How many california nurses here work at a hospital where they mass fired techs after the new ratios were passed? Having only one tech on the floor for a 24 bed unit has been exhausting, especially on an acute adolescent unit.

I am a tech right now as I am in school for nursing. The hospital I work at requires a bachelors degree in a human service field to be a mental health tech. Why do we make so much less than nurses than nurses with the same amount of education, just a different type of education? For example, we have a new grad nurse on one of the units I work in and they do not know very much about psych disorders and non medical preventions, treatment, and causes. But us with a degree in psychology had to study and learn those things. Basically, it seems like we have the same amount of knowledge, just in different sides of frontline psych treatment.
Is it a hot take that nurses and techs should make the same?

Hi yall,

So i recently secured a job as a new grad which starts next week! I am so incredibly excited, you may recognize me from another post I had made.

I have been beginning to have some anxiety lately because I had an unfortunate instance where my birth control method failed and I am at risk of becoming pregnant--i should be able to confirm in a week or two. I am married and stable, but I didnt anticipate the birth control to fail. My anxiety stems from a sort of shame about getting my first job brand new and then possibly having to go on maternity leave in 9 months or so--i feel strangely embarrassed. Would i look like a bad employee? Would it negatively affect my ability to learn? Probably. I feel so awful about it.

I wholeheartedly welcome a baby between me and my husband, I just hoped I'd have more time to get settled into being a nurse. Shoot. Please no shaming me, ive already told myself everything anyone else could say. I am just seeking support and any comments that may relieve some anxiety. I have been reading about how in the US there's many protections for pregnant nurses. I am glad for that, but a lot of my shame is just around my unlucky birth control failure and feeling irresponsible.

I have a ton of family support and could easily return to working full time after I recover. Is there hope for me to still be a good nurse and perform well in my career if I end up being pregnant?

I still dont know if I am or not have have 0 symptoms so far, but I will not be able to confirm for 1-2 weeks.

I’m a new nurse, working in psych for about a year, and I’m working on the great practice problem for my BSN and new grad residency. Does anybody work on a unit that provides specific education for patients prior to events of aggression/violence that outlines the possibility of seclusion/restraint for patient safety?

Hello,

I am interviewing for this position for a nurse residency at a facility that I think would be awesome to work at. My city doesn’t have a lot of opportunities for new graduates, so it makes me even more desperate to get this job. I know psych is my field, and I know I can be at this facility for a long time. I’m wondering what questions you faced so I can put my best foot forward. I know I’m passionate about this field, but I don’t want to be caught off guard by something 😭

I’m a new grad and I’ve come to love my experience so far working as a nurse in my psych facility. However, while looking around other psych hospitals here in LA, I noticed that most of them start off new grads at a base rate of $40-$45/hr. Is that common pay for psych everywhere else, especially in California? If it is, why is that?

I interview tomorrow morning for a DON position at an Adult Residential and Mental Health Facility. Patient population is 1370 - incompetent to stand trial. I’ve been a charge nurse for 2 years at a PHF, and do most of the chart audits, legal log / hold audits, assign staff their daily duties, manage patient behaviors, seclusion events, manage staff, and all the typical nurse duties (coordinate/communicate with doctors, tx plan review, admin meds, etc etc). I’m very nervous about tomorrow, and want some feedback from you guys as to what your red flags would be for a company? Being DON is a huge responsibility and risk, I want to be sure it’s worth it. I love what I do now, I however do not love my current management (VERY laissez-faire in the worst ways possible), and I do not love the idea of NOC shift for much longer (my current shift).

Currently in nursing school- interested in becoming a psych nurse. Does anyone have any insights into the west coast job market? I am currently located in the PNW and open to moving, but hoping not to if possible. It seems like pysch might be a little easier to land than some other specialties.

there is someone in my psych preceptorship with this and it’s kinda wild. She genuinely just loves being a patient so will pretend to have various types of illnesses. How does psych deal with this? because as far as I can tell, it’s not something that is being challenged

This thread is for non psych healthcare workers to ask questions (former patients, patient advocates, and those who stumbled upon r/psychnursing). Prospective healthcare workers and current students do not need to use this thread. Treat responding to this post as though you are making a post yourself.

