r/psychnursing

Are any of your hospitals affected by the budget cuts from the big beautiful bill? My psych hospital has been going through some rough changes. Just last week I was in a meeting stating that they are closing our open unit and our Geri unit is going to be an adult unit. So many nurses are laid off now. The morale has been horrible. Just wondering if anyone else’s hospital are going through these changes as well. It’s so sad. Psychiatric care is so needed and they are limiting patients access to care.

I’m considering going into nursing with the eventual goal of becoming a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. I’m plus size, have POTS, and deal with some mental health issues, and I’m trying to be realistic about whether I can handle the physical side of nursing.

I used to run half marathons, so I know I’ve been physically capable of a lot more than I am right now. My plan would be to spend time getting into better physical condition, rebuilding my strength and stamina, managing my POTS as well as possible, and mentally preparing before starting.

Are there nurses here who started out plus size, deconditioned, or with POTS/chronic illness and were able to make it work? Did your stamina improve with conditioning and working? I’d also love to hear from psych nurses specifically since that’s where I ultimately want to be.

Any advice is helpful!

I have a background in psych. Previous bachelor’s degree in psych, ~5 years working as an MHT, court liaison, and medical receptionist in behavioral mental health. I decided to switch to nursing after doing an internship at a behavioral hospital.

My whole background is catered to psych and I switched to nursing w the intention of eventually getting my PMHNP.

I love psych & I am a few weeks into my current role as a RN at my behavioral mental health facility now, but I don’t want to get “pigeon holed” so early on.

I have some interviews for nurse residencies to get into the medical hospital, but I feel conflicted. I don’t want to get stuck in psych, but I also don’t know if I can see myself in other areas. Not much has stuck out to me during clinicals. Maybe Cath Lab and the path to get there would replace the one for my PMHNP.

The residency will open new doors and give me a better chance at being able to try out other specialties, but I can’t help but feel like it may be a “waste of time” if I just end up back in psych anyways. At the same time I feel too new and young to be tied down to one specialty so quickly.

I’m not sure. What do you guys think? I’ve heard both sides from nurses and coworkers, some swear I should leave while others swear I should stay in psych.

Another thing to consider is that I’d take a major paycut moving to medical ($7/hour) but that could also be worth it if I really want to explore and hone my skills.

I have been working as an inpatient psych nurse for a little over a year. I think it is fascinating and I really enjoy doing admission assessments and getting to know patients. However, I'm starting to get burnt out by the increasing medical acuity, inappropriate admissions (ie old ladies with dementia) and shitty management. I have an opportunity to switch to a cushy outpatient job with the same pay at the same company. I'm worried I'll be bored. How do I know it's time to jump ship? I don't like my manager, but she's not on the floor a lot.

I've been a nurse for over 7 years but I'm brand new to psych. Doing inpatient adult psych. I've only been off my (short) orientation for 3 months. I get sooo anxious before going to work and while at work. I'm on the quieter side, I hate confrontation. I definitely have the ability to laugh at things and let them roll off my shoulders and I never take anything personally. But when I know a patient is aggressive, confrontational, rude, unstable, super delusional, etc... I get VERY anxious. Sometimes I have no idea how to respond. Other nurses are so good at "shutting it down" or putting up boundaries, not taking anyone's shit. There's 3 other nurses with me at the med window so I feel like every interaction with patients is on display for them to watch and I just feel so awkward sometimes.

I love psych for many different reasons & I like the job itself. Will I ever get more comfortable interacting with unstable people and get a tougher skin, or is this just not a personality match? I'm sick of being so, so anxious about work all the time. I think about it so much, even when I'm not at work.

I'm a float mental health nurse. There is a particular unit at my hospital with a very unfortunate and "toxic" culture. I have had to make reports before due to unprofessional conduct of staff, such as wishing death upon patients in the nursing station, and laughing about patients self harming (not in a dark humour way, in a genuinely horrific way). I hadn't been there in months and was floated there again. I was not sure how it would be. But, unfortunately it was the same. The nurses were all very catty and gossip-like, talking the same smack about me and my float team right in front of me as well as saying horrible things about the patients too. For example, right in front of me a nurse said "oh my god I hate the float nurses" she turned to look at me before she said this. There were also other similar comments like this throughout the day, such as how bad the unit is when there are too many float nurses on it.

As for comments about patients, a nurse was going through belongings, picked up a sharp object, and said, a particular patient would "love it". This nurse, when discharging a patient, also said while laughing "what is she gonna do, jump on the subway tracks?".

I am just appalled these people are mental health nurses. It really discourages me every time I go to that unit. I was quite close to speaking up to the charge nurse, however given the unit culture and fear for mass retaliation I decided it was best to speak to my manager, ask not to be sent to that unit again given they do not value me as a team member, and request to have it taken up with their own manager. And I don't expect any change to happen given the nurse who made the horrible comments about patients last time is still there making the same horrible comments.

I accidentally left my email open on my computer too, left the nursing station, and when I came back noted that the page had been scrolled on. I suspect that they snooped on my computer and saw the email, or at least the title.

Anyways, I just wanted to vent. And, no I really don't see this as dark humour. I acknowledge dark humour as a thing to cope in healthcare but I draw a line when a person is taking joy in someone's pain or wishing harm on someone they are supposed to be caring for. That is just putrid. These nurses suck.

