Question on Psych Home RN Position

[Willow Moonsidhe]

Hello All,

Finally got a call for an interview and it is a Psych Home Health position. How dangerous are these? What kind of patients do you get? Any information appreciated a lot.

Thanks

~Willow

[colleennurse, ASN, RN]

I am not sure what type of psych you are referring to, but I work in a residence that houses only people with mental illness-mostly Paranoid Schizophrenia. There are no medical staff present in the building (hence the need for HH, I assuming you are refering to a similar place), they only provide med management (non license persons signing off on meds), meals, transportation. Anyway I love the people I work with. They are all managed on meds and see a psych provider on a regular basis. There have been a couple of occasions where someone escalated - not at me, but no harm was done. They were sent off to the hospital. If you are in the same location day after day, you begin to learn each persons symptoms and you will be able to tell when they are decompensating. I started working there when I was pregnant with my son and I never had a worry the whole time. I work with another nurse and we have a great realtionship with the staff in the building. I always have felt that they are a population of people who can use the help a lot and well...you'll get a few good laughs out of it too :) You gotta have a good sense of humor to work with this population.

[KateRN1]

We had a psych nurse at my agency and most of her visits were for depression, caregiver teaching on Alzheimer's management, personality disorders, setting goals/boundaries, that sort of thing. I don't know much about it, she left shortly after I started and there went our psych program.

[Willow Moonsidhe]

I did not get the job. They wanted 3 years of psych experience. I have an interview for a prn RN in small hospital ER tomorrow. The job market is the pits. grr

I appreciate all the replies so much.

~Willow