If you would like only psych healthcare workers to respond to your "post," please start the "post" with CODE BLUE.

Psych healthcare workers who want to answer will participate in this thread, so please do not make your own post. If you post outside of this thread, it will be locked and you will be redirected to post here.

A new thread is scheduled to post every Monday at 0200 PST / 0500 EST. Previous threads will not be locked so you may continue to respond in them, however new "posts" should be on the current thread.

Kindness is the easiest legacy to leave behind :)

Hi my beautiful psych community! Today I was a 1:1 with a violent patient. He had two BERTs today, one in which he punched another patient. 20 minutes after that incident was over, the NP showed up to do her daily assessment. Since I was his 1:1, I was sitting in his doorway, and she closed the door on me. I opened the door and reminded her that I was his 1:1, so needed to be able to see him, and she said "We don't need 1:1s while an NP is present", and then closed the door again. A few minutes later I hear the patient punching the wall, and the NP immediately exits the room saying she was "turning care back over" to me. I've never had a provider shut the door on me during a 1:1. Is this usual? I think I'm also questioning this NP in particular, because a few weeks ago I overheard her telling a patient she thought our 15 minute checks during her consultations were "annoying".

There is a certain client with a diagnosis of BPD who is fixated on me. She is extremely violent and requires restraints almost daily. I've only worked on her unit a handful of times, but she despises me. When she sees me she postures and threatens to assault me. She has made up multiple false complaints about me. I haven't been on her unit for days, and she is constantly talking about me to the other staff and voucing her desire to harm me. I am worried about her looking me up and stalking me post discharge.

The HRO and some of the staff are not the wisest and I wouldn't put it past them to provide my full name. Actually I'm not sure if the HRO is required to provide her with my full name when she makes complaints. I have an uncommon name so I would be easy to find with Google.

I'm not even sure why she decided to fixate on me. She really likes the male staff and it's possible she saw me interacting with a male that she fancies. But there's no way to know with this type of client.

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced with being stalked post discharge.

My psychiatrist has closed it’s clinic and now i’m kind of out of options because i can’t find psychiatrist from the region to get an appointment to have my adhd meds checked and prescribed again. I talked to my mom about it and she thinks it would be finde asking a psychiatrist in my clinic to referr me to another colleague they know. She works in psychiatric nursing as well but im skeptical of the image i paint if i ask them for help. Does anybody have experience with that?

I’m a nurse with several months experience in inpatient psych. I have a coworker who is known to be, well, rather abrasive in their patient interactions. They’re a stickler for the rules and frequently escalate rather than deescalate when a pt is agitated and rude toward them. Even in casual interactions, this nurse can come off as rude and not very empathetic. Now don’t get me wrong, she has good qualities too, but she racks up a lot of pt complaints.

My question is, what is the therapeutic response when a pt complains to me about her behavior toward them? It comes up often enough. I’ve had pts get taken back or upset and say something like wow, why is she so rude, etc. I see where they’re coming from when I witness the behavior, but obviously I’m not about to throw my coworker under the bus. It makes for an awkward interaction when I want to validate the pts feelings or actually just have a neutral response or acknowledgment of their concern. Any advice? Thank you.

*your, not you’re

Hi everyone! I'm a BHT. I graduate from nursing school in a few months with my BSN, and then will be a psych nurse at the same facility I currently work at. I recently came across a situation that's new to me. I work on a high-acuity adolescent unit, and one of our patients was supposed to discharge the day before her birthday. Well, she wound up having a panic attack right before discharge, and said some concerning things, and thus her stay was extended. She was understanding, but upset that she would have to spend her birthday in the psych hospital. Due to this, I wanted to make her day extra special. She doesn't have the best relationship with her parents, and they hadn't confirmed whether or not they would be visiting to celebrate. I went out to the dollar store and bought some decorations for the nurse's station (I asked her doctor if we could possibly decorate her door and got a no due to safety concerns, so nurse's station it was), and also coordinated for her to get a slice of cake from the cafeteria. As I was hanging the decorations at the nurse's station, the charge nurse got onto me and said celebrating birthdays was crossing a boundary, so not to do it in the future. I could see if I was buying gifts for the patient on some random day, and paying them extra attention for no good reason, but in my mind everyone deserves to be celebrated on their birthday, especially kids. The patient really loved seeing the decorations when she came up to get her medicine, and said it made her day a lot better. What's you guy's thoughts on this? Do you celebrate birthdays at your facility, or is that crossing a boundary?

