FIVE REASONS YOU SHOULD BECOME A PSYCH NURSE! | Reasons for behavioral/mental health nurse |
00:07 Reason Number 1: Opportunity to gain perspective on your own life
01:28 Reason Number 2: Compassion for others
02:40 Reason Number 3: You enjoy connecting with your patients
03:25 Reason Number 4: The pay
04:55 Reason Number 5: You enjoy the gray area of life
06:50 Reiteration of Reasons
07:18 Reason Number 6: It’s easy.
Here are my top five reasons YOU should become a psyche nurse, these are in no particular order.
Reason number 1. As a psych nurse, you will have the opportunity to will gain perspective on your own life. You will learn to appreciate your own sanity much more than you ever thought imaginable. Real mental illness–I mean the stuff you read about in books, the stuff you see in movies, you will see all of that as a psych nurse. It’s fascinating, it’s curious, it’s tragic, it’s sad, it’s entertaining, it’s overwhelming and you’ll witness it every time you go to work. Even today after interacting w/ hundreds of patients, I often wonder, ‘man, what is this dude’s reality really like?’ So if you are the philosophical type, and you enjoy questioning reality and its constraints and you want to dabble in alternative realities vicariously thru a conversation you’re having w/ a patient–not only are you offering that deep and therapeutic connection so important and so absent in that patient’s life, but you’re also getting a chance to peek inside a reality no one else has really seen except for the patient. Think about that for a second. Thru conversation, you can have a glimpse into another person’s vastly different world while also forming a very important bond w/ another person, and get paid for it. That’s pretty cool.
Reason number 2 you should become a psych nurse is if you have genuine compassion for others and you like putting yourself in other people’s shoes. If this is you, we need you. Psych desperately needs compassionate individuals. A lot of our patients receive very minimal if any compassion from people and this pattern has been happening most of their lives, sometimes all the way back to childhood. Imagine how it must feel to feel so alone, to feel as though no one understands you, and then here comes this psych nurse, someone who listens attentively, someone who tries to understand your seemingly incomprehensible situation, someone who is able to withhold their judgment about you as a human being and just be there for you. If this is you, please, please become a psych nurse.
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Reason number 3 you should become a psych nurse is if you like connecting w/ your patients. A lot of nurses working in health care right now are so busy, especially on the medical side, they have to spend a lot of their time charting, or reviewing orders, or coordinating care, or calling doctors, or whatever and I have a number of friends who work as nurses in busy hospitals and they tell me all the time they wish they had more time to spend w/ their patients. Fortunately in psych, you usually have a lot of time to meet with your patients and really get to know them. So if you enjoy hanging out with your patients on the bedside, and having a casual conversation, psych nursing might just be for you.
Reason number 4. Psych nurses get paid really well. When I was a brand new grad, my job paid 37 dollars an hour. It was crazy. It was way more than I was expecting, and when I asked my buddies how much they were getting paid, they all were getting paid between twenty seven and thirty dollars an hour, and some of them were even working nights, and a lot of them were feeling overwhelmingly stressed. At my job, there was minimal stress, and had I worked the night shift, I would have been making something like forty four dollars an hour. Guys for me that’s crazy money. It’s more money than I’ve ever made and it was right after graduation. It’s absurd. And, at my last job, I could have worked as much overtime as I wanted. If I wanted to bust out 5 twelves in a row, 7 twelves in a row, have no life, be a derelict husband and father, I could have and then my overtime rate would have been around 60 an hour. That’s a lot of money. Of course anytime you’re working a lot of overtime you kind of pay for it in other ways, but still, i mean if my family and i were financially destitute, i had the option of working as many hours as I needed to and I know this is true of a lot of psych hospitals, they are desperate for staff so often time the overtime is there.
Reason Number 5. You enjoy the gray area of life. Alright so what is the gray area of life? If you’re coming from the medical side, there’s not a whole lot of gray. Things are pretty black and white. You got an infection? Take this antibiotic for a week. Diabetic? Take 20 units of insulin.
47 Comments
I currently work in psych and love it so much
Thankyou!! I'm so excited for Psych nursing and hope I love it. We have our rotation in a couple of months. My question for you is, are you ever able to get involved with patient activities or help assist/conduct group therapy? And do you know exactly what Psych NPs do?
Thanks for your video. I’ve been thinking about trying psych nursing. I check all your boxes listed here but have a question: How do psych nurses generally treat one another? Some places / units nurses can be real assholes to each other … would think psych nurses would be better but figured I’d check. Thank you!
Thanks for these videos. Subscribed:)
Psych work is a vile crime on people with no real illness… only a psychic awakening… the non-physical is very real… it's not a psychosis..!!
Vitamin supplementation is good to do as well because ALL ANTIPSYCHOTICS cause vitamin depletion.
Still watching your videos. I think I’m convinced to do mental health nursing.
Are you working in an inpatient psych hospital or at a mental health facility?
I can tell you’re passionate about this career. Thank you for shedding light!
I think this was the video I needed. I think psych nursing I where I want to go next in my nursing career. I’m ready for it!
Some nurses say " you lose your skills " in psych. I wonder if you have an opinion on this comment? This is an EXCELLENT video BTW.
Graduating in 3 month and going to Psych RN!
I’ve wanted to be a psych nurse for the last 5 years or so. I’m finally graduating in a month and I can’t wait ❤
You describe psych nursing better than anybody else. When you described the "grey areas", that is exactly how my brain works! I love coming up with creative solutions, not just the standard protocols! You're a Godsend! Thank you thank you thank you!!
Why are psych hospitals desperate for staff if it’s easy and pays well? You think nurses would flock to the hospitals.
