New grad psych

[ashkay]

Do you think it will be hard for me to get a job in med surg

Or a hospital job if I go into psych as my first job?

I'm interested in psych and maybe even doing psych np

But there are barely any job opening for psych

[Sour Lemon]

In general, I think it's easier to move from med surg to psych than from psych to med surg. There are plenty of psych patients in med surg, but a lot of psych units only receive patients who have been medically cleared.

[B52, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I started in psych because I have no intention of working anywhere else. I came to nursing late; second career. I agree with Sour Lemon. If you want med surg experience, start your career in med surg.

[Heylove, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

From my experience, I can say that I have hit some barriers when I have attempted to explore other specialties because I started in psych nursing. It's not totally impossible, and it depends on the facility or the speciality you're trying to go into. I had ER nurses that responded as though they were appalled that I went straight to psych from nursing school. I believe I spent the first year of my nursing career learning my way around the EMR and documenting, prioritizing, gained confidence in nursing skills and established relationships with coworkers, learned how to communicate with doctors, all of which are very important skills for ALL nurses. Be sure to really focus on your skills as a nurse, not *just* a psych nurse. ALL patients are psych patients.

[Seeing Myself Out]

Depends on the job market of the area you live you may not be able to switch from psych once you have worked in psych for a while. I live in California and I have been trying to get a med surg job for a while but can't even get into new grad programs.

[elizabethgrad09]

I started in psych because I have no intention of working anywhere else. I came to nursing late; second career. I agree with Sour Lemon. If you want med surg experience, start your career in med surg.

I wanted to start my career in psych, but was unable to find a psych job out of nursing school. Like RNdh, I am a second career nurse so I didn't mind possibly getting "pigeonholed." After an initial job in a nursing home that lasted six months (where I really struggled), I was able to get a psych job when a psych hospital started a new grad program. I am very grateful because I truly believe that psych is my niche. I have seen a number of nurses go from my psych hospital into other kinds of nursing, but I think it can be difficult. One idea is to go into gero-psych or some kind of combo job where the medical acuity is higher than in many psych hospitals - in my psych hospital we don't have any IVs, and only do simple wound care. Also, I work in a standalone psych hospital, but if you choose a psych unit that is attached to a medical center, you might have an opportunity to transfer to another type of unit.