So What do You Do???

[SweetLemon]

So I am a brand new nurse and have been employed as a psych nurse for the last three weeks. With quite a few months of friends and family pestering me if I had a job yet I am excited I finally get to say yes, I am a real nurse and getting paid for it too.

But, I have been really annoyed as I explain to people what kind of nursing I went into and where I work. I am getting so many side ways looks and "really why psych" (disgustedly). The funny part is prior to taking this job I thought I was going into pediatric nursing and every time I told that to someone you would have though I was Mother Theresa or something!?!?! I mean don't get me wrong Peds is also an amasing specialty but whats wrong with psych? Is it not a legitiment speciatly in nursing... I try to explain (and Educate) people as to why I went into psych and what all it entails but still never seem to get my point quite across.

Any hints or tips from nurses with more experience.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

There's a big stigma against psych patients AND psych nurses. People who work it know how much nursing it requires, though, and know what a tough job it is. You have to develop a thick skin to other people's attitudes and negative comments, and continue to educate them about what's what. I think sometimes family members have an attitude because they worry you might get hurt, too. That needs education as well. Good luck. It's really a blessed job lots of times. I've always loved it (well, there were some days I didn't enjoy allll of it, but that happens in any job)!

[inthesky]

I got that too!! People have very irrational ideas of what 'psych patients' are like and how the units run. I got the reaction you are describing so much that I started challenging people about their reactions and attempting to educate them. I have never understood what makes psych more depressing than hospice or sick kids and newborns.

[Jules A, MSN]

I ignore them. I love my job and get paid well for doing it so I could give a rip what others think.

[RochesterRN-BSN, BSN, RN]

People who may say it is not real nursing I like to point out that psych nursing requires a different kind of thinking. Being able to figure out what is wrong with a patient and how to help them when they can't always tell you what they need or do they know what they need. In medical nursing if you want to know whats wrong you draw blood, get a scan, do some sort of test and you will get concrete answers. Psych is much more gray-- the answers are not handed to us in the form of a test result--we have to figure out what is what. So there is skill-- cognitive skills. Communication skills.