Psych Nurse ="not a REAL nurse"?

BSNtobe2009 · Oct 26, 2006

I think that is terrible! I think Psychiatric nursing would be extremely difficult as you are dealing with patients who are mentally unstable and you never know what one of them will do or turn violent.

It IS real nursing.

Sandi0302 · Oct 26, 2006

This post falls into the same category as:
-ADNs are not real nurses
-LPNs are not real nurses
-BSN's are better suited to be nurses than
-My dad can beat up your dad
The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right. ~Mark Twain

HAHA!!

My jaw dropped when I saw the original post. I thought only us LPN's were the ones deemed "Not real nurses"...I truly cannot believe this.

First of all, you are a nurse and hats off to you for your courage to be in such a demanding field of nursing. I would never have enough patience to work in that field of nursing.

Secondly, are there any other career fields where people are so demeaning and catty to each other? How can anyone call someone who has gone to NURSING SCHOOL and is licensed by their state as a NURSE "not a nurse"??? Can't we all just support each other and stop the bull?????

Sandi0302 · Oct 26, 2006

When you are away from certian skills you don't feel very comfortable doing them. As an OB nurse I got very weary of being blasted by some (not most-most nurse are great) on the med-surg floors that I wouldn't do dressing changes and pass meds out to 15 people. I did nursing asst. stuff-vs, answer lights, accu-checks, clean up pts., take them to BR, etc. Sorry I don't do things I feel I am not qualified for any more. I see the psych nurses' point here. I am very much a real nurse, thank you. I wouldn't ask you to do a vag exam and the psych nurses proably wouldn't want you to deal with a patient in seclusion.

I just wanted to say...I have never been as thankful to a nurse/nursing staff as I was to the nurses on the Labor and Delivery Floor where I had my son...they were WONDERFUL and i think all of us have their own specialty that we were designed for...we are all nurses.

icugirl33 · Oct 27, 2006

The last time I checked, you had to be a nurse to be called a psych nurse. I thing that makes you a real nurse. I also give you Psyche nurses out there a lot of credit. It take a lot to deal with the mentally ill.

Deargceann · Feb 21, 2011

Psych nurses have to take the same exam and get paid the same amount as a floor nurse. I'm in nursing school and had my med/surg evaluation with my professor. She knows I want to be a psych nurse and during the eval she stated that I should follow that passion. The sad thing is that in her mind, she was insulting me, but in my mind, she was just reinforcing what I have known all along. I will be a great psych nurse.

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2011

I work psych quite often. A regular ward nurse said to me What do you do down there all day? I said it's suprisingly busy, and listening to and counselling people with their problems is very, very mentally exhausting. And of course we still do medications, observations, BSLs, do all our notes, running around all shift trying to find patients to ensure they are safe, ringing doctors ++, have to sit in on consultations with psyciatrists and other doctors and health care professionals. And then you get very distressed and needy patients. I often wonder: where does the time go?

Of course you get lazy nurses in psych too. I worked in one place where we had big windows all around the nurses' station, and most of the nurses just used to sit on their backside all shift.

Say to those people - you go do some shifts there, THEN come back and see me!

Doubledee · Mar 2, 2011

I guess it must be human nature for people to think what you do can't be as good or important as what I do.

After ten years on night shift, I get cranky when I hear bosses or other nurses suggest night shifters have plenty of time to take care of what ever project/job no one else wants to do.

We have different specialties and shifts for a reason. Our patients need them!