UGH! I Hate Psychiatric Nursing ....

healthstar, BSN, RN · Sep 26, 2011

Psych was my nightmare

NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN · Sep 26, 2011

Not a big fan of psych myself. That is my last nursing course so I look forward to it for that reason alone!!!

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Oct 5, 2011

Not loving my psych nursing lecture OR clinical at all! It's by far my most uninteresting nursing course to date. I am so not ever going to go into psych nursing. Unfortunately I must somehow master its concepts as it is on NCLEX. This specialty is just not for me ... I prefer working with meds, IV's and wearing scrubs.
Just wondering if anyone else feels like me, misery loves company ...

A good number of your medical patients in a hospital are going to have psych issues as well. The ones in the psych facility are medical stable. A lot are NOT and those are in the hospital on the medical floors. It will do you very well and save from a lot of burn out to learn how to deal with these patients and to understand them.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Oct 5, 2011

We didn't have clinicals, but I really liked the lecture and made an A in it. I noticed most others in the class did not though. I had abnormal psychology back when I received my first degree several years ago, and although I made an A in it I thought it was boring.
I think the difference for me and the mental health/psych nursing class is that I've spent so long dealing with people in law enforcement is that I saw a practical application for everything the book and teacher mentioned. It wasn't just hocus pocus like a lot of classes are. Over time, experience had taught me many of the things the teacher was telling, but it was fun. I'd work in a psych environment. Heck, just in the last two hours I talked down a 17 year old wanting to kill himself and then dealth with a 14 year old diagnosed with O.D.D. who was fighting with his mother. Typical day in the neighborhood - nursing or not.

I think this is the problem a lot of students don't realize. The stuff they are learning in psych WILL come back when they are in the real world. It will become very practical. In fact in Jan/Feb we are opening a new floor in our hospital to better deal with these patients. The regular floors are getting overrun with ETOH withdrawals, SA, addiction, psychosis and so on. These patients are having valid medical problems so they are at the hospital. But the nurses don't know how to deal with them (because hey what do we need to learn psych for, I am gonna be in a hospital) and so the patients are not getting the care they need and the nurses are getting burnt out. They are spending a lot of money on sitters for a lot of these patients.

So they will have a unit with cameras in every room and that is where the acute care psych patients go to help ease the drain of the ED and the Medical floors.

Everyone at work is saying HECK NO I won't work on that floor. I think it would be cool to work on it PRN. I wouldn't want to be there daily because I really like my unit. But I wouldn't mind going for a couple shifts a month.

SarahMaria, MSN, RN · Oct 5, 2011

It's interesting that you said you prefer working with meds which I assume you are not doing on your psych rotation.

I work on a psych unit, and meds are an integral part of treatment. Given, they are different than on a medical unit.

Working with psych patients is more observation and communication than task work. It's just different.

SarahMaria, MSN, RN · Oct 5, 2011

For those of you who loved lecture and hate psych clinical, that is like watching a movie on driving a car rather than doing the real thing.

There is nothing like dealing with a schizophrenic who is attacking you and you having to put them in restraints. How can you learn that out of a book?

33762FL · Oct 5, 2011

You need to learn about psych even if you don't want to work in psych. You'll encounter these patients in all other areas of nursing. I work med-surg and I have patients with depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, restraints, ETOH withdrawal, etc. all the time. I give psych meds all the time. So do the readings, learn it well, and learn all you can from the rotation because you will definitely need this training.

NCRNMDM, ASN, RN · Oct 5, 2011

I hate psych too. I love critical care nursing, and I love working with patients who have actual medical diagnoses, but that doesn't change the fact that we have to get through the things we hate so that we can get on to the things we love. You won't be doing psych forever, and after nursing school and the NCLEX, no one is going to force you to work on a psych unit. However, you will find that a lot of your patients, no matter where you work, and their families, are psych patients. You may get an admit for a patient with pneumonia only to find out that he is bipolar, or you may be shocked to learn that your post-CABG patient is also schizophrenic. On the flip side, your patient may be totally sane, but the family members may have some psychiatric problems. Either way, chances are pretty good that you will be working with psych patients after you graduate regardless of what unit you work on. Also, the therapeutic communication skills you are learning now, and the ability to empathize with your patients and their families, will come in handy. As a nurse you will constantly be explaining a procedure, calming a patient's fears, trying to help a patient and family through a difficult time, helping someone come to terms with their diagnosis, and generally seeing people when they are at their worst. Many of the issues you will see as a nurse will have both a physical and an emotional component, and you must be adept and competent at handling both.

honeypie29 · Feb 21, 2013

I really didn't like my psychiatric nursing rotation. For one thing, I feel like my job mainly consisted of being a "drug pusher" and I didn't like the idea of putting people in restraints...I went into nursing to help people heal and feel better, not try to "control" them, like they do in psych