Psych nursing while pregnant

7student7 · Aug 16, 2010

In my experience, all of us who have spent any serious time working in psych are aware of the risks; we're just also reluctant to help perpetuate the unrealistic stereotypes and stigma attached to psych clients.

That's all fine and dandy to tell someone who doesn't have to actually handle actively psychotic people or set limits with upset people on a daily basis, but I think it's idealistic to tell a new nurse. A lot of violence that happens is accidental, or easy to sympathize with - many times they even apologize once they've calmed down, but that doesn't change the fact the the damage is already done.

Also, the type of hospital matters. If your hospital takes a lot of felons trying to get out of their jail sentences or patients unresponsive to meds that other places dump on you - you need to be super alert. If you work at one of the hospitals that turfs those problem patients to hospitals like mine, maybe you don't need to be as careful.

And I've seen patients fixate on pregnant staff before - it does makes you stand out.

Regardless of what stereotypes you may or may not have, be alert. If you get a funny feeling, run. If you feel more comfortable having a male tech go with you into that room at the end of the hall - ask him. Your baby's physical well being is a hell of a lot more important than not hurting someone's feelings. Be careful.

iwanna · Aug 16, 2010

Also, something to consider is what the unborn baby hears can be quite scary. If you are not physically in danger, there is another factor of escalated presidents yelling. I can remember an OT leaving when she reached a certain stage in her pregnancy for that reason.

mtdnk · Aug 25, 2010

I went through 2 pregnancies working in an inpatient psychiatric unit at our county jail. No problems, no injuries, no threats, no nothing :)

cherliang1 · May 28, 2017

I know of many pregnant staff in my facility being pregnant and working in the state facility I work at. Many make it through just fine, however, there have been a few attacks on pregnant staff. First, a psychotic woman on our women unit attacked a pregnant staff, no bad outcome. A psychotic male on the acute forensics unit attacked a pregnant staff specifically stating he wanted to kill the unborn, no bad outcome. A psychotic kid kicked a pregnant staff in the stomach, she leaked amniotic fluid. Almost lost the baby, and there are rumors of her child having autism. I personally have had no problem being pregnant twice while working in my psych hospital, but I put myself on modified duties during my third trimesters. I honestly do not think I will be one of those statistics, however, I do not want to chance it either. Teammates get disappointed when I do show up on units to work on the floor third trimester pregnany and I understand their concern.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · May 29, 2017

I know I'm late to the thread, but I have worked psych while pregnant. In the psych ER, once I told the charge about the pregnancy, she would not let be in the front line of any codes because the acuity was too high. I would do the other tasks during a control: crowd control, making calls and getting orders, drawing up meds, tending to other patients. Otherwise, I still did direct patient care during the pregnancy.

At about 20 weeks, my pregnancy started to get complicated (AMA) so I chose to move solely to outpatient. There, the patients were more stable wth much less risk of violence, and the work was less strenuous and more clerical. As the pregnancy advanced, unit staff started leaving me snacks at my desk. But as I was a common sight, waddling the halls of the hospital during the course of my day/night, pretty soon staff I didn't know and even some outpatients were leaving me munchies (of course, if a patient left them, they weren't being eaten unless they were sealed). They also threw me a baby shower, which was nice--not many people can say they had their shower in a psychiatric hospital.

I worked until I was at term and 2cm dilated. I probably would have worked until delivery, but a late preeclampsia kind of ruled that out.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Jun 2, 2017

I once worked with a nurse on an inpatient adult mental health unit who tried to use her pregnancy (in a very early stage) as an excuse not to perform basically any of her duties. It seemed pretty bogus. I can understand not participating in a restraint situation when you may be kicked or punched, but that's about it.

GeminiNurse29 · Jun 3, 2017

Currently in this situation. I float in my facility and frankly, the civil Geri psych unit is way more hands on and dangerous than the forensics units. Fortunately, that unit is staffed with two or more nurses.

Trust your instincts, always have a tech and or another person with you. I also dont participate if there's a restraint or seclusion episode. There's always other things to do, like call and get doctors orders, assess, etc.

allnurses Guide · Jun 9, 2017

Not to mention that the vast majority of "psych patients" represent no threat to pregnant women anyway ...

Well the vast majority of psych patients represent no threat to the general population. We need to stop looking at psych patients as dangerous perpetrators. In reality less than 1 percent of all psych patients are dangerous but the general public doesn't care about that.

Hppy

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Jun 9, 2017

Well the vast majority of psych patients represent no threat to the general population. We need to stop looking at psych patients as dangerous perpetrators. In reality less than 1 percent of all psych patients are dangerous but the general public doesn't care about that.
Hppy

My first job in nursing was on an adult/chemical dependency unit that I literally opened (I admitted the first patient to the unit). This hospital had never offered mental health services before. The unit became available when they moved OB/GYN services off-site to a building constructed for that purpose. For about the first 2-3 months, hospital staff were afraid to come on the unit. They apparently had the idea that we were getting assaulted on a regular basis. The ones who had to come to the unit (lab, EKG, x-ray transport, etc.) acted as if their heads were on a swivel when they came in. I joked to one of my colleagues that we ought to bring in some torn scrubs and theatrical blood, put them on and stagger onto the elevator at the end of the shift, just to see what the reaction would be.