dopeynat25

I have been a psych nurse for 7 years and currently work as an ED nurse for over a year. I agree that having experience in acute care will prepare you with getting a job in the ED and succeeding. There are common nursing skills that are done daily such as iv starts, ngt insertion, foley catheter insertion, wound care, defibrillation, cardiovert, pacing, hanging iv meds/drips, etc. I’ve always had more than one job- one in psych and another in acute care, to learn and/or keep my skills. I did an ED internship class at my hospital while I was working as a psychiatric emergency nurse. I had previous experience in med surg/tele and a medical psychiatric floor (med surg pts with psych issues). My ED has a lot of psych and chemical dependency patients so my psych experience definitely was useful. Most EDs won't consider you without X number of years of experience in acute care, critical care, or prior ED experience.

Hello, Yes it is possible. My first job out of nursing school was on a med surg floor/addiction medicine/med psych unit. I then worked on an acute psych unit, Ms- ortho/spine/onc, ms/tele/dou, psych ed, and now regular ED. During this time, I got my MSN, psych board certification, shadowed acute care nurses on my day off in different units of the hospital, took a one year refresher course for new grads when I transitioned from psych to acute care, and different certs (acls, pals, ekg, nihss etc). I did what I could to show my department leadership that I would be a good fit as an ED nurse, regardless of where I started. When I worked as a psych ED RN, I got to know the flow of the ED, patient population, ED nurses, mentored with a senior nurse who had a similar background, and did an ED internship program to become an ED RN. I work at a level 1 trauma center. I also helped the ED nurses with managing their patient loads such as giving meds, labs, vs, dispo, comfort measures- whatever I felt comfortable doing at the time, in addition to doing my job as a psych ed RN. I had a good reputation of being a hard worker and team player- which helped me when I applied for the ed internship program. I also work per diem at another hospital on a med psych unit. The skills I learn from the ED allows me to be a resource in managing the care of this population and vice versa. Your background as a emt and in psychiatry will be very valuable. There are a lot of psych patients that come in during an acute crisis, substance abuse, suicide attempts, for managing their medical comorbidities, as traumas, etc. knowing how to communicate and provide empathy with this population will be very valuable and make you a good ed nurse. Also, it is important to recognize psych patients are not experiencing a medical emergency prior to sending them to a psych hospital. In my opinion, some of the best and most compassionate ED nurses I know have a background in psychiatry. best of luck to you! Stay patient and trust your journey.