Any Mental Health/Psychiatric Nurses Out There (or student mental health nurses)?

I've just started an Adult Nursing Degree (I'm in week 3!) and I originally planned to do adult becuase it would give me the opportunity to go into lots of other fields after I graduated and gained some experience. However my passion and interest has always been to do with mental health and it's many MANY different forms.

So now I'm thinking maybe I should just not spend three years studying something I know (99.99% certain) I'm not going to want to do for the rest of my life and invest all my time and energy into something I've been passionate about since I was very young (If I hadn't gone into nursing I would have done psychology or something along those lines. I always told people I wanted to be a psychiatrist when I was younger. And a vet and a jockey but mostly a psychiatrist!!) Also, I'll be 24 when I graduate. Not very old but older than the norm and if I were to then do a post grad or whatever who know's how old I'd end up being and still studying.

So basically, if you, or anyone you're close to, are a mental health nurse, what's it like?

What area do you work in?

What's a "day in the life of"?

Do you love your job?

I am not a mental health nurse, but I have thought of becoming one, and am starting the classes I need at my community college to transfer to a 4 year as a pre-nursing student but I have a lot of interest in the subject and what has always helped me get a better idea is nursing blogs, there aren't many psychiatric nurse blogs but one I know for sure is from a lady that calls her self nurse ratchet from that book/movie one flew over the cuckoo'snest, I can't link you cause it's blocked on my work computer but I'm sure if you searched 'nurse ratchet blog' it will come up, there is another one called not nurse ratchet I think also crasspollination is a good one but she works another department.

isnt that what pgeorgian was doing? i know some people around her have her contact info.

Hey, never even thought of reading nurse's blogs, great idea thanks :)

I think it's going to depend on the facility you're at, but ...

1.  Mental wards are usually involuntary.  Meaning they are on "lock-down."  It's kinda like being in jail, with guards and cameras and steel doors and everything.  Voluntary psychiatric units are very rare anymore.

2.  What is it exactly that you find interesting about mental illness?  In the institutional setting, you will deal almost entirely with schizophrenia (and bipolar now, since it's being diagnosed more), major depression/suicidal, and adult dementia.  Some of it is not treatable.  None of it is pretty. 

3.  Are you prepared to deal with coprophagia?  Believe it or not, it shows up in mental institutions all the time.  Among the other disgusting things people do with feces ... which it will be your job to deal with.

4.  Spitters and biters are commonplace.  Never turn your back on anyone.

5.  State-run facilities are notoriously over-filled and understaffed. 

My husband (a lawyer) used to defend people against being involuntarily committed to the mental hospital, being involuntarily administered antipsychotics, and being involuntarily subjected to ECT.  He spent lots and lots of time in the mental hospital.  It is not the least bit glamorous; on the other hand, it is not as interesting as Cuckoo's Nest either.  After a while, it's just rather depressing, frankly.  Not for me, but if you are interested in psychiatry, it might be good to spend some time in the trenches.

I worked at a state-run psychiatric facility. The nurses didn't actually do anything except distribute meds and some paperwork. It was the rest of us who 99.9% of the interacting with the patients, taking vital signs every shift, etc. The nurses just gave meds, asked how they were feeling and gave out other meds if patients were sick that day or had headaches, etc. 

You will not be dealing with feces, etc. That's for the mental health staff to deal with. Yes, people spit, bite, hit, throw things however, it's not like it's happening constantly. We had some seriously violent people and I never got injured at work. Plus, as said before, we did the restraining. Once the patients were restrained the nurses gave the PRN injections. 

If you have any specific questions, you can PM me. It's quite an eye-opening experience working at a mental hospital but I loved it and I still remember most of my patients and despite their issues, I grew to love most of them (violence and all)

Thank for the replies.

I'm not looking for a glamourous job, if I was nursing would be the last thing I picked!! I've never read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it's on my list though :)

Anyone from England with experiance?

lysistrata, where oh where do you get your bullsht information from. no the majority of wards are not in fact locked or secure wards. most units are in fact voluntary. i would imagine you are basing the majority of your information on stupid films you have seen. any locked wards i have seen both as a professional and as a patient are hospital-type places not places with steel doors or padded cells.

childrens wards are similar to locked wards. the aim here being to keep children in and non-relative intruders out. again schizophrenia is not the main illness being treated. typically depression is. acute anxiety. manic and depressive states of bipolar, dementia (all types) and particularly alzheimers disease are also seen in psych units now.

you are so completely full of waffle and hot air. OP, pay no attention. she doesnt have a clue what she is talking about.

