What's the Most Common Reason for a Patient to be Readmitted on a Psych Floor?

AlwaysAnxious · Sep 16, 2019

On 3/13/2019 at 8:57 AM, hppygr8ful said:
First and foremost relax and breath. Being a new nurse is tough. Being a new Psych Nurse is tougher! As with any brand new nurse it's going to take a solid year before you really feel like you know what you are doing. Right now you don't even know what you don't know. Each day you will learn something new and Psych patients have a lot to teach you. There are fellow nurses who are unpleasant everywhere. I do not like to use the term bullies as I mostly chock this behavior up to personality conflict. Watch your co-workers and emulate those whose style you like. Find out who is willing to mentor a new nurse. I am a new hire mentor where I work and any new nurse in their first year can use me as a resource to bounce thoughts and ideas off as well as just to vent about the job. IMHO all hospitals and facilities should have this resource.
I would also like to say that you need to establish good boundaries with your patients and co-workers. Find a way to develop a good Work life balance. While I have many friends at work. I don't mix and socialize outside of work. No one has my cell phone number but the boss and one or two others. Unless I want to work my phone goes on "Do not disturb"from work calls the minute my shoes hit the parking lot. You need to eat right, sleep well, get regular exercise and make time for something fun.
I combine all of these into working my vegetable garden and the added bonus is fresh, organic vegetables almost all year long as I live in Southern California
Hope this helps
Hppy

Hi Hppy, thanks so much for the advice. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in the self-care part. I always came home late so I slept late, never had time to eat so I would fill up on junk to keep myself full, didn't have time to go to the gym anymore, always felt stressed out and fatigued and dreaded going to work. So sadly, I'm calling it quits and leaving my job. I just feel really depressed and sad because most of the people I've worked with, including my manager, say they want me to stay and loved having me because I always worked so hard, but they don't know how unhealthy and unhappy I've become and most of it was caused by working this job... I feel a lot of guilt and shame for quitting because I'm a newbie and didn't make it to a full year, but I feel like if I don't quit, I might actually end up permanently ill. -sigh-

penelopelp · Sep 16, 2019

Most of my work has been with adolescents. The issue is that their problems aren’t something that can be easily fixed in a short acute hospital stay. Many of them have been sexually abused. Most have suffered some kind of abuse/neglect or a huge loss. We don’t have a magic pill for that. In many cases, they are going home to family situations that are less than ideal.

penelopelp · Sep 16, 2019

Most of my work has been with adolescents. The issue is that their problems aren’t something that can be easily fixed in a short acute hospital stay. Many of them have been sexually abused. Most have suffered some kind of abuse/neglect or a huge loss. We don’t have a magic pill for that. In many cases, they are going home to family situations that are less than ideal.

BTW, there are some really good psych nurses out there who will be happy to mentor you if they know you are willing to learn!! I was once a new nurse and working in psych. Yea, there were some nurses who weren’t so nice. There was one who completely bullied me. A lot of them seem harsh at first, but they are really nice once you get to know them. In general, nurses like to be helpful. So I you tell them that you need help, most will be willing to help you.

Just be willing to be a sponge and take in what people are telling you. A lot of the psych techs have a great amount of experience and they can really help you out in a tough situation. Of course you’ll make some mistakes along the way—everybody makes mistakes. Just remember safety is always the first priority, and you’ll be fine.

TCASII, ADN · Sep 18, 2019

On 2/28/2019 at 9:59 PM, AlwaysAnxious said:
Apparently, there's a huge problem with psych patients being readmitted to the hospital for treatment. What's the main reason for it? Most common reason for readmission?

EMTALA, malingering, partial malingering, noncompliance. To be honest, most of the patients I see are homeless and substance abusers. The majority have no desire to get better. They make a mockery of the system and don't even try when they discharge. They use the hospital as a hotel with meds, a social network setting (drug connections) and hook-up joint. They know that reporting suicidal or homicidal ideation is a bed.

And frankly, the providers enable them. I have dozens each week who report "detox", yet only left the same hospital a few days prior. 95% of the time they are prescribed buprenorphine and/or a benzo. There is zero accountability or moral practice in mental health treatment nowadays.

AlwaysAnxious · Dec 8, 2019

On 9/16/2019 at 6:28 PM, penelopelp said:
Most of my work has been with adolescents. The issue is that their problems aren’t something that can be easily fixed in a short acute hospital stay. Many of them have been sexually abused. Most have suffered some kind of abuse/neglect or a huge loss. We don’t have a magic pill for that. In many cases, they are going home to family situations that are less than ideal.
BTW, there are some really good psych nurses out there who will be happy to mentor you if they know you are willing to learn!! I was once a new nurse and working in psych. Yea, there were some nurses who weren’t so nice. There was one who completely bullied me. A lot of them seem harsh at first, but they are really nice once you get to know them. In general, nurses like to be helpful. So I you tell them that you need help, most will be willing to help you.
Just be willing to be a sponge and take in what people are telling you. A lot of the psych techs have a great amount of experience and they can really help you out in a tough situation. Of course you’ll make some mistakes along the way—everybody makes mistakes. Just remember safety is always the first priority, and you’ll be fine.

Hi penelopelp, thanks for sharing! I did learn a lot from the RNs that had good work ethics and were team players, but sadly they were outnumbered by the bad ones. But what made the floor impossible to work on were the techs actually fighting with the RNs and not doing their jobs and the unsafe patient ratios. So basically the RN ended up doing every single thing. I've had multiple times were I would be the only RN on duty with two techs and 15 patients. It was too much esp when I had an admission or two coming. I decided that this wasn't worth the money or losing my license so I quit. I know I did a bang-up job because the people that mattered were upset that I was leaving and told me that I was one of the best RNs they've ever had so I'm happy I left on a very good note. Even though I'm a newbie, I know I deserve to work with my kind--hard-nosed, highly responsible team players with strong work ethics. So now, I couldn't care where I go next, just as long as I get to work with like-minded folk that put 110% in when they clock in.