Mental health nursing does have its down time, even when I worked general acutes there was still lots of free time compared to our cousins in med/surg nursing.
So dig deep and share what activity you undertake most often at work in the nursing station that is not directly related to your nursing practice.
As I started this dodgy post I guess I need to get the ball rolling.
1)Reading the newspaper (that's a pychnurse's right of passage IMO)
2 )Browsing left over womans magazines e.g womans weekly, womans day. WHO weekly is my fav.
3) The internet. hmmm. Having two windows open, one on a nursing site the other on cheap airfares to a tropical island.
Just a few that come to mind.
Looking at it from another angle what have I seen people working on in the nursing. Knitting always makes me laugh. Getting paid to knit at a psych hospital (never on a day shift, more afternoons and nights). Crosswords is the other.
Cheers
Look forward to laughs from your replies.
Be honest and hope your charge nurse doesn't identify you in this forum :)
I'm at work right now. I work at a state hospital for the criminally insane. So although it is quite now (4:30 am), the plexiglass riot shield is propped up against the wall behind me, as I wait for the next code.
We never have down time on days or evenings...and anyone sitting around the office on those shifts gets dagger looks! We are very hands on so if you aren't doing anything else you are with the patients in the rec room or where ever the patients are but between meds, orders, phone calls, visitors, individual sessions, group (2x/shift), taking pts for offwards and tests, crisis management, charting, assessments, case management, patient supervision and more crisis management - those down times usually last about 30 seconds!
Nights is a different story - maybe 50% of nights are really busy and 50% have some down time. Usually I stare off into space or check emails or eat or chat with the other staff.
Is it really safe to have knitting needles on the psych ward? We weren't even supposed to have our stethescopes around our necks; could be used as a weapon against us!
When I was a nurse tech and floated to the psych ward I would watch the continuing education videos specific to behavioral med to sharpen my skills...if and when we had down time.
I honestly have very little down-time on my unit. I generally work the noc shift, and I'm the charge RN with an LPN and CNA for company. We get admits, intake calls, patients freaking out/puking/craving a fix at any and all hours. When I do get that precious hour or two that's slow, I catch up on my work emails, do CEUs, shovel some food in my face, and MAYBE chat with my 2 co-workers. I swear, my last shift it was like all the cops out there decided to bring in their arrests for that night.
when i worked psych i got on internet and did word puzzles/ crosswords.
Now i do home health and there is so much down time its crazy. AND YES I DO GET ALL my work done..hehe. it's very laid back there and my staffing managers have even told me i could study during downtime there. so thats good.
Well....I work ER and psych and with my down time I managed to go back to school and used the downtime for homework. When I finally got through my masters, now my down time is planning trips via internet, all nurses-and I am serious-i could spend hours reading on this site!!! I also bring books, magazines and occasionally I text message my other night owl friends (nights only). At one hospital, we brought in games such as card games, jenga, etc.
I do think med/surg is completely different and I agree with the other poster-I choose my work environment on how busy and how much work does this require. If I am at a place where I can say I have repeatedly not gotten a lunch break, do not have time to go the the bathroom, feel worn out and exhausted, then yes I move on. I am an RN and can find a better work environment!!! I use the nursing shortage to my advantage.
I think this post was suppose to be light and a fun post, however, some people cannot relax even in a chat room!!
Well....I work ER and psych and with my down time I managed to go back to school and used the downtime for homework. When I finally got through my masters, now my down time is planning trips via internet, all nurses-and I am serious-i could spend hours reading on this site!!! I also bring books, magazines and occasionally I text message my other night owl friends (nights only). At one hospital, we brought in games such as card games, jenga, etc.
I do think med/surg is completely different and I agree with the other poster-I choose my work environment on how busy and how much work does this require. If I am at a place where I can say I have repeatedly not gotten a lunch break, do not have time to go the the bathroom, feel worn out and exhausted, then yes I move on. I am an RN and can find a better work environment!!! I use the nursing shortage to my advantage.
I think this post was suppose to be light and a fun post, however, some people cannot relax even in a chat room!!
GOod Post!!:yeah:
And Kudos to you.
That was the idea, to get people talking about there down time and some of the antics they get up to. Some of the replies just paint the picture that your area of work place is too busy to have "down time". However if your happy grinding out a shift from the moment you hit the floor till the clock hits home time then kudos to you too.
chazman1040
18 Posts
I'm at work right now. I work at a state hospital for the criminally insane. So although it is quite now (4:30 am), the plexiglass riot shield is propped up against the wall behind me, as I wait for the next code.