Red Flags for a Psych Facility

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What are some things to be on the lookout for when considering a job at a psychiatric hospital?

Can anybody chime in with some ideas of things I should make sure I know before taking a job offer?

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Patient to staff ratio - how many nurses vs mental health workers are on the unit. If there are more than 12 patients, one nurse may have difficulty doing it all. Turnover is a red flag. If you get to meet some staff, ask how long they have been there. If everyone is young, that may suggest that the more experienced nurses have left.

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.

Google it, especially the news section. Occasionally that can be a eye-opener

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

See if you can get a feel for practices on the unit. Are they restraint/seclusion/injection happy? Some units will skip right by the lesser interventions and go right for one of those to deal with any and all problems, even if these last-resorts are not clearly indicated.

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My advice to go along with those above is to trust your gut feeling when you're there. I interviewed at a place, had a funny feeling but took the prn position anyway. Then on my first day the Asst DON who had hired me (and had only been there 2 months) had already resigned. When I asked the staffing coordinator for staff to patient ratios she couldn't give me a straight answer. I lasted the first day of orientation and turned in my keys. I knew it was not for me.

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