Psychiatric nursing

[Terra_RN]

Ok so I currently have my BSN & have been a nurse for two years in Ohio. I spent my first year & a half at a rehab facility with med-surg, ortho & long term care units, & the last six months I have been working in an acute care hospital. I really want to get my masters degree & it has taken me until now to decide what path I want to take. I ultimately want to become a nurse practitioner of pediatric psych. I have always wanted to work with kids & mental health is a huge interest for me. The trouble is that I know no one with a psychiatric nursing background & I'm kind of lost on where to start to make this happen. Does anyone have any advice on where to get started? I would love to hear some experiences that other nurses have had in psych nursing; pediatric or not. Any recommendations for good schools for NP of pediatric psychiatric nursing in Ohio? Do I need to work as a psychiatric nurse prior to entering school? Is it a bad idea to transfer to an adult behavioral unit to work until I can locate a good pediatric place to go? Any information would be appreciated.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Do I need to work as a psychiatric nurse prior to entering school?

Having psych nursing experience prior to enrolling in a PMHNP program would be beneficial. I have seen disastrous outcomes arise due to the prescribing habits of certain PMHNPs who never once worked as psych nurses.

As far as getting started in psych, I applied at a freestanding psychiatric hospital and was hired. Obtaining a psych nursing position is relatively easy in many employment markets because it is not exactly the most desired or coveted specialty.

[Terra_RN]

Thank you! I am currently applying for psych positions at local hospitals.

[GeminiNurse29]

I work in a mainly forensic psych hospital. This means the patients either committed murder or assault or some other horrible crime (like sex offender against children) to get there. The experience has been eye opening. We also have a juvenile unit. I give kudos to the nurses that can work there because I couldn't. (I float). They are young mostly teens who have issues like conduct, behavioral, and some are frankly just messed up or little ****heads.

There isn't much in terms of nursing skills, not the technical ones anyway. The geriatric unit is probably the one where we get more "medical" stuff. But if they get bad, we send them out to the local hospital. A lot of the patients are ambulatory. (Canes and walkers and wheelchairs can be used as a weapon). Most meds are PO with some IMs (including some forced and order to treat). There might be one or two guys with G tubes. One essential skill is learning to figure out when something really is wrong or when a guy is just faking it for attention. Safety is a huge issue and priority. Nurses, rehab, techs, even MDs have been attacked.

I've definitely gotten more jaded, aware, and learned a ton in the short time I've been there.

My advice is, go get the psych experience regerdless of whether it's adult or pediatrics. That's the only way you'll know if you want to invest more time and money into a mental health education.

[Purple_Clover]

Well PMHNP programs take a lifespan approach, so you're going to be learning about children, adolescents, adults anyway. Any psych experience is going to help you with your graduate degree, and after then you can choose to work with children.