What to expect as a Psych PCA/PCT?

flpsych · Apr 10, 2011

Behavioral units can be really fun, really stressful, and rewarding. I start nursing school soon, too. I have 3 years combined experience in psych. An average day on a behavioral unit is filled with groups. Some programs have reward systems in place to reward good behavior, others don't. Med passes occur several times a day. As a tech you'll be the main contact with the patient. You will be charged with monitoring the patients at all times. You will most likely be assigned checking vital signs, charting on assigned patients, orienting new patients to your unit, being a gopher to fulfill patient/unit needs, assist with ADLs, and participating in psychiatric codes. The downside to psych experience is that many hospitals will not consider it as strongly as med/surg tech experience when looking at your resume. They feel there is not enough medical knowledge gained--but that is only if you do not try to glean this information. If you're motivated learn all the meds patients receive, learn what diseases/conditions they're for, look at lab results and intervals, look at the history & physical and learn what all the medical jargon means. The nurses I work with advise me to not go into psych off the bat from getting an RN. You want to build a true medical background so that you're prepared to deal with it. I have worked with lifetime long psych nurses that are clueless on basic medical things. If you need more specifics on behavioral health tech stuff let me know.

feeling · Apr 10, 2011

I just passed boards and I was a tech(PCA) on a behavioral sciences unit the whole time I was in nursing school. The last post was right, the nurses there are focused on psychiatric health, so medical surgical starts to become foreign to some of them. I know, your question was how is the position? I loved it, it was always something going on!! You do have to be careful, don't think because a patient liked you a minute ago, they will like you a minute later! They are unpredictable. Just always keep safety in mind, because that is the biggest thing in PSYCH- safety safety safety safety (for you and the patient).:p:p

Shanna M · Apr 28, 2011

Yep that pretty much sums it up. Where I work we are responsible for vitals, close observation of all Patients 5 times per hour, visiting hours/protocol, we do half of new admissions paperwork/interviewing, we run one group/class usually a goals group or some kind of coping skills group, assist Pt's and nurses with whatever they need help with, interview our patients once a shift on symptoms and just talk with them, chart behavior and responses of depression/anxiety/hallucinations levels etc, and we do the 1:1's on patients if we have them.