Hi everyone! I'm a BHT. I graduate from nursing school in a few months with my BSN, and then will be a psych nurse at the same facility I currently work at. I recently came across a situation that's new to me. I work on a high-acuity adolescent unit, and one of our patients was supposed to discharge the day before her birthday. Well, she wound up having a panic attack right before discharge, and said some concerning things, and thus her stay was extended. She was understanding, but upset that she would have to spend her birthday in the psych hospital. Due to this, I wanted to make her day extra special. She doesn't have the best relationship with her parents, and they hadn't confirmed whether or not they would be visiting to celebrate. I went out to the dollar store and bought some decorations for the nurse's station (I asked her doctor if we could possibly decorate her door and got a no due to safety concerns, so nurse's station it was), and also coordinated for her to get a slice of cake from the cafeteria. As I was hanging the decorations at the nurse's station, the charge nurse got onto me and said celebrating birthdays was crossing a boundary, so not to do it in the future. I could see if I was buying gifts for the patient on some random day, and paying them extra attention for no good reason, but in my mind everyone deserves to be celebrated on their birthday, especially kids. The patient really loved seeing the decorations when she came up to get her medicine, and said it made her day a lot better. What's you guy's thoughts on this? Do you celebrate birthdays at your facility, or is that crossing a boundary?

I've been doing inpatient psych since 2015, started traveling in 2017 and been doing it ever since. I don't know what changed or why but since about 2022 I just feel done with this line of work. I'm lucky, travel pays pretty well and I've managed to save enough to take multiple months long breaks but still, every time I go back I feel instantly drained again. I lived the time off but I didn't return with any renewed enthusiasm for the work.

I'm exhausted and I think I wanna get away from this field, or certainly the direct care part of it, but I don't even know where to start.

Just felt the need to vent. Anyone else experiencing this or gone through something similar?

Hi all, interviewing for a position on an inpatient adolescent psych unit. I haven’t gotten specifics yet as to what the type of unit is/acuity, and this would be my first job in psych. (I have 9months in med surg so far.)

I am wondering what kind of questions I should ask, so that I can better understand this role. I am also wondering what safety considerations I need to be aware of to ensure I’ll be on a safe, quality unit.

Basically, what questions should I ask to make sure this place isn’t a bad place to work, or a bad place for patients to heal.

Thank you all!

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Hi everyone,
CA psych nurse here. I’ve worked at 16 bed PHF for almost 2 years now as a charge nurse. There’s a position available at another facility in my town for a DON. This facility deals with a lot of 1370 holds. Anyone here have experience with this population? I know many of the patients I’m dealing with 5150/5250/5270 holds in my current position, and as we all know psych and corrections go hand in hand. Most, if not all, of my patients have been incarcerated at one time or another. My spouse is concerned that the patients on 1370 will be more violent and more dangerous than the ones I’m currently caring for. I know my position as DON would be vastly different than what I’m doing on the floor everyday now, unless coverage can’t be found and I need to step back onto the floor. Just looking for insight.

Ugh...I'm really torn on this because I know I was once a nursing student but when I see nursing students on our unit....I just pray that nothing happens during this shift. I work on a very highly acute unit. There really is not a way for us to protect these students. We really don't have any security because we are trained to do security ourselves. Then, on top of this, we work short staffed...exacerbating the problem even more...all we as nurses are trying to do is medicate these patients before a code is called for the day...so we end up trying to prevent a code and ignoring the students....this sucks but safety really is our #1 factor...and of course the thing I did not want to happen suddenly became apparent...one of the patients went after a student...and we had to quickly intervene..

Thank goodness the patient backed down...but it goes back to my point...I'm not sure about nursing students on psych units...I know they need experience...but at what cost?

Wondering if anyone has worked for headway or a telehealth company as a mental health NP with your PMHNP. Was the salary good and did you like the hybrid situation?

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.

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Kindness is the easiest legacy to leave behind :)

Hey everyone, I am a current student wanting to become a nurse specifically in a psych ward. My question is this. How often do ya’ll deal with absolutely disgusting things? Now this might be subjective but here’s the thing. I have the heart to help people and I can deal with gross stuff if need be, but I’m wondering if in the psych area of things if this is a daily occurrence. Due to my own mental health challenges I have compassion for others and want to help how I can but I don’t want to do something I’m not fit for. I also think I may get used to more gross stuff if I do it more often but yeah.

