Psych Nurse ="not a REAL nurse"?

bertita · Apr 2, 2006

Leslie, I'm not sure that "orienting to reality" is an approach that's carved in stone. At least I hope it's not and will be put to the research test. I think it can be unnecessarily frustrating on both sides to be "oriented to reality" when the patient is unready or unwilling to do so. Maybe by you making them feel "safe" even within the boundaries of their delusion they will come out of it sooner.
Not that I have any training or experience in the field, just the way I see it.

Hi Chaya, Talking from my own experience I would like to add to the "unready patient" or "unwilling patient" the "unable patient". No approach is carved in stone... there is always room from improvement

nurse_clown · Apr 2, 2006

some ortho nurse said that about long term care nursing. not sure what she meant by that. maybe that's what they say about psych nursing? i'm in oncology and long term care and i rely heavily on the "mental health" unit for advice. advice on how to handle an abusive patient or one that is "seeing" things or very depressed. we have a lot of patients with brain mets and it can be tough.

but yeah, not a real nurse? wow! some people just don't know any better...

P_RN, ADN, RN · Apr 3, 2006

Oh hey I'm an ortho nurse, and what would each of us fo without all the other strong points in Nursing.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Apr 3, 2006

I am a per diem LVN psych nurse at a behavioral health facility and all I do is pass medications. All the RN does is chart and transcribe orders. Psych nurses are real nurses; however, psych nursing is not for me. The mental health patients are simply too obsessive about their meds, as if their very existence is based on receiving their PRN Ativan or Lortab every 4 to 6 hours. I praise the other nurses who have the patience to deal with this sort of crap.

It's not crap. They are suffering. If they are inpatient, they are in serious trouble. In fact, some may be in such serious psychological pain that they perceive their existance does depend on getting their med. You wouldn't call it crap if a patient in med/surg was wanting his pain meds as ordered every 4 to 6 hours would you? Sure, some may be pain in the butt personality disorder patients, but still, they did not choose to be this way.

Can you tell I'm thinking about doing psych someday? I wish there was some sort of virtual reality device that could be worn by students to experience hallucinations or other psych symptoms. It is by the grace of god or chance or happenstance that you and I are not in a psych hospital with a painful illness. I know you may have made the above statement off the cuff, but this bothered me.

lberghood · Apr 4, 2006

AMEN TO THAT

I am a aupervisor at an acute psych hospital and was actually toying with the idea of trying to make the staff be patients for a day, i actually thought that it would be good for them if we made them wear headphones with loud derogatory comments in different voices were playing blasted the TV and then expected them to do thier job. Sadly much of society even those working in the field are very insensitive to the pain of mental illness. As a seasoned psych nurse once told me at least we have effective medications for physical pain but none such exist as yet for emotional pain you sound like an excellent candidate for psych nursing. I would hire you

healer27 · Apr 4, 2006

What makes a nurse real? I would say the caring and patient advocacy. Neither of those things require technology.

I totally agree with purplemania on this one. I'm currently a student and actually at the moment doing a rotation on a psych floor. I think the nurses where I'm at are amazing. From what I've seen they use both med/surg skills and psych skills. Just my two cents. :cheers:

seekthenew · Apr 4, 2006

Depends on what has been accepted historically at a given facility.. the psych nurses here do not start IV's , empty foleys, feed their patients!!!!

They don't even take patients with a saline loc in!!! They say it is not in their skill set!!!! Doesn't sound like a real nurse to me... but then, you couldn't pay me enough to run a group therapy session, or be in a locked unit with surly sociopathic teens....

imenid37 · Apr 4, 2006

Depends on what has been accepted historically at a given facility.. the psych nurses here do not start IV's , empty foleys, feed their patients!!!!
They don't even take patients with a saline loc in!!! They say it is not in their skill set!!!! Doesn't sound like a real nurse to me... but then, you couldn't pay me enough to run a group therapy session, or be in a locked unit with surly sociopathic teens....

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.

pugmum · Apr 5, 2006

I've heard this twice this week and being a psych nurse, it's very annoying.
Do you nurses in traditional fields feel this way about psych nurses too? Please be candid, I would just really like to know. Thanks!

Psych nurses are absolutely "real" nurses in the same way that ICU nurses are nurses, and the same for ER, med-surg, L/D nurses etc. I know that there are still some nurses out there that believe that if you aren't working in an acute/critical care area that you couldn't possibly be a real nurse, and I also remember hearing that nurses working in LTC were looked upon as those that didn't want to think too much or work too hard...thankfully these attitudes and beliefs are becoming less and less common. I've been nursing since the days of the dinosaurs, and I've seen the pendulum swing!

I wonder if some of this psych 'not a real nurse' is a hold over from the days when mental illness had such a stigma surrounding it, in that mental illnesses could not possibly be as urgent or as 'important' as a real physical illness...just a thought.

MaStAViC · Apr 5, 2006

Hi Meerkat,

Some people may not consider psych nurses as "real nurses" because nurses in general are often stereotyped to be do specific things, things that psych nurses may not usually do. Personally, I think this is as bad as how mainstream American media often stereotype nurses to be only female and do not really accept nurses who are male.

Meerkat, don't let a few naysayers discourage you from the things you do. Caring for others, among other things, makes you a nurse. A person does not need to know the things stereotypical nurses usually know in order to be considered a nurse. Psych nurses are just as important as any other types of nurses out there (and at time, much more important), so keep your head up and continue doing what you do best =)

Sincerely,

-=Victor Ly

Cecilea · Apr 5, 2006

First Post. Hi every one I am a psych nurse (not in US) with general nursing qualification that is still active . I have been looking for something like this for a while now and it seems great. Thanks to all.

Psych nurse not real nurse?

A typical response from the hoards of nurses who have never had the glorious opportunity to witness the power and value of real listening, care empathy and the importance of empowering other people in distress.

One of the reasons I went into psych nursing. It was a chance to give time to patients that was impossible on task oriented wards with task oriented managers and petty colleagues whose main aim in life was to get the tasks done to impress the night staff manager. Never mind that seven patients had just been given diagnosis of Ca and were left high and dry with no support!

Yep there are poor nurses everywhere but " nurses who have learned to be busy" need to see that sitting and listening to a patient is vital to his sense of being involved in his recovery and so often this is what the psych pt has never had. Come on when was the last time someone gave you real active listening. Great isnt it.

EXAMPLE in 2004

Caring for a pt in terminal cardiac failure."I Know Everthing Manager" insists on sub cut treatments pt not keen. Pt decides no and pulls it out.Manager insists we replace. Several times . All the time we minions are saying all this lady needs is someone to sit and hold her hand as she is scared. By passed manager who would not listen. Area director listens for once and lets me put in a nurse to sit and hold hand. Bingo . Problem solved !

Lady relaxes no more sub cuts needed.

First Post Groan Over.

Cecilea.

RNyea · Apr 5, 2006

A psyche nurse is a "soul nurse"---not too many nurses have that calling. It takes some deep compassion to be one---that is the "skills" that you use. I've had some hold up arrogant noses and say you have to be "mentally off" to work in that field but in my estimation, they have an awful lot of growing up to do and are totally clueless (still wanting to play high school competition). I have worked both and I call the other "needle nurse"---so take your pick---soul nurse or needle nurse???? RNyea