Role of Behavioral Health In-take nurse?

[2008RN]

I've been a nurse in MS since graduation in '08 and I'm ready for a change (and a job closer to home). A nearby hospital has a listing for 'Behavioral Health In-take' and I was wondering what the duties of the RN in this position might be, any ideas? The position description is rather vague. Thanks!!

[2008RN]

Anyone have any ideas about this? Is it basically doing admissions?

[Davey Do]

2008RN:

An Intake Nurse usually does just that: They perform the Initial Screening and Assessment on potential patients.

At the State Hospital, an Outside Entity would do the initial Psychiatric Screening. Then, at the State Hospital, the Admission Nurse would do both a Psychiatric and Medical assessment on admission to the Facility. The Admission Nurse would also coordinate the sevices according to the Medical Doc and the Psychiatric Doc.

In the Community Hospital, the Intake Nurse assesses the Individual for Inpatient Services. Or, refers the Individual to an appropriate Outpatient Resource. Master Level Social Workers also perform these duties. However, the Nurses have the added advatage of being able to identify areas of medical concern and can take Admission Orders from the Psychiatric Doc.

Everybody and their Dad usually knows the Psychiatric's Patients precipitating reason for admission: Some kind of behavior. It was, and continues to be, the major area of focus.

In the past, all too often, sadly, Medical factors were missed. Medical issues are a major responsibilty of the Intake Nurse, as they should be. Let the Therapists focus on all the Hoopla. We need to address Medical conerns.

I hope this gives you some idea of the Intake Nurse's duties, 2008RN. Good luck to you in your endeavor

Dave