Kay28

Age 29 10 years experience as an RN And just graduated with my MSN!

Make sure you are familiar with the medications used in an emergency situation on an inpatient psych unit. We use a lot of haldol, Benadryl, Ativan, and Thorazine (either IM or PO) in emergencies. Also review some of your routine psych meds given such as depakote, lithium, zyprexa or latuda. Be aware of your environment at all times, keeping a clear exit to the nearest door. Best of luck!

Inpatient psych: zyprexa, depakote, lithium, trazodone, remeron.

We use a pyxis machine at my hospital and sometimes it wants you to count random meds. For some reason the other night it wanted me to do count every time I took out cogentin. No clue why though.

So it wasn't just my unit?

On my inpatient psych unit we hire both CNAs and mental health workers. Most of the MHWs have a bachelors degree but their job is very similar. They run therapy groups, assist with vitals/adls, and document on the observation board. They also monitor patients that are a 1:1 observation and do whatever other tasks come up throughout the shift.

Maybe "every two hours prn" for q2p?

8s in Massachusetts

Personality disorder patients seem to cause the most chaos on our unit

Its pretty common on my unit to catch someone smoking in their room/bathroom/shower even when informed that this is against unit rules and is a fire hazard. When this occurs we have to obtain an order for a room search and fill out an incident report. Its truly a pain for us.

I work on a locked inpatient psychiatric unit. We can have anywhere from 1:5 to 1:8 on my 3-11 shift. We have to do all of our own admissions, vital signs, and personal care as well.

I should have known to just turn around and go home the other day when I realized I had come into work with my scrub pants on backwards. It was truly the shift from hell.

I picked up an overnight shift last night and had the most vivid dreams when I finally went to bed. It mostly consisted of a patient chasing behind me while I was driving my car around the city. I just kept driving and driving, with the guy a few inches behind me the whole time.

I work inpatient psych and some of my manic patients can be so hyper verbal and tangential you wouldn't believe it! Thankfully my coworkers are pretty good about rescuing each other from these situations.

All home meds at my hospital get sent to be stored in the pharmacy. We only count the narcotics, then just have to list the names of the others. After discharge pts pick up the meds from pharmacy.

Printed this out at work. Everyone loved it!

My favorite part of working on an adult psych unit is........ no call lights! The cords are considered a suicide risk.

I work on an inpatient acute adult psych unit located in a medical hospital. 30 bed unit and I work 1500 to 2330 shift. On my shift I can get anywhere from 5 to 8 patients. One particular horrendous shift I had nine patients. We do get MHWs but they don't do more than safety checks and running groups. We also occasionally get things like IVs and feeding tubes and such.

I know that I lost a job a few years ago due to calling out too much during the initial 90 day probationary period. I was hospitalized several times for exacerbation of my schizophrenia symptoms. Even though they were legitimate absences, they didn't need a reason to let me go. Thankfully I'm on a med regimen that works well for me. I've been at my current RN position for a year and a half and have minimal symptoms. Haven't had to call out since I started this job!

I worked in a free standing psych hospital where we did team nursing of sorts. There were six units with 13-26 pts in each unit. We would get one RN who was "charge nurse" and an LPN who was "med nurse". Charge would do admission, discharges, and dealing with the treatment team. Med nurse passed all scheduled and prn meds along with helping with note. Then 3 MHWs who did checks and vitals. This worked well enough.

18 when I started my RN program

The only test I had to take for the RN position I hold was a pharmacology exam. It was multiple choice for the most part with some dosage calculations thrown in.

I've worked inpatient psych and given IM ativan many, many times. Never diluted it before, but I'm curious if others have.

Marfan's syndrome and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (sp?)

I work inpatient psych 1500-2330. I get on the unit a few minutes early to find out my assignment and fill out information I will need for my shift on my brain sheet (ie. meds, tx, blood sugars). Shift report is from 1500 to 1530 on a good day, sometimes it takes longer. All the RNs for evening shift are in the room listening to report on the whole floor (30 beds). 1530-1630 I go meet all my patients and get vitals signs on everyone I have, along with doing a quick assessment. I might have meds to give out at 1600 or 1700, and after 1630 we start doing our CBGs and giving sliding scale insulin. All along I try to document as I go, otherwise it tends to get overwhelming. Might have to assist with dinner for the patients depending on how many mental health workers are on that particular night, dinner comes at 1730. Then you try to put out as many fires as you can before visiting hours, which could mean calling the doctor on call or breaking up a fist fight. Visiting is supervised from 1900-2000, everyone visits in the kitchen. 2000 means start passing out meds as quickly as you can, patients will start lining up at the nursing station. Then, for the rest of the shift, catch up on documenting and give PRNs. Oh, and don't forget, you will have at least one admission thrown in somewhere, maybe two. And maybe a restraint or seclusion going on at the same time. I can have anywhere from 5-9 pts on my shift. But somehow you make it all work, and survive the shift to make it home another night.