Thinking of career change to psych nursing

4 posts · started Apr 10, 2007

gene108 Apr 10, 2007, 3:25 PM
As the thread title states, I am thinking about making a career change and am interested in mental health.

I tried killing myself four years ago. I was committed and am doing much better.

I have been working in an accounting / hr-admin role for a small consulting company in New Jersey for a little over 10 years. I have been thinking about changing careers for sometime. I went back to school in accounting and passed the CPA exam in December 2006. I'm just not interested in accounting jobs.

I am interested in mental health issues, since I have had problems and have several friends, through support groups, with mental health problems. I think I'd be a lot more interested in trying to help people with mental health issues, than other types of jobs.

I was wondering if anyone could let me know their opinions of the pro's / con's of psych nursing.

My one concern, at this point, is how much training do you get to manage a patient if he / she loses control of himself / herself and can potentially become violent. When I was hospitalized, there was a guy with anger management issues, who lost his cool and the nurses did a great job in gaining control of the situation. Is this something, which is taught in school or do you learn it on the job?

Look forward to hearing back from you guys.

Regards
Gene
makemaproud Apr 21, 2007, 4:29 PM
Hi, Gene! It's funny that you are thinking of trying a career change into psychiatric nursing. I just started to think of trying the same thing. I have an AAS degree in nursing, and a BA in psychology. I worked on a mother/baby unit for over thirty years, and am now in the process of looking for something new. I would also like some feedback from nurses who have lots of experience working in the mental health field. What sort of qualifications are necessary? Would it be difficult to get into this field without any prior experience? What qualities should a psychiatric nurse possess to be of most help to his/her patients? Any advice and guidance from seasoned psychiatric nurses would be greatly appreciated!!
hppygr8ful Apr 21, 2007, 5:04 PM
makemaproud wrote:Hi, Gene! It's funny that you are thinking of trying a career change into psychiatric nursing. I just started to think of trying the same thing. I have an AAS degree in nursing, and a BA in psychology. I worked on a mother/baby unit for over thirty years, and am now in the process of looking for something new. I would also like some feedback from nurses who have lots of experience working in the mental health field. What sort of qualifications are necessary? Would it be difficult to get into this field without any prior experience? What qualities should a psychiatric nurse possess to be of most help to his/her patients? Any advice and guidance from seasoned psychiatric nurses would be greatly appreciated!!

I don't know if I would call myself "seasoned" but I have been doing psych nursing for about 2 years now and I really like it. I far as qualifications go I think every hospital is different. In my own personal case I went to the facility for treatment of my alcoholism and ended up working there after I finished treatment. I had no psychiatric experience but the management and staff trained me in how to handle difficult patients. think qualities of a good psych nurse are compassion and empathy, also being able to leave your work at work. You have to have a lot of patience. You also have to deal with a system that doesn't much care about the patients and the revolving door of patience with chronic mental health conditions know that they will never be cured and that your job is to keep them safe in the hospital setting.

hppy