in terms of the job, yes some of it is hands on stuff. like bathing older people. looking after people who are catatonic. it depends on what kind of person you are but you have the potential to reach out to people, particularly younger people. this is less from my professional side and more as a patient. when i was an inpatient, really it was the nurses who helped me sort my stuff out to the point of being strong enough to be independent of hospital. after that it was my psychologist. the point is if you want to get in there to help people, you can

Original Post by fidget84:

lysistrata, where oh where do you get your bullsht information from. no the majority of wards are not in fact locked or secure wards. most units are in fact voluntary. i would imagine you are basing the majority of your information on stupid films you have seen. any locked wards i have seen both as a professional and as a patient are hospital-type places not places with steel doors or padded cells.

childrens wards are similar to locked wards. the aim here being to keep children in and non-relative intruders out. again schizophrenia is not the main illness being treated. typically depression is. acute anxiety. manic and depressive states of bipolar, dementia (all types) and particularly alzheimers disease are also seen in psych units now.

you are so completely full of waffle and hot air. OP, pay no attention. she doesnt have a clue what she is talking about.

in terms of the job, yes some of it is hands on stuff. like bathing older people. looking after people who are catatonic. it depends on what kind of person you are but you have the potential to reach out to people, particularly younger people. this is less from my professional side and more as a patient. when i was an inpatient, really it was the nurses who helped me sort my stuff out to the point of being strong enough to be independent of hospital. after that it was my psychologist. the point is if you want to get in there to help people, you can

Actually, fidget, as I stated, my information comes from my husband who worked in a psychiatric unit defending these folks.  It also comes from my current work representing a hospital, in guardianships and involuntary commitment proceedings, and my knowledge of the services and facilities available in my state.  Yes, fidget, the wards do actually have locked doors as well as padded cells (not all, of course, but to contain the folks who are dangerous to themselves).

If you are in a children's ward, naturally it is not surprising that you aren't seeing much schizophrenia.  It doesn't usually kick in until late adolescence.  Then it hits with a vengeance.  If you don't think most of people who wind up in "the system" are paranoid schizophrenics, then you're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about.

So - in other words - you're speaking from hearsay, anecdotes, informal conversations, and bedtime chatter.

Why didn't you say so in the first place, rather than going around gallivanting that you have any idea of what you're talking about? Sounds like some bitter, tired people had their way with your ears, lysis. You've also probably been heavily, heavily, heavily influenced by your husband's complaints about how cruelly and inhumanely these people are being treated (coincidentally, the very business of his work relies upon this mistreatment.)

I'm not saying there aren't abuses (where aren't there abuses?), but to try to dissuade someone from getting into the field of psychology with this nonsense is simply irresponsible.

Also, I love how you throw around profound diagnoses like they're insults - the maturity really oozes out of your "my friend's friend's friend said" knowledge.

wow whats up with the wenchfest ladies? lys just offered her opinion based on her experiences - which is alot more than you added for the OPs benefit. i dont recall seeing anywhere that you have to prove professional certification to post an opinion in the lounge forum on a calorie-counting site. sheesh.

Original Post by clolitaa:

So - in other words - you're speaking from hearsay, anecdotes, informal conversations, and bedtime chatter.

Why didn't you say so in the first place, rather than going around gallivanting that you have any idea of what you're talking about? Sounds like some bitter, tired people had their way with your ears, lysis. You've also probably been heavily, heavily, heavily influenced by your husband's complaints about how cruelly and inhumanely these people are being treated (coincidentally, the very business of his work relies upon this mistreatment.)

I'm not saying there aren't abuses (where aren't there abuses?), but to try to dissuade someone from getting into the field of psychology with this nonsense is simply irresponsible.

Also, I love how you throw around profound diagnoses like they're insults - the maturity really oozes out of your "my friend's friend's friend said" knowledge.

Reading much into my post, are we?  Excuse me, I was unaware that only people in the medical field have first-hand experience with mental illness and psychiatric hospitals.  Maybe you aren't aware that the mentally ill have a disproportionately high rate of law enforcement contact and arrest?

I never said anything about inhumane treatment.  Show me where I did.  Involuntary commitments and treatment are a reality.  Inhumane?  Gee, I don't know, is it more humane to let a person with advanced dementia die in the streets than to lock them in where they'll be safe?  You don't know **** about my husband's work.

All I have said is that there is nothing pretty or glamorous about mental illness.  Unless you think there is something amusing about people with serious delusions?  People who distrust those who are closest to them and most concerned about their well-being?  People who, for example, pour lye on themselves to try to wash away the bugs under their skin? (just one of my husband's hundreds of clients.  I met quite a few of them at the hospital myself, by the way).  People who are in such late stages of Alzheimer's disease that they don't recognize anybody and are angry about anything? (at least two of my own clients).  People with TBI who can't even recognize that they have serious behavioral problems? (guy who I helped the family petition for guardianship).

