thinking about trying child/adolescent psych...

170 Posts

so right now i'm a RN on an adult critical care unit, have been there a year. i enjoy the work very much but i work night shift 3 12s and i'm trying to figure out what my next move is.

when i was in nursing school we did rotations at Austin State Hospital and i spent a day in the CAPS unit and ever since then have thought about doing child/teen psych.

my question is this: how do i get my foot in the door? should i to to ASH and speak with them over there? do adult psych for awhile then transfer to peds? or am i better off transferring to a critical care unit at Dell for a year or so then going straight to peds psych at ASH? or can i go from where i am now to peds at ASH? is CAPS like L&D where basically you have to wait years and years to get in?? i am still willing to work nights or perhaps a mix of swing and nights.

should i get over all of this and just perhaps cut my hours back to 2 12s where i am? i enjoy the work alright but the love of my life is some sort of peds nursing and i really enjoyed what i saw at CAPS. i spent some time in therapy sessions, watched the staff take down a child who was trying to harm himself, played pool with some teens who talked with me about their abuse situations..i know the work would be very tough physically and emotionally but so is what i do now..

i heard thru the grapevine that ASH offers set scheduling and 8 hr shifts, both of which i would LOVE but i can't find anyone that will talk to me straight up about what they have. what are the benefits like? i googled "state of TX benefits" but can't find anything...i am tired of the crappy hospital "you have to earn your sick time" benefits. i make pretty well with diffs, etc but frankly, i don't care about the money. i know i will take a pay cut, probably a pretty hefty one..

if anyone is willing to share the good, bad, ugly of their tenure at ASH either here or privately that would be very helpful..

thanks for reading..