Want to be psych nurse

sanakruz, ADN · Oct 8, 2003

There are plenty of opportunities for you to do both I'm sure,

Psych is REAL nursing, dont doubt that.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Oct 11, 2003

As a person who went straight into psych nursing after graduation, this hits home. In my case, there was a nursing surplus when my class graduated, and a lot of us had trouble finding work. I landed a job on a new psych unit. I enjoyed the experience, and it was rewarding. My lack of acute care experience would later come back to bite me, however.

I later worked for a stand-alone mental health hospital that was abruptly closed by the parent company as a cost-cutting measure. Over 150 of us were thrown out of work at the same time. Most employers would not talk to me because I was "just a psych nurse". I didn't have that magical year of acute care experience that everyone wanted. In the state with the fewest nurses per 100,000 population, I drew unemployment compensation for three months because no one would hire me.

It is possible to do both. I highly recommend getting some acute care experience early in your career. Don't close too many doors, because you never know when you will need it.

Best of luck to you.

Larry77, RN · Oct 11, 2003

This is interesting because I have been planning on going into psych after I graduate too. I have a job lined up because I work on a psych unit as a CNA and they have already said they want to hire me when I graduate.

So you guys think we would have a hard time getting a job somewhere else if we don't have med/surg exp.? I have no interest in that kind of nursing.

Larry

psychrn25 · Oct 13, 2003

I went into psych nursing as a new grad. I would recommend if that is the area you would like to work in don't worry about being a new grad. I worked in an inpatient unit that was in a hospital. Believe me i got med/surg experience. I didn't get as much as i would have if i were on a med/surg unit but to me that was a good thing. I got my experience over the time i worked at that unit. In small doses, so i felt i actually had more ability to deal with the med/surg problems, because i was not rushed to deal with alot of them at the same time. I also had some wonderful nurses that worked with me and helped me anytime i needed them. I hope you decide to go with how you feel about psych, it is a wonderful field and we need nurses that truely love psych.

TitaniaSidhe · Oct 14, 2003

I went into Psych nursing straight out of college. I have & still do work on an acute admissions unit in a large federal hospital. Mind you, you will not have all the experiences you would have had working the year of med surg, but you will have medical experiences. I make it my business as a professional to keep my skills as current as I can. IV certification, certification in advanced life support. I have the crash cart out quite often on our unit. I draw blood from the patients who will let no unfamiliar person do so, or those in restraints who will fight you tooth and nail about having blood drawn when necessary. Unfortunately we get new admissions who are either to crazy/uncooperative or otherwise incapacitated to provide us with an thorough or accurate medical history. Just b/c one is in psych doesn't mean we do not have to deal with medical emergencies also....high or low bloodsugars, seizures, DTs, cardiac arrests, CHF, actual physical trauma from either a fight or attempt at self harm. You then have to keep in mind also there are some medical/neurological condition which can create psych emergencies which in turn has the MD sending the patient to us to "handle" Huntingtons, OBS, end stage HIV dementia.

Now days I am thinking anyone going into nursing would not have to worry about employment. Things are WAY too short & do not seem to be getting any better. Do not make the mistake that being a psych nurse means losing your medical skills. As a conciencious member of a profession it is an individuals responsibility to keep current. In psych one NEVER knows what they will find on any given day.

PsychNurseDee · Oct 14, 2003

I have been a psych nurse for 17 years. I went to psych straight out of college. I have to agree, it is important to keep up your medical skills because psych patients have medical issues too, and the psychotropics can cause or exacerbate some medical issues as well. I worked PT in med-surg and full time in psych for the first two years. Since then, I do my own education through CEs, journals, etc to keep up with new knowledge. Of course I haven't started an IV in years and am unfamiliar with new medical gadgets, but I think there will always be psych patients to keep me in a job.

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Oct 14, 2003

One thing that aggravates the devil out of me is the attitude of the psych nurses in the prison facility where I primarily work now. If any issue is the least bit medical, they shy away from it and call the infirmary nurses. Earlier this week, there was an inmate having an acute anxiety attack. He was not on the psych wing, but was on the opposite quad. The unit officer called the infirmary and told us that we needed to come to the unit to check the inmate out. He said that the psych RN on the unit refused to assess him because she didn't have his chart (a cop-out, because we wouldn't have had it either had we just walked in on the situation). The psych nurse would have had to walk about 50 feet to see this inmate. Instead, two of us had to travel halfway across they yard with the emergency bag to deal with what turned out to be a psychiatric issue.

I was primarily a psych nurse for most of my career (I still maintain my certification in psychiatry), and it did not make me stupid, erase what I learned in nursing school, or make me incapable of doing a physical assessment. The psych nurses I work around act as if they cannot comprehend any issue that is not behavioral. Coming from the same kind of background, I find this attitude both demeaning and insulting.