To psych or not to psych

[Spurse32]

Hello. I am a nursing student about to approach my preceptorship experience. I have always been drawn to psych and I'm pretty sure I want to be a PMHNP so I'm trying to do my preceptorship in acute psych in a ER. I really like workning nights so I requested to work nights.

I guess my question is: Is acute psych a little too much for a precepting student to take on? Or if I do night shift, would it be not enough? I was on night shift in the ER during my clinicals and it seemed very slow in the psych bay. It seemed like all the patients were asleep. I could do mental health in a large mental health hospital but we are "bound to a facility" so if I wanted to go somewhere else I couldn't, I would be stuck with mental health for the remainder of my preceptorship.

Has anyone ever precepted someone in the acute psych center in the ER? When it's slow, did you allow your students to float and take on other patients in the ER? I want to do psych but I also don't want to neglect the medical side of things and I want to improve my skills. Yes, yes, I know this subject has been wrote about many many times on these forums but I'm just curious what you guys think. I love the pathophys of medical surgical/acute care/ER but I also love brain psychiatry and I just have a feeling I would be good at mental health.

My second and third options were psych in a mental health only facility and IMC. I haven't done peds clinicals yet so I might really like that.

Any feedback or suggestions is much appreciated...muchas gracias.

[cleback]

I've never worked in a ER psych arrangement that you describe but I think you would probably be better off PMS instead of nights. When I worked acute psych, nights could be really hectic with poop hitting the fan or, like you said, quiet with everyone sleeping. I think you would have more consistent learning experiences on PMs.

As for precepting on a medical floor instead, I think it depends on your goals. Of you want to work in a psych unit that does ECT or is part of a medical center, the medical experience would probably help, since you'd help prep and recover ECT patients and would most likely get transfers from medical floors. It's not necessary, but it's nice to be able to handle IVs and other basic medical concerns without consulting your medsurg colleagues.