Psych rotation

noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP · Sep 16, 2010

I just finished my four week psych rotation today and I really liked it. I was at a long term psych facility and the majority of our clinicals were spent socializing with the residents (we played a lot of board games). Our clinical paperwork was minimal (no care plans) and consisted of journal entries and writing up information about various psych medications. Today, for our last clinical, we got to play a big group bingo with the residents and we gave them prizes for winning. It was really fun. I'm going to miss the residents!

I should add, I was really scared during the first clinical day. It took a while for me to feel comfortable with the resident's behaviors. By the end of the second week, I took my guard down and really started to enjoy the facility.

Good luck to you! I hope you have an awesome experience! :)

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Sep 16, 2010

I am in psych right now but my clinical rotation isn't for 2 weeks. From what they are saying it will primarily be observation also. We go for 4 10.5 hour days in a row. W/Th/F and Sat. I am evenings so will be there from noon to 10:30

melmarie23, MSN, RN · Sep 16, 2010

We had 8 hour clinicals, 2 times a week, for 5 weeks. Our time was mostly spent attending group sessions with the patients, sitting and taking with patients in the milieu, or going to meetings with the whole interdisciplinary team (MD, psychiatrist, psychologist, RN, social worker, and aides) where we discussed treatments and therapies for patients.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Sep 17, 2010

Just got back from the last of mine. We spend all of ours at the State Mental Health hospital, prison and juvenile prison as well as a long term sexual predator unit. Today we were on the unit that receives new prisoners that judges the mental and psychological capacity of the pt. In the morning we were playing games, talking with them everything. After lunch they had us read the charts to see what the people were diagnosed with/crimes committed. Turns out I spent the morning with some rather high profile murderers and didnt even realize it.

We would go to the team meetings with the Docs, nurses and social workers to discuss their progress, how they feel blah blah. It was a really interesting experience and I felt safe the entire time.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2010

I've wondered exactly what an RN (particularly a student RN) would do in a psych setting. I'm told the program I'm in won't have a clinical component to the "mental health" course. Oh, well. In the blue uniform I've been around enough nut jobs.

wetzoo · Sep 18, 2010

Oh, well. In the blue uniform I've been around enough nut jobs.

well I certainly hope that if you ever do venture on to a psych ward either as a student or a working professional, you would use better choice words than "nut jobs" to describe the patients.

To the OP: I'm doing mental health clinicals right now and I love it. Our days consist of playing cards with the patients, talking with them, dependent on their disorder- using constant positive reinforcement (i.e "You look really nice today!"), and observing the patients. Sometimes we get to sit it on group meetings and group therapy sessions. I can only speak for my site, but the patients LOVE students. It's been my favorite clinical experience thus far.

C_perugiae · Sep 18, 2010

I'm also going to a prison for my mental health rotation. Our entire group is women, and we're going to a facility full of male inmates, so life should be pretty interesting... I'm glad that our instructor is retired from the same facility and has a lot of respect from everyone there.

Selene006, BSN, LPN · Sep 18, 2010

My rotation is 6 weeks long, 12.5 hours each week, twice a week. We are assigned a different patient each day that we are supposed to interview and write up tons of paperwork about their background and history, observations, etc. We also hold weekly group activities to interact with the patients to get to know each of them. This rotation is at a state mental health hospital with co-ed patients on each unit. My instructor constantly expects each of us students to interact with these patients. She also expects a report at the end of the shift documenting all of our interactions, and how we felt about interacting therapeutically versus non-therapeutically. I find this rotation to be very paperwork-heavy and tiring because my instructor always wants to talk about discussing feelings. I have tremendous respect for psych nurses and their abilities to be so intuitive with their patients. But I can't wait until this rotation is over.

Tarabara · Sep 18, 2010

I'm in my psych rotation right now, my entire class and I were apprehensive about psych because we didn't know what to expect and didn't want aggressive patients. However its been really laid back, we just talk to the patients and do puzzles, lots of puzzles lol. You get a sense from people whether or not they want to be talked to, so if someone appears guarded just avoid them. There will be plenty of patients who are actually really glad to have you there to talk to. One patient who was really quiet at first suddenly turned to us and said, "im really glad you guys are here." which was a great feeling :) Good luck!

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Sep 18, 2010

well I certainly hope that if you ever do venture on to a psych ward either as a student or a working professional, you would use better choice words than "nut jobs" to describe the patients.
To the OP: I'm doing mental health clinicals right now and I love it. Our days consist of playing cards with the patients, talking with them, dependent on their disorder- using constant positive reinforcement (i.e "You look really nice today!"), and observing the patients. Sometimes we get to sit it on group meetings and group therapy sessions. I can only speak for my site, but the patients LOVE students. It's been my favorite clinical experience thus far.

Eh, working with the public has that affect on people. Just go down to your local DMV. The clerks are masters at callous cynicism.