State psych hospital vs. Private hospital psych unit

[2ndChance]

Hello!

I was a psych nurse immediately after graduating nursing school, but only stayed a couple of months because of some family issues. That was almost 4 years ago, and since then I have done med/surg and critical care.

I have decided to go back into psych nursing (I was a psych major before my BSN) but I don't know if I should go back to a hospital's psych floor or if I should try to work at one of the state facilities. I have heard some terrible things about the state places, but I plan to pursue my psychiatric NP degree and think that the patients there would be "sicker" and give me better experience. Plus, the patients that I always was the most interested in were the acute schizophrenics, etc.

Can I get some advice on which type of facility you all think might have better working conditions, types of patients, etc? Any insights would be appreciated!

Thanks.

[NPAlby]

I'm a travel psych nurse pursuing my Psych NP. i've worked in state and "regular" medical centers on psych units and can't really say which is better as far as preparation for the NP. The one thing with state is that mandatation is pretty much a given but the benefits are better than most medical center. Also for most of my state experience (2different states) a lot of the patients were more chronic and long term so acuity wasn't as high on the general floors. I worked forensic admissions and that was a jumping floor where I learned a lot though. I would recommend working in a CPEP (Psychiatric Emergency Dept) at one point before becoming an NP. I'm working on one now and hate it but have learned so much. You learn more about admission criteria as well as work with different age groups (from grandma's to their grandkids) and learn about the resources within the community that you can refer patients to. Though without any psych experience I'm not sure it's the best place to start out. Let me know if you have any further questions and let us know which you ended up choosing.

[againmlg]

I'm a travel psych nurse pursuing my Psych NP. i've worked in state and "regular" medical centers on psych units and can't really say which is better as far as preparation for the NP. The one thing with state is that mandatation is pretty much a given but the benefits are better than most medical center. Also for most of my state experience (2different states) a lot of the patients were more chronic and long term so acuity wasn't as high on the general floors. I worked forensic admissions and that was a jumping floor where I learned a lot though. I would recommend working in a CPEP (Psychiatric Emergency Dept) at one point before becoming an NP. I'm working on one now and hate it but have learned so much. You learn more about admission criteria as well as work with different age groups (from grandma's to their grandkids) and learn about the resources within the community that you can refer patients to. Though without any psych experience I'm not sure it's the best place to start out. Let me know if you have any further questions and let us know which you ended up choosing.

Hi Rnalby,

I was searching the psych forum for any info on state vs private in-pt psych. Not sure if you'll see this question because it's an old thread....If you do, I have a quick question.

When you said mandation is pretty much a given at state psych hospitals...Do you meant mandatory overtime? Hope the travel psych is going well. Many thanks!

[luv2yoga]

I think she means the patient has been involuntarily committed to the institution.

[nurse15dc]

I think she means the patient has been involuntarily committed to the institution.

Thanks for chiming in luv2yoga! Yoga has helped me with job stress in the past.:loveya:

I was hoping to hear that mandatory OT wasn't still an issue. I'm getting to old (and too wise) to have work be the focus of my life.

[luv2yoga]

I love yoga, don't do it enough. It's hard trying to fit it in with nights! I'm just focusing on the regular workouts and that's hard enough. Yoga feels like extra, even though I know it really makes a difference mentally. When I go to days in October, this will change.