Edit: oh also, a nurse coming into her shift on nights at the end of my shift was like "this patient is an IDIOT. ketamine infusion doesn't make you DIZZY. She's playing us! Why does she need a wheelchair!!!!".... Meanwhile, dizziness is one of the most common side effects of ketamine infusion.... She thought because it gives you high blood pressure it CANT make you DIZZY smh.

I’m currently 1yr+change on med Surg trying to transfer to psych,but so far I’ve applied to multiple in house positions with no luck. I’ve tried a few outside facilities so far and most have said they prefer/require at least a year with psych patients, heard the same from some hospitals in Dallas. I assumed it would be easy to get a job in psych but how am I supposed to get experience if no place wants to train me? Is it an interviewing problem? Am I too picky? Is anyone else having this problem?

I am a little over a year into my first year as an inpatient psych nurse. I love the patients, the therapeutic communication and the pharmacology. However, our medical acuity has gone through the roof over the last couple months. Dementia patients, foleys, IVs, wound care, etc. This is not what I signed up for.

I have an interview for a full time position at our outpatient MAT clinic on Friday. The schedule is 5am-2pm Tuesday-Friday and every other Saturday 6-9. Has anyone worked in MAT or methadone clinic before? Is the schedule brutal? Is it worth leaving the hospital for? Will I be bored out of my mind? Thanks in advance!

website: https://www.informed.fyi/salaries/nurse

A few years ago, I did a survey across various forums and reddit asking whether people would be interested in a healthcare-focused salary website. The overwhelming response was yes.

After two years of working on it alongside a full-time job (and getting married somewhere in the middle!), I'm excited to finally share it. The project started as a way to improve salary transparency for my wife, who's a pharmacist. As I worked on it, I realized that the lack of salary transparency extends far beyond pharmacy and affects many healthcare professions.

It's definitely still a work in progress, and I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement. If you'd like to contribute, salary submissions are completely anonymous, your personally identifying information such as your name and email are never displayed.

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 :)

California is the main state I want to travel to, mainly for the beauty and weather. Im even willing and eager to go through the crazy long process of getting licensed there. I was really disheartened as the first recruiter I just spoke to said there are never any contracts in California. Has this been anyone else’s experience?

I recently accepted a position as a psych CNA at a hospital on a locked acute unit. I have a few weeks left before I start but the closer I get, the more nervous I’m feeling. The benefits are amazing, and I’m going into nursing school soon so the opportunity to get into the hospital system itself was the biggest win for me.

It seems like the more I look into this job, the more nervous I feel. I wish I could have had a trial shift just to see what the vibes of the unit are and what I’d be dealing with, but I’m just hoping to get some advice and maybe some reassurance that I’m not going to get myself killed working here lol. I also got hired really quickly after submitting my application so that’s also kind of scary.

I was a med surg CNA for 8 months and did really well, my patients took well to me and I was usually the one who was able to connect with some of the psych patients we did have, so I’m hoping that those skills transfer over and I end up thriving. Thankfully I’m living with my parents right now so if I do end up feeling terrible and just cannot keep doing it, it’s
not the end of the world.

Anything helps!

I'm an RN, new to inpatient adult psych. My facility is well-known and has a really great reputation. Safety-wise, it's amazing. Staff and security are awesome. But over the last 6+ months I guess there's been changes with management & lately the unit is becoming more and more acute each day. And more people with complex medical histories too.

My shifts lately have been super crazy and busy, like to an unmanageable degree. Mostly with documentation, multiple med passes, medical stuff, and just the acuity of the unit in general. During a typical day shift, I bareellyyy have enough time to finish all my documentation, tasks, meds, check in with all my patients, etc. on a SMOOTH ordinary shift. Nevermind when anything goes wrong, an agitated patient, a code, a restraint, a needy patient who needs to be redirected 500x, a medical issue, discharges/admissions, new orders, whatever else may happen. It's insane. Right now my team of patients includes 2 patients with fingersticks and insulin before meals, extremely heavy AM med pass, and almost all my patients get meds again at 2pm, 5pm....? Stuff like wound care, ear drops QID, random things that end up making my shift SO busy and constant without 1 second to breathe. Sometimes I can barely speak with a patient for longer than a minute.

Just wondering if this is typical of an inpatient psych unit, because I have nothing to compare it to. I know medical floors are insanely busy and impossible for nurses, but I guess I thought psych would be busy in a different way.

I'm looking for some career advice from nurses or anyone who has successfully pivoted careers.

My background is in pediatrics, adult bedside nursing, and inpatient/outpatient psych. When I first became a nurse, I planned on becoming an NP, but after working in the field for a while, I've realized that's no longer the path I want to take.

I currently work full-time and also have a PRN position that I genuinely love. The PRN only requires two shifts a month, and my long-term goal is to eventually become a lead nurse there when the opportunity opens up. In the meantime, I'm looking for ways to increase my income while doing work that's less physically demanding but still allows me to use my nursing background.

I've become really interested in clinical research, healthcare tech, and IT. I recently interviewed for a clinical research position but didn't get it, so I'm going to keep applying while also considering going back to school.

Right now, I'm leaning toward an MSN in Nursing Informatics, but I've seen a lot of people say the degree isn't necessary to break into informatics. That has me wondering if there's a more versatile degree that would open more doors and have a higher earning potential.

For those who have transitioned from nursing into another field (or combined nursing with another discipline), what degree or career path gave you the best return on investment? If you could do it over again, what would you choose? I'm looking for something that complements nursing and increases my earning potential rather than replacing my nursing career entirely.