I have an interview tomorrow for a Psych Nurse position. I’m excited, but a little nervous. Thanks for sharing your experiences, your info has been very helpful! 😊
I start next month on an inpatient unit! Thank you!
I've just been binge watching psych nursing videos again as I keep coming back to the thoughts of making a switch. I am a Burn ICU nurse who's done travel in MICU, Stepdown, Tele, M/S with burn patients being my favorite. Psych has always interested me since before nursing school and the rotations were fascinating. There just so happens to be a new inpatient behavioral health hospital opening up near my neighborhood and I feel it is a sign to dive into the specialty! I'm per diem ICU now and don't get me wrong, vented patients are fun but the high stress of getting lines, tubes etc on a patient who just died and came back from the floors can be intimidating with doctors all staring at you LOL I'm getting over it and want to actually enjoy my nursing career and make a difference with a highly stigmatized population. So I will end this by sayin THANK YOU for your videos (there aren't ever many on psych nursing). THANK YOU for what you do! And I will most likely refer to more of your videos when I finally take the leap out my comfort zone haha
Subscribed. About to start immersion and I picked psych as an option I look forward to it
I’ve been in community mental health for 4 years and feel like I should stick to it! Really appreciate your videos, they are so well informed.
I’m not sure if we can consider this good money. I guess you can say it pays the bills. But, I didn’t want to live to pay bills. They should get paid a lot more.
Can we get more videos about how to deal with certain patients
I’ve been watching your videos for a while now, and today I just accepted a job as a psych nurse! Excited to begin when I graduate in May. Thank you so much Nick for your content. You really inspired and informed me along the way.
They should have given you a serious warning and watched you for a while. Firing doesnt do any good. Their next nurse will be stealing patients meds or making errors. They should teach you why they were so freaked out. NML and Serotonin Syndrome. As well as being humble and pestering the MD. I wish they would stop firing good nurses for petty issues such as wanting to wear a different color scrubs how silly, can you imagine if they did that to doctors,
New grad just got hired as a Psych Nurse. It was exactly the position I wanted as well as the location. I am grateful. I honestly feel like it's a calling.
You had me at 1-4 but #5 is crazy
Wow! Loved your video. I am wanting to try psych nursing coming from being a mother/baby nurse. I feel like I hadn’t found my calling yet after a year and a half….i love taking to people and the “gray area” but was too scared to make that change.
Worked mental health for 35 years and 20 years as a psych nurse. I could write a book about my experiences. I spent a few decades with patients who were found incompetent to stand trial who committed various serious crimes 70% violent or murder. Long story short most days I really enjoyed my job and found it interesting. The mind is amazing I was found it interesting the voices patients heard which is separate from there thoughts. Be safe out there . Biggest advice I could give is listen to your patients , be patient, and simply converse . You be surprised how helpful your relationship is to your self and patients n how you can effectively defuse a situation because the patient trust you
I’m not sure which direction I want to go. I’m between Psych and ER. I start school next month and I will wait until clinicals to decide.
I have been working in peds psych for 8 years
Doing therapeutic holds when it is absolutely necessary can be stressful
Have you come to terms with this needed last resort at times?
l agree with everything you said except for #6. Psych nursing for me has not been easy. It has been rewarding and inspirational and life-affirming, but it has not been easy.
I think I am lucky to have found your video. I have decided to switch my career and I have been offered a job, firstly as a support worker, assisting psychiatric nurses, with the possibility of growth into a nursing role. I honestly do not mind starting in a minor role, but most of the comments that I have received from people I have told what I am doing, seem unsupportive, they mostly tell me that this role is 'harrowing' or 'daunting', but on the first hand, I would genuinely like to help people and I am fully willing to get any training that would be needed. I have been a patient within mental health issues in the past, so, that is one of the main reasons why I would like to give back.
I grew up seeing so many psych issues since I was a kid – bipolar, schizophrenia, active psychosis, depression, suicide attempts that were completed.. I graduate in a year and this route has been on my mind forever just don't know how to deal with the aggression and danger I constantly hear about on psych units
Psych nurse here. Definitely challenging at first, but rewarding. A lot of OT for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Can you recommend some good books or authors you had in your hand whilst studying or just gathering information? I would really appreciate your feedback on this one 🙂
It’s a ministry
I need advice ? I have a bachelors in sociology… and so have worked in the mental health field for 4+ years school/clinic … what steps do I need to take to get into this field of work ?
Reason #3 is why i finally left Cardiac and Neuro nursing and went to Psych
I start as a PCT soon in psych and these 5 reasons are totally in my wheel house. I have been in Dementia for 25 years. Now I am moving to psych. I hope I love it and stay in till I retire…
Does their perspective ever change the way you think?
I start my psych RN job next week very excited it was my calling god lead me here
To experience how the patients see the world just to destroy it and put their will and perspective onto you? Becoming a drone themselves?
Thank you for this, I'm a new graduate nurse and I just got hired at the local behavioral health hospital everyone I know said for me to run as fast as I can and not get involved with mental patients but I actually can't wait….hopefully I like it as much as you do…Thank you
Thank you for making this video. I deeply enjoyed my behavioral health rotation and am glad my clinical instructor pushed us to interact with patients. It was truly the most rewarding feeling to listen, connect, and even make each other laugh. I know that it’s a specialty where you have to stay vigilant, but I couldn’t help feeling a sense of belonging. I’ll be starting my first job as a psych nurse in a few weeks and very excited to learn everything. Thanks again and hope you’re well!
Thank you for this I agree
6:30 has hallucinations himself.😂 ….jk
Awesome Descriptors . . .
This confirmed I want to go into psych nursing. After listening to this, I know the gifts God has given me is for this. ❤