Taking the first step

You sound alot like me. I worked as a psych tech for a couple of years then decided I wanted to further my education in the area of psych. I debated whether to major in psychology or nursing and was advised by others working in psych that I could do more (and make more $$$) with nursing degree rather than a psych degree. So I got a bachelors degree in nursing and became a psych nurse. You can make a decent living as a psych nurse and the pay is the same as other areas of nursing. Over the past 20 years I have worked as a psych nurse jobs have become more and more difficult to find as psych hospitals have closed, psych units in general hospitals have closed and outpatient mental health clinics have closed. The jobs for psych nurses are still out there but they are nowhere as numerous as they once were.

A couple of years after I got my nursing degree I went back to school to get a masters degree in psychology. I worked while going to school and after a year I found that psych at work and psych at school was too much psych!!!! So I changed my major to health care administration and got my masters in that area. With this degree I worked in various management and administrative positions at inpatient and outpatient psych facilities.

I am now going to be starting law school with the goal of working in mental health law. So I would say that a bachelors degree in nursing and working as a psych nurse is a good foundation from which you can move into other areas in the psych field!

Good luck!!!

thank you for your reply. i must start from scratch. I know nothing of how to even get started. Can a person get a RN with only a 2 year degree? Is that what is meant when i read that a person had a ADN? is that Associates degree-nursing? Also you have me a little worried about the potential for employment. I live in florida where psych facilities are all but gone, but my wife is joining the military and i will go to school and most likely get my first job in nursing where we get stationed. So i go to school, get an associates in nursing, and then what? do i just decide to apply for psych nurse jobs?, do i tell someone at school that i am wanting to go into psyche nursing?, would i need to take other courses in school? I need to know the very basics. I have read this whole forum on psych nursing. It seems that evryone asking the same question i did, got an answer that didnt really answer their question. Treat me as a child, for i know nothing about this from the get-go. If you or anyone else can ellaborate on this more for me it would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, you can become a RN with a 2 year degree which is an ADN. This is an Associates degree in nursing. I don't know how ADN programs work because I was in a Bachelors program for nursing. But in my program we chose an area of nursing we wanted to specialize in and we had all of our clinicals (where you do hands on nursing in the hospital or community) during our senior year in our speciality area. This included a semester long internship in our speciality area. I don't think that they do this in ADN programs but I would let them know from the start that you want to go into psych nursing.

You don't need any special courses or training to get a job as a psych nurse. Just graduate from an ADN program, pass the NCLEX and apply away. Since you have worked as a psych tech that will look good on your resume and will work to your advantage in getting a job as a psych nurse. Another thing that will help to your advantage in getting a psych job is to volunteer for organizations where you interact with individuals with psych problems such as Special Olympics.

Hopefully wherever your wife gets stationed there will be psych employment opportunities. Though inpatient psych jobs are getting fewer you can still find empolyment in outpatient settings such as commuity mental health centers, group homes, jails, mental health rehabilitation centers, etc.

Psych nursing also encompasses working in chemical dependency/substance abuse, forensics and with the developmentally disabled. There are employment opportunities working in inpatient and outpatient settings in these areas.

Hope this answers your questions. If you have any more questions just ask!

Thank you so much psychoRN, you have been a great help. I did not mention that I was a sheriff deputy for 3 years, and worked in jails and in a prison as a correctional officer. I saw many psych nurses there, so with that backround I may get lucky in the correctional psych nursing huh? Anyway, thanx again and keep fighting the good fight, i should be there shortly to help.

Do you have a degree already? If so, you might be better off looking into a second-degree program or an accelerated program and getting a BSN. If the reason that you wanted to be a psychologist is that you want to pracitce psychotherapy, you should know that while psych nurses engage in therapeutic interactions with their patients, they do not provide therapy per se.

If you have the means and the time, you might want to look into getting your BSN and then going on for an MSN in psych/mental health. As a psych/MH nurse practitioner you will be more marketable, able to provide therapy, and, in most places, able to prescribe medications for your patients. If you're going to be on or near military bases, I'm thinking that there will be plenty of positions for mental health specialists once some of these service men and women start coming back from Iraq with PTSD and the substance abuse issues that go along with it.

Whether you go the ADN or BSN route, you don't have to decide what your area of interest is. My schools (started at one, finished at another) provided straight nursing education in all areas (you'll have to do OB-GYN, peds, everything) and unlike the previous poster, you did not concentrate you clinical time anywhere. You might even find, once you get into school, that you totally love a different area than psych. Hey, I was planning to be a NICU nurse when I started school.

Good luck with your new career and your little girl.

luci