what do you remember the most about psych nursing

[soozeeq246]

:trout: I know this is strange but here goes I need qoutes from experienced nurses who have been in mental health promotion classes and know what's myth from fact and what to get hung-up about over the class. What is and what 's not even a brain teaser. Could you pleeease help me ?!!:uhoh21: This is going to go into a blog for our colleges nursing resource center's comfort zone. The nursing students need the comfort of knowing they are not going to lose it before they get throuh this class. Thanks

[Hoozdo, ADN]

I loved psych nursing.

I remember the slower pace that allows you to sit back, and really THINK about issues and plan your care. I loved sitting around with the other psych nurses and talking through a problem.

This leads to the intellectual aspect of psych nursing. You really get to think on a much more complex level than other types of nursing (in my opinion).

I remember just how fascinating some of the patient's lives were. Flipping through some of those charts was better than any novel you could buy.

I remember just the strangness of some situations. Stopping a women from killing herself with a plastic knife, or convincing a women to stop biting her fingernails off.

I remember the facinating people watching that goes on from the nursing station. The psych unit really created a "social milieu." Seeing the support the patients gave each other, or seeing the way some patients would manipulate other patients into giving them cigarettes/money/food etc. was facinating. It was a miniture society.

Anyway...I could go on and on...

I also LOVED pysch nursing clinicals in school. My clinicals were done at a state mental hospital on a locked ward. My state has very few beds for psych patients.....so these patients were the "sickest of the sick".

I enjoyed sitting in the "social mileu" thinking this is better than ANY movie I have EVER watched. I was fascinated by things happening around me. I never felt threatened physically because it was a locked unit and it was staffed well.

Yes, there is an intellectual aspect of pysch nursing that I enjoyed. I found the ICU intellectual stimulation to be more interesting though, so I took that route upon graduation.

[mamason]

Safety first

Never back yourself into a corner. Always make sure you have access to get away should the pt start escalate.

Think before you speak when communicating with these pts.

Remember that they are human too. They are someone's child,mother, spouse, etc. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect just like everyone else.

[mamason]

I remember my clinical rotation through pysch. I was in the locked admissions ward. The ward was patroled by techs that really acted like bouncers, they would take a patient down to the floor if they acted out. I was told to NEVER go into a patients room, to stay in the main hallway where the bouncers could see me. Towards the end of this rotation the charge nurse gave us 4 students, several patients that they thought could go for a walk outside on the grounds. I was assigned a male pt. The charge wouldn't let us review any records and didn't give report. So, we started to take these pts for a walk. My pt started to walk a little faster and faster until he was fairly ahead of us, when another pt said "I wonder why they let that fellow out? He's on suicide precautions!" As soon as this was said, my pt started running fast. I ran after him, just to keep my eye on him. About 5 minutes of running after him and totally losing him, I looked up in a tree and saw a human body hanging in a tree. I mean this person hung himself and was dead!!! I knew it couldn't have been my pt, not enough time to do that. I ran back to the group and then to the ward and reported the body. Had to take the officials back to the body and report what happened with my missing pt. Got back late to the school bus and my instructors gave me a U for the day, not because my pt got away or finding a hung body, I got the U for being late for the bus...I wasn't real fond of most of my instructors...they didn't have a lot of compassion.

Are you serious? What a horrible experience! And then got docked for missing the freakin bus? Man, it just takes all kind of people doesn't it? And I though I had it rough in school.....Nothing compared to this!!!!

[sgpala]

am ms p ,am going to start a new job in behavioral health and i dont know how its.pls help me to calm down.

[sgpala]

how many staff or tech will me in behaviral unit.whats will be RN/LPN JOBS.

[sgpala]

Whats Job For Rn/lpn In Behavoiral Health

[sgpala]

Whats Usual Medications In Psch Unit

[sgpala]

General Questions For Interview In Behavioral Health

[TrudyRN]

Safety first. Always.

There is no cure, it seems, only life improvement. The drugs have terrible side effects and patients quit them very quickly, sell them to get drugs, flush them, etc.

The mental health system is a big revolving door. Very sad.

Keep safe.

I agree, it's often easier and safer to play along with their delusions than to try to always be "therapeutic" by orienting them to reality. They do better with their own reality, it seems. Wow, my old Instructor would turn over in her grave if she heard me say that but there is no time or funding to really cure folks, even if there was a way to do it.

Give hope, be nice, do what you can to help. Keep safe.