Tampa, Florida: Psychiatric Inpatient Care or Mental Health Hospital??

[VU RN BSN]

hello nurses!

first of all, i have never worked as an rn in the mental heath field or in psychiatric nursing. but, after 4 years, i'm still trying to find my niche in nursing, and some nurses have suggested to me that i should try psych.

i live in the tampa bay area of florida. hillsborough county to be exact.

to be perfectly honest, i don't even know which hospitals in my area have inpatient psychiatric units? i'm not certain if tampa bay has any mental health hospitals or mental health treatment centers?

just curious if there are any psychiatric nurses reading this who have worked in the mental health field in the tampa bay area of florida and can offer me any suggestions??

and if a registered nurse has never worked in the psychiatric / mental health field before, where is the best place to start?

[ZooMommyRN, ADN, RN]

If you're open to relocating slightly, Lakeland Regional Medical Center has an inpatient psych unit, also between your area and mine are several places called Tri-County Human Svcs, they deal in dual-diagnosis & drug/alcohol dependencies, I know of an office in Polk county just N of Highlands, I think they have one in Lakeland and possibly one near you. Good Luck!

[Bean79]

Hey there! I used to work in the Mental Health Field (not as nurse but as a counselor) in Tampa and there are a lot of Mental Health facilities you can look into. St Joseph's hospital and Memorial Hospital both have a psychiatric units. There is also MHC Inc. which has SRT units and lock down units (mostly for acute cases) and they employ nurses. I personally use to work for Northside Mental Health Center in Tampa (norsidemhc.org) and they occassionally are looking for RNs and LPNs for there unit there. There are some other programs and hospitals in the surrounding areas as well such as in Clearwater and St petersburg. Hopefully this helps, and Good Luck!