Instead of getting defensive about my observations because you're so invested in what a saint you are, maybe you need to step back and have a little empathy for the people you're so proud of helping and acknowledge that mental illness is, at best, painful, and at worst, tragic and undignified.  I've never once tried to discourage the OP from pursuing the profession - maybe if you actually read my posts, instead of what you want to think I'm saying, you would have noticed where I said 'if you are interested in psychiatry, it might be a good idea to spend some time in the trenches."  Pardon me for suggesting the OP should go into it with open eyes instead of some **** romantic idea of what mental illness is all about.

Original Post by fidget84:

lysistrata, where oh where do you get your bullsht information from. no the majority of wards are not in fact locked or secure wards. most units are in fact voluntary. i would imagine you are basing the majority of your information on stupid films you have seen. any locked wards i have seen both as a professional and as a patient are hospital-type places not places with steel doors or padded cells.

childrens wards are similar to locked wards. the aim here being to keep children in and non-relative intruders out. again schizophrenia is not the main illness being treated. typically depression is. acute anxiety. manic and depressive states of bipolar, dementia (all types) and particularly alzheimers disease are also seen in psych units now.

you are so completely full of waffle and hot air. OP, pay no attention. she doesnt have a clue what she is talking about.

in terms of the job, yes some of it is hands on stuff. like bathing older people. looking after people who are catatonic. it depends on what kind of person you are but you have the potential to reach out to people, particularly younger people. this is less from my professional side and more as a patient. when i was an inpatient, really it was the nurses who helped me sort my stuff out to the point of being strong enough to be independent of hospital. after that it was my psychologist. the point is if you want to get in there to help people, you can

The one I worked at had all locked units. The patients were allowed to gain privileges using a token economy system, earn trust and earn unsupervised time off the unit. 

Also, nurses aren't the ones who do the hands-on stuff, like bathing, etc. We had a lot of schizophrenic patients but we had seven units and patients were separated in order to keep them safe. We had a LOT of bipolar patients and borderline personality disorder patients...

However, these things are going to differ hospital to hospital. 

Thanks for everyone's replies. Just to reiterate, I do not have any kind of romantic ideas of how it would be. I did mention in my OP that mental health issues have been my interest and passion for many years.

Fidget, Thanks that's pretty much what I was looking for. You've had the experience of seeing things from both sides, patient and professional. I would ideally like to work with younger people with issues such as depression, self harm, eating disorders etc, though obviously my time at university will be a time to explore lots of different settings. I know all about the bodily fluids part and bathing people, I'm not that worried :D

I have been educated in a bachelor's degree setting on mental health nursing and done a rotation with mental health patients. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite because I prefer the more exciting trauma settings.  Nursing is completely a personal preference field.  There are many different types of people, thus different preferences in the nursing field.  I must say, however, that most everyone I know entered the nursing program wanting to be one kind of nurse and then left wanting to be another. 

Mental health nurses can work at state hospitals (some of the consumers (the proper term for mental health patients) are there voluntarily, others are committed.), group homes, and day treatment centers among others.  The nurses do hand out medications, take care of medical needs of the patients (diabetic accuchecks, or if a patient feels ill, etc.), run groups, and maintain vigilant assessments of what's going on in the unit and reassessing the patients for medication responses.  A VERY large part of mental health nursing is being there for them in general and maintaining a nonjudgmental attitude.  There is so so so much to learn about mental health nursing.  We're not therapists to the patients but we do provide therapeutic communication and communication is probably the biggest aspect of mental health nursing (and most other nursing.)  Nurses maintain structure and the therapeutic milieu.  Nursing involves a lot more critical thinking than one would anticipate first entering.  I thought it would be more skills-based but nothing could be further from the truth.  Yes, consumers do act out sometimes, but people will find that they are just normal people with diseases and chemical brain imbalances who were struck with these horrible diseases after they had led a normal life.  Nursing recognizes the debilitating nature of these diseases and aims to treat the consumers with respect and we respect their humanity and it's easy to get attached to them because most of them are awesome.

Good luck and I hope you enter a great nursing program!!!  I hope this helped shed some light on the field of mental health nursing.

Thank you :)

I've spoken to the uni about changing to mental health and they've put me on the waiting list. I'm #2 so if two mental health students drop out/change courses/whatever then I get an interview to explain why I want to change. So I'm hoping (though I feel slightly mean!) that two people decide it's not for them and drop out :D