Question about Outpatient Mental Health

[sideshowstarlet, BSN, RN]

Hello, all. I'm a relatively experienced RN, but I have never worked psych. I always wanted to, but everywhere wanted experience. So, I've done mostly med surg for seven years until a non profit agency specializing in helping children with autism was able to secure funding to offer me a part-time telehealth position. For the past year or so, I've just been doing telehealth, because A) Covid, and B) I wanted to focus on school and my internship (going to school for MSW). 

Well, I completed my internship, and now I have more time on my hands. So, I applied for a PRN Registered Nurse Outpatient Behavioral Health position. I eventually heard back and had an initial screening interview with HR. The recruiter said he would be passing on my resume to the manager of the behavioral health unit and also offered to pass on my information to the head of the case management department, since I've been working in a quasi-case management role for the past year and they are looking for a PRN Case Management RN. I agreed to this, and a week or so later, the CM director and I arranged an interview. 

I really did my research for this, and I could really see myself doing the CM job. During the interview, the manager said she was impressed with me and wanted to move forward. I'm in the process of having my reference/background check completed. The recruiter dropped me a line about the CM job today, saying that all my references checked out, and that they would have a final decision by this coming Tuesday. 

Earlier this week, the recruiter called me saying the manager of the behavioral health unit had been on vacation and just looked over my application and would like to schedule an interview. I had my interview with her this afternoon. She says that she'd like to move forward with an interview between me, her, and her supervisor next week and that they'll be in touch to schedule one. 

I was kind of surprised when I heard her describing the job, though. It was advertised as Outpatient RN, so, based on the title and description (just a blurb about how a RN license is required, hours are 8-4, and psychiatric experience is preferred), I thought I'd be seeing people for things like drawing labs to measure Lithium levels, providing education and support to help discharged patients live in the community, making sure they remember to take their meds and go to group therapy, and helping them connect to resources they quality for. 

But, from what the supervisor was telling me, the job actually entails helping patients who are currently in the hospital. We would be going to all the units throughout the hospital and helping calm down a patient who is having mental health challenges and also providing education to the patient to help them improve both their mental and physical health. I am 100% comfortable with the patient education piece, and I am able to calm down a patient in crisis. But the job will be unpredictable, since it involves assisting whatever unit calls us- ER, Med Surg, Rehab, whatever. 

This program started when the hospital's inpatient psychiatric unit closed about five years ago, owing to difficulty securing psychiatrists to support it. Many employees who used to work on the inpatient unit work on this team. 

I believe that it's an exciting and useful program, and I feel like I can learn a lot. I would have loved to have a team like that available when I was doing med-surg.

But I'm kind of thrown for a loop. This isn't at all what I think of when I think of outpatient. What the supervisor was describing sounds more like a code team for psych with an added patient education component. Does anyone have experience working in a program like this? Thank you.

[Davey Do]

On 3/26/2021 at 11:45 PM, sideshowstarlet said:

But, from what the supervisor was telling me, the job actually entails helping patients who are currently in the hospital. We would be going to all the units throughout the hospital and helping calm down a patient who is having mental health challenges and also providing education to the patient to help them improve both their mental and physical health.

Does anyone have experience working in a program like this? 

In all my tears of psych experience, I've not heard of such a program, and find it a little difficult to understand. 

Please keep us informed as more about the program is learned, sideshowstarlet.

[sideshowstarlet, BSN, RN]

4 hours ago, Davey Do said:

In all my tears of psych experience, I've not heard of such a program, and find it a little difficult to understand. 

Please keep us informed as more about the program is learned, sideshowstarlet.

I will. To be honest, I wasn't expecting them to express interest in arranging a second interview (though that could be just talk). I didn't mention this in my original post, but the interview was via Webex, and the maintenance guy for my apartment came to fix something for my roommate- something she's been waiting forever for- just as the interview was going on. It sounded like a construction zone in the background. 

Honestly, I feel kind of iffy about this job, as I was prepared to take on an outpatient role. 

I do feel confident about getting the case management job, though, and that one is in the same hospital as this "outpatient" job. I'm sure I'll figure out more about it one way or another. 

Also, I had an interview for a part-time job on an inpatient psych unit for a high-paying hospital system in another state, and they are in the process of checking references. When it rains, it pours! 

[sideshowstarlet, BSN, RN]

Update! I got an offer for the Case Management PRN role, and they scheduled a second interview about the Mental Health role. The second interview will be Friday at 1 PM Eastern Time. At the very least, I should be able to find out more information. And even if I end up sounding like a moron, I already got the case management job!

[sideshowstarlet, BSN, RN]

Had my second interview for the PRN Behavioral Health role. It sounds like we help out in all areas of the hospital, not so much as a code team but in the role of nurses and social workers. We don't provide medications, but we do things like substance abuse support (there are a lot of addicts in my area), as well as helping keep the patient calm (even though there is no inpatient psych ward, patients who are involuntarily admitted are sent to the emergency room and often board there. As you can imagine, an ER isn't a great place for a psych patient), and even lead family meetings. The psychiatrist says that when there's not as much to do as they thought (which is rare), there's also research projects where we determine best practices, newer ways of doing things, etc and provide education to other members of staff. 

They said I should hear back in the coming week whether or not I'm accepted for this job. Either way, I'll be working in the Case Management Department PRN at this same hospital.

[Stillcrazyafteralltheseyears]

Case Management, mmmh does that mean you will writing care plans and speaking with guardians?  Also arranging meetings with family, and filling out the critical assessment form every 90 days or when they have an outburst.  Going to treatment team meetings etc. How many patients will you have and what's their accutity. I think the good part of this job is all you will learn and the really cool people you will meet. Also I think you will have weekends and holidays off.

 

[sideshowstarlet, BSN, RN]

14 minutes ago, Stillcrazyafteralltheseyears said:

Case Management, mmmh does that mean you will writing care plans and speaking with guardians?  Also arranging meetings with family, and filling out the critical assessment form every 90 days or when they have an outburst.  Going to treatment team meetings etc. How many patients will you have and what's their accutity. I think the good part of this job is all you will learn and the really cool people you will meet. Also I think you will have weekends and holidays off.

 

Yes, that's right. I'm filling in PRN, so I can pick up the shifts I want. Theoretically, the PRN Case Managers could fill in on any unit, but I'll be sticking to the med surg and rehab units. Amount of patients will likely vary.