Starting in May

[stram87]

So I got hired for a per diem position at a stand alone psych hospital. I do not have any psych experience at all. I currently work in critical care. The orientation is less than a week. I believe 3-4 days. I think they keep you on probation for awhile and give you less patients or different assignments. I'm not sure exactly yet. But my question is what can I do to prepare for working in this field? Any tricks/secrets?

[flpsych]

Stand alone psych facilities may (or may not) mean having no true medical resources. The facility I work at has to send people to a medical facility for some of the most basic procedures, med clearances, etc. Your ICU experience will be helpful because many nurses are rusty on their medical stuff and you'll be expert on any medical codes. You are definitely stepping into a different world from the ICU. Prepare to get cussed at, spit on, swung at--hopefully you'll have a good team to keep that to a minimum

[zoogsRN]

I work in a stand alone psych hospital currently, and if there's a real medical problem you'll definitely come in handy! We had two people in my orientation coming from critical care, and the main problems they had was the difference in charting (charting mood, interactions, etc instead of labs and physical status), and one seemed afraid of the patients and didn't want to interact with them very much. They pick up on that! Good luck to you.