how to do well in psych clinical

Whispera, MSN, RN · Jan 16, 2012

I teach psych clinicals. Hey, maybe you're in my class!! Anyway, you will probably have pre-and post-conference (talk about the day to come and what happened during it). While with the patients, you be doing psychiatric assessments, mental status exams, practicing communication skills, doing whatever needs to be done for patients' physical and emotional care, and observing like a little fly on the wall....

You'll also be learning medications and about the treatments that are used. You'll go to groups to learn what happens in them....

elkpark · Jan 17, 2012

My best advice is to go in with a good, positive attitude, make an effort to stay busy, and make an effort to learn as much as you can while you're there. Students often post here about how they didn't do anything in psych clinical, just sat around and talked with people -- having taught psych clinical in several different settings over the years, I can tell you that you will get out of your psych clinical just about as much as you expect to, and as you put into it. If you look at it as "just" having meaningless conversations with people to kill time, you won't learn anything. If you use the time wisely and effectively as an opportunity to learn about assessing mental status, learning about the various psychiatric diagnoses, learning about how different diagnoses and symptoms affect people's lives and perceptions, learning about the experience of living with a chronic mental illness and the stigma associated with that, dealing effectively with people's emotions and feelings, and developing your therapeutic communication skills, you can learn a great deal that will benefit you greatly wherever you end up practicing in nursing. Best wishes!