Wanting To Gain Adsmissions To NP Psychiatric Nursing Program

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Seeking advice as a young in experience nurse. I am a nurse just about to finish my second year on a Med/Surg unit at a county facility and working towards my BSN which I will finish in a year. I enjoy the patient interaction and think I have been pretty successful in my first two years. On a nightly basis I have at least one psych patient in my run and often times I have multiple psych patients in my run. With these patients come a wide variety of psychiatric issues in addition to their medical issues. I have been involved in take downs, the application of medication on emergency basis, the application of restraints in certain situations, reorienting patients, and talking patients down when agitated and in crisis. I really enjoyed my psych rotation while in school and originally was to be hired as a psych nurse, but the position was eliminated. I come from a family where everyone is in the medical field, mostly in behavioral health. Can you offer me any suggestions which could help me reach my goal?

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On 3/14/2019 at 9:59 PM, Karmat said:

Seeking advice as a young in experience nurse. I am a nurse just about to finish my second year on a Med/Surg unit at a county facility and working towards my BSN which I will finish in a year. I enjoy the patient interaction and think I have been pretty successful in my first two years. On a nightly basis I have at least one psych patient in my run and often times I have multiple psych patients in my run. With these patients come a wide variety of psychiatric issues in addition to their medical issues. I have been involved in take downs, the application of medication on emergency basis, the application of restraints in certain situations, reorienting patients, and talking patients down when agitated and in crisis. I really enjoyed my psych rotation while in school and originally was to be hired as a psych nurse, but the position was eliminated. I come from a family where everyone is in the medical field, mostly in behavioral health. Can you offer me any suggestions which could help me reach my goal?

Proofread what you write and get some experience in psychiatry. You say you have been involved in "takedowns." This in itself indicates the need for more experience.

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Sorry Seco: Didn't mean to offend, but wrote this after working multiple days and on the spur of the moment. I realized the mistakes after I hit the submit button. Maybe my usage the phrase "takedowns" was a little clumsy, but in an emergency when a psych patient on a 5250 is running down the hallway chasing a charge nurse, I have had occasion to grab them before they physically assault the charge nurse and call the appropriate doctor to get an order for restraints and medication while waiting for security and the deputies to show for assistance.

I came to nursing after graduating from U.C. Berkeley and a 20 year career in Insurance. I have taken your advice and am now working in Corrections. I will apply next year to an NP Psych program maybe in the Northern California area.

Thanks for your help.

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