I know this topic gets beaten to death so I apologize...
I graduated with a BA in psych in 2012 and began working as a case manager with the SPMI population in residential settings, which got me headed down the road of clinical psychology.
In the last few years I've moved to the UK, where I've been working as an Assistant Clinical Psychologist on an acute inpatient psych ward for about 2 ish years. I'm not sure of a US-equivalent (I'd never heard of it before) but basically I'm working under the supervision of a Clinical Psych - I run therapy groups on the ward, deliver/score assessments (Becks inventories, SCID, etc), and do 1:1 therapy. Our ward is short admission and the usual mix of clients are borderline/antisocial PD, psychotic illnesses and mood disorders. I also work as a mental health tech on the weekends on the same ward, because it's very understaffed.
I try to make sure I'm working closely not only with the psych department but with the nurses and techs. In addition to doing the therapy work I've been able to sit in on ward rounds, learn how to take vital signs (pathetic I know, but I was excited ) and unfortunately have had the experience of restraining patients, putting them into seclusion, etc.
Anyway, this has gotten me thinking that I might be interested in psych nursing instead, but I'm not sure if I have illusions of the job because I'm feeling a little let down by my role in psychology. Doing 1:1 therapy on an acute ward means you see very little progress in such a short space of time, and to be honest although I enjoy it, I don't find it as fulfilling as I imagined. When I think about doing outpatient therapy and having patients come once per week to my office for sessions, I don't quite feel excited about that either.
I like more hands on patient interaction, the idea of writing care plans, meeting with them daily, developing that rapport...I know that nursing on our ward seems to involve a hell of a lot of documentation and reports, and the nurses often complain they don't get much patient time but I'm not sure if that's specific to our (understaffed) ward or not.
The drawbacks I'm envisioning so far is the general nursing side of things (weak stomach, would have to get over that) and that I may not have a hand in the group therapies like the psychs do.
Basically I'm moving back to the US next year and trying to figure out my options and where my passion lies. I have a lot of research to do but it looks as though I could maybe apply for accelerated BS programs in nursing? After that, do you need to go through a separate program to qualify for psychiatric nursing or is that more of a "learn through experience" discipline?
Any advice is really appreciated as I'm just beginning to think about this path. I'm going to speak with some of the nurses on our ward about their roles as well.
Hi, thank you for sharing! Your job sounds so interesting - I'd never considered nursing in a forensic setting. I've had some experience working with clients who have Antisocial PD diagnoses and I find them fascinating although I'm not sure how I'd handle working with so many of them at once! I definitely don't expect rehab-treatment-discharge because sadly in our hospital we tend to see a lot of the same patients over and over, like a revolving door...it's a bit disheartening on one hand but I suppose you become more and more familiar with them each admission and learn new things.
Overall would you say you enjoy your job?
It'a a state run facility so it's 99.9% paper charting. And diagnoses run from bipolar to basically psychopath. We also have a lot of notorious patients who've been on the news. It can be very frustrating bc you know the majority of them aren't going to get better. Some are sentenced for life. It's interesting and I enjoy it most days. Some days, I ask myself why I bother. And it's not a job I'd want to do for life bc it's so mentally draining. I liked it better than the inpatient psych unit at a local hospital that I did my rotation on. There, it honestly felt like a lot of rich people with issues saying they felt suicidal and just needed to get away from home for a few days. Not saying there weren't legit issues, but nowhere near what i currently deal with.
Anyway, good luck. Mental health issues are everywhere regardless of what area you end up in.
I'm going out on a limb here but I might suggest that you consider your LONGER-term goals. Don't know your age, but if you've a long working career ahead of you, you prob should have to consider Master's preparation in nsg.
You've got psych experience, but for upward career opportunities (mobility and promotional) in advanced nsg, you'll most likely need the MSN. Might as well just start thinking & looking into that educational direction to avoid the freq starting & stopping, starting & stopping, and starting & stopping for educational career changes.
And you'll need to consider finances. You may not qualify for some monies if you received them previously.
) and unfortunately have had the experience of restraining patients, putting them into seclusion, etc.
GeminiNurse29
130 Posts
It'a a state run facility so it's 99.9% paper charting. And diagnoses run from bipolar to basically psychopath. We also have a lot of notorious patients who've been on the news. It can be very frustrating bc you know the majority of them aren't going to get better. Some are sentenced for life. It's interesting and I enjoy it most days. Some days, I ask myself why I bother. And it's not a job I'd want to do for life bc it's so mentally draining. I liked it better than the inpatient psych unit at a local hospital that I did my rotation on. There, it honestly felt like a lot of rich people with issues saying they felt suicidal and just needed to get away from home for a few days. Not saying there weren't legit issues, but nowhere near what i currently deal with.
Anyway, good luck. Mental health issues are everywhere regardless of what area you end up in.