Hi all, interviewing for a position on an inpatient adolescent psych unit. I haven’t gotten specifics yet as to what the type of unit is/acuity, and this would be my first job in psych. (I have 9months in med surg so far.)

I am wondering what kind of questions I should ask, so that I can better understand this role. I am also wondering what safety considerations I need to be aware of to ensure I’ll be on a safe, quality unit.

Basically, what questions should I ask to make sure this place isn’t a bad place to work, or a bad place for patients to heal.

Thank you all!

Image in comments

Hi everyone,
CA psych nurse here. I’ve worked at 16 bed PHF for almost 2 years now as a charge nurse. There’s a position available at another facility in my town for a DON. This facility deals with a lot of 1370 holds. Anyone here have experience with this population? I know many of the patients I’m dealing with 5150/5250/5270 holds in my current position, and as we all know psych and corrections go hand in hand. Most, if not all, of my patients have been incarcerated at one time or another. My spouse is concerned that the patients on 1370 will be more violent and more dangerous than the ones I’m currently caring for. I know my position as DON would be vastly different than what I’m doing on the floor everyday now, unless coverage can’t be found and I need to step back onto the floor. Just looking for insight.

Ugh...I'm really torn on this because I know I was once a nursing student but when I see nursing students on our unit....I just pray that nothing happens during this shift. I work on a very highly acute unit. There really is not a way for us to protect these students. We really don't have any security because we are trained to do security ourselves. Then, on top of this, we work short staffed...exacerbating the problem even more...all we as nurses are trying to do is medicate these patients before a code is called for the day...so we end up trying to prevent a code and ignoring the students....this sucks but safety really is our #1 factor...and of course the thing I did not want to happen suddenly became apparent...one of the patients went after a student...and we had to quickly intervene..

Thank goodness the patient backed down...but it goes back to my point...I'm not sure about nursing students on psych units...I know they need experience...but at what cost?

This thread is for non psych healthcare workers to ask questions (former patients, patient advocates, and those who stumbled upon r/psychnursing). Prospective healthcare workers and current students do not need to use this thread. Treat responding to this post as though you are making a post yourself.

If you would like only psych healthcare workers to respond to your "post," please start the "post" with CODE BLUE.

Psych healthcare workers who want to answer will participate in this thread, so please do not make your own post. If you post outside of this thread, it will be locked and you will be redirected to post here.

A new thread is scheduled to post every Monday at 0200 PST / 0500 EST. Previous threads will not be locked so you may continue to respond in them, however new "posts" should be on the current thread.

Kindness is the easiest legacy to leave behind :)

Hey everyone, I am a current student wanting to become a nurse specifically in a psych ward. My question is this. How often do ya’ll deal with absolutely disgusting things? Now this might be subjective but here’s the thing. I have the heart to help people and I can deal with gross stuff if need be, but I’m wondering if in the psych area of things if this is a daily occurrence. Due to my own mental health challenges I have compassion for others and want to help how I can but I don’t want to do something I’m not fit for. I also think I may get used to more gross stuff if I do it more often but yeah.

EDIT: thanks everyone for your responses. From what I’m getting it seems there are definitely some pretty gross stuff but people tend to get used to it and in pysch it definitely happens but it’s not like a daily occurrence of extremely disgusting things over and over. However it seems I’ll have a fair share of pretty gross experiences if I work as a nurse for a while! Also seems like location plays a big role in all this and frequency of experiences.