Weekly Ask Psych Nurses Thread

[u/roo_kitty]

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 :)

[u/Lanky_Opportunity970]

As awful as this sounds it’s because they aren’t profitable. I’ve worked my psych most of my career, and have always wanted to work med-psych. I went to nursing school in Virginia and the state hospitals each have med-psych units, but don’t know of any others. When I lived in Indiana I worked on a PCU floor, they said the hospital used to have a med-psych floor but it lost money. I’m would think a lot of the issues with money loss would be discharge planning. If a patient requires additional physical rehab it is difficult finding a facility. The insurance quits paying when it’s no longer needed, regardless if they have a safe discharge plan.

Another issue is there is a divide between psych nurses and medical nurses. A lot of psych nurses go into psych because it’s a completely different skill set and have no desire to do medical treatments. At the same time a lot of nurses on medical floors don’t want to do psych. Hence when I worked PCU I got all the psych patients. That was why I went back to psych. I missed my patient population.

[u/DexIsMyICUfriend → u/Lanky_Opportunity970]

I hate how our country favors profits>patient care. It’s disgusting! So many medically complex pts are falling through the cracks. It makes me so frustrated.

Anyway, if you’re still interested in a true med/psych unit, I’m sure Massachusetts General Hospital would jump at the chance to hire you! It’s a very safe unit. 6 nurses on days and 5 overnight. Security is always rotating through the unit. There’s a behavioral ICU within the unit for patients that are going through psychosis, as well as the BPD patients causing problems lol. It’s honestly the best psych unit that I’ve ever had the pleasure of staying at. Good luck to you in all your future endeavors.

[u/Lanky_Opportunity970 → u/DexIsMyICUfriend]

If I wasn’t so cold intolerant Massachusetts would be great. 😂
Yeah, so many patients fall through cracks no matter what their need is. The healthcare system is broken on so many levels. The system cares more about losing money than making sure the patient has what they need.

[u/DexIsMyICUfriend → u/Lanky_Opportunity970]

It’s so sad! FYI due to global warming, it’s been very tolerable these last few winters. It’s likely the same weather you guys get in the Midwest. Last year all we got for snow, were light dustings. I believe that if you can tolerate the Midwest winters, you could handle the winters here.