad and the ugly is an ideal way to speak to anybody, but it happens. I've seen said threads. Some purposely come off as condescending, rude, entitled, and sarcastic. There's a big difference between being blunt/direct/opinionated and just plain insulting. There's a backspace button. There's the option to revise your comment before you post it. There's the ability to be cognizant of yourself and others. Some people simply don't care, and that's the sad reality. I don't expect everyone to get along with or agree with one another. But what I can say is the way people speak (or type, in the case of AN) really speaks worlds about their character. It doesn't matter if it's your family, your patients, your co-workers, or fellow nurses on here. You can talk down to me, insult me, treat me like crap - hell, some patients and staff gladly take the responsibility of doing just that every time I come into work. Regardless, I think that everyone deserves dignity and respect when being spoken to. That's just my two cents.

At the psych hospital I work at, PRN requires that I work a minimum of 4 shifts a month, with at least two of those shifts being on a weekend. Throughout the time I worked there, the policy changed to having PRNs being on call for at least 1 night shift (though it wasn't strictly enforced). The policies vary from facility to facility. It was great where I work because the need for nurses was always high, so as a PRN nurse I worked full time (32-40hrs/week). Considering the differential given to PRNs, I made pretty good money...and you can pretty much make your own schedule. However, the downsides are no benefits, no accumulation of PTO, and frequently getting cancelled if the demand is low.

Hello fellow psych nurses, I just interviewed for a part-time psych ED position, and during the interview was informed about the roles I would be assigned if hired: 1) evaluator nurse, 2) observation nurse (the admission process, and floor nurse I think?). From what I understand, clients get triaged, assessed to be medically cleared, and once cleared, get sent to the psych ED for evaluation. Based on the information gathered from evaluation and collaborating with the MD, a decision will be made to place the client in an appropriate facility or discharged. Can anyone in either role (or working in the psych ED in general) post what a general day looks like for you, your work flow, etc. At my current facility we have our own evaluators that aren't RNs (LPCs I think...) that go out to hospitals to do the evaluations (similar to mobile crisis), so I am picking their brains as well. Any help is appreciated!

Even if you don't like precepting, if a shadow is assigned to you by a supervisor, guess what...it's your job! So if anyone should be sucking it up, it should be the preceptor. Having a nasty attitude about it because it isn't your cup of tea, like I said, accomplishes nothing except for create a more hostile work environment. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat! The only time I think it isn't appropriate for someone to precept is if they themselves are a brand new nurse with insufficient knowledge/experience to adequately train a new hire.

Ruby Vee, I don't agree with your "tough love" kind of mentality. We were all brand new nurses once, and training in an environment that appropriately fosters growth makes a significant difference in the success of new nurses. I could care less if a preceptor doesn't like precepting, is burnt out on precepting, and/or has no choice but to train newbies...this is going to be a fellow nurse working beside you once they hit the floor. Do you really want them to start off being incompetent, let alone asking millions more questions because you didn't want to invest the time and effort in effectively training them? Is professionalism tossed out the window once a cohort of new nurses get hired? Personally, I would rather have my shadows competent and be confident in their knowledge and abilities...and why be annoyed when they ask questions? Better safe that they ask me as many times as they need rather than be hesitant and assume or make an error all because my attitude is off-putting. Even though each nurse has their own assignment to worry about, we all still have to work with each other as a team when it comes down to it. Being passive aggressive like mentioned in the OP's situation accomplishes NOTHING. If I were given the option of getting a better training experience from someone else versus "sucking it up" and settling with a preceptor who may very well be wasting my valuable learning time (despite the fear of potentially violating politics involved of supposedly "failing to get along" with the nursing manager's established staff), which makes more sense? If I'm not getting enough out of my training, you better believe I will speak up and seek out better learning opportunities if not initially provided. I've had my share of new hires I had to train, most often on days where we are short-staffed and the floor is chaotic, and yes, a select few were trainees that I really didn't enjoy working with. Sure, I get annoyed too. But that is irrelevant. I feel like all of the reasons you have provided justifying the behaviors of a bad preceptor are not excusable. There should be no excuses in any lack of professionalism or hindering any possibility of providing learning opportunities. OP, I think a good idea to bring up to your nurse manager is asking her if you can shadow multiple nurses rather than just one throughout the entirety of your training. Every nurse works a bit differently, and observing various work flows can be enlightening and you can definitely learn a lot. After training you'll get a better feel of what works and what doesn't, and you can tweek your own flow and way of doing things once you hit the floor. Try not to take these things personal. You will grow accustomed to working with similar nurses with rather strong personalities. In the end you learn to work with them by utilizing each of your strengths. I work with my fair share of VERY seasoned nurses who are very set in their ways, and we get along very well. What many fail to realize is that a lot of newer nurses bring a lot of great ideas to the table, and are more up to date with evidence-based practice than what was taught years upon years ago. So don't be so hard on yourself, you will do just fine!

Fellow night nurse, I feel your struggle. I work 8 hour night shifts so it's a little easier for me to get a workout in, but let me tell you what I found worked for me when I did 12's. When I got home from work, I did the same as you, slept until about 1pm, and if I was lucky, 2pm. My body naturally woke up at that time, and as much as I tried to sleep more, my body wouldn't let me. So as soon as I woke up, I had breakfast (typically had oatmeal), drank something for energy (pre-workout drink, coffee works too), then hit the gym at around 3pm. Worked out for an hour or so, came home, drank a protein shake, showered and just hung around at home until it was time for me to get ready for my 12 hour overnight shift. On my shift, like others have mentioned, I grazed most of the shift...brought a bunch of snacks for me to munch on until it was time for my break. On my break I normally ate a regular sized meal that held me over until it was time for me to go home. I seemed to function okay on 6 hours of sleep. I read somewhere a long time ago that adults function optimally on 6 hours of sleep, but I know everyone is different so your body may need more. Earlier posts you mentioned you have a kiddo, which can make finding time to workout even tougher. When time is an issue, I would recommend high intensity interval training (HIIT) and crossfit routines. There are a lot of regimens that don't require a lot of equipment, and most exercises use your own body weight as resistance. The purpose of these kind of workouts is you are pushing your body to consistently work its hardest with minimal rest between sets, which burns a lot of calories in a short amount of time. You can do a lot of these at home too.

I've seen a lot of hospice nurses who've stuck around a long while.

I truly feel that every nursing school has its drawbacks...no matter the cohort, there's always areas to improve and something for students to complain about - I being amongst them too. My school was also disorganized in certain areas and faculty turnover was insane...I had 3 different instructors for my Med/Surg II course. That's right, we changed instructors 3 times within 11 weeks. Not to mention some SIM labs were poorly run, some classes I felt we were teaching ourselves, I could go on and on. However, nursing was my dream, and nursing school definitely tested my ability to be resilient. Understand that certain things will be beyond your control, but ultimately, you have to make the best from it and take from it what you can. Nursing in the real world is the same way, there will always be drama. Try not to let it get to you, just get 'er done.