EDIT: thanks everyone for your responses. From what I’m getting it seems there are definitely some pretty gross stuff but people tend to get used to it and in pysch it definitely happens but it’s not like a daily occurrence of extremely disgusting things over and over. However it seems I’ll have a fair share of pretty gross experiences if I work as a nurse for a while! Also seems like location plays a big role in all this and frequency of experiences.

I am a pretty new nurse (been working almost a year) at an inpatient psych unit. Most days the job is stressful, which is kind of to be expected as a new nurse. The issue I’m having is that whenever one specific charge nurse is working, I seem to be given a super heavy patient load. It’s definitely not just my imagination. Several (like 5 separate nurses on 5 separate shifts) have said to me “oh wow, thats your patient load? I’m sorry that sucks” or “you have those 2 guys? That’s kinda cruel. You probably shouldn’t have both” “you’re getting another d/c then admission? That seems like a lot”. On top of that, this charge nurse doesn’t help with anything. She mostly just plays candy crush? Any idea what I should do in this situation? I am friendly to this charge nurse. Not sure what her problem is. When I was fresh fresh on the unit, most of the charge nurses would give me hard patient loads (nurses eating their young) but the others have eased up … this lady just keeps piling it on. It’s making me want to quit. Advice?

I have been a nurse for 4 and half years, mostly med surg and tele background, and I recently started my first full time inpatient psych position. I am enjoying it so far, but this position actually feels kind of lonely. My family really does not want me doing this because they fear for my safety. At work, the majority of my coworkers are new grads that just fell into this because this is the first job they got out of nurisng school. More often than not they look at me like I grew a second head when I tell them I am here because I want to be. Then they start asking me for help on getting a bedside position at my old hospital ( I am still there per diem). This morning my mother hit me with the “I don’t understand why can’t you just be a school nurse.”conversation again. I am just exhausted from repeated conversations I have with everyone about why this matters to me. Can anyone else relate?

I was a psych tech for two years before becoming an RN and I loved it. It was my first job in healthcare and I miss it tbh.

I still work in the same hospital system, but wanted to try medical nursing as a new grad. I started in the ICU in August 2025 and then moved to a cardiac tele floor in January 2026 (turns out ICU is not for me!).

I actually don't dislike my current position – we have a pretty good unit culture and my manager in particular, while very intense as a person, has been very supportive of me. I do find the work interesting but somewhat anxiety-inducing; I'm constantly afraid of accidentally harming a patient, or failing to prevent harm.

For the last few months, I've been considering trying to make a move back to psych. My original plan was always psych nursing. When I think about the future and eventually leaving the bedside, I really picture myself working as a psych NP (and obviously want the RN experience required to be good at it).

Two job listings within my hospital system were recently posted. One is for per diem work on the inpatient addiction medicine floor, and one is for full time nights on a psych floor with a general adult population (I picked up on this unit occasionally as a tech).

I don't feel totally "ready" emotionally to give up on medical nursing. I want to feel like I have more of a mastery as a medsurg RN than I currently have. I also feel sad about the possibility of disappointing my manager after she's gone out of her way to be supportive.

I feel bad about the prospect of leaving after less than a year, especially because I know several other night shifters are trying to leave right now. (Our manager also has a reputation for intentionally sabotaging transfers...)

The psych floor has a manager I heard negative things about as a tech (i.e. being "toxic"), but I no longer remember any details. She is also the manager for the addiction med unit. I don't think I've ever met her personally as I worked on one of the other psych units.

Nights are my preferred shift, and I'm not guaranteed another opportunity on nights in the future (this is the first time I've seen a psych RN position open up in months at all).

The psych floor has 8 hour shifts, and I prefer the three 12s I currently work, but 11 PM - 7 AM would give me significantly more time each day with my partner and our dogs.

The psych position offers fewer hours (32 hours/week as opposed to my current 36), which would mean a substantial pay cut unless I picked up additional shifts. My benefits would not be affected.

I think really highly of the behavioral health department in our specific hospital system, both in terms of safety and in terms of how patients are treated. I would prefer to start there as opposed to somewhere that's a more unknown quantity.

I'm sorry for the long post, but if anyone has advice, I'd really appreciate it. I genuinely can't decide whether to apply or not, and I suspect I'm running out of time to make up my mind.

Assume they are clearly fake because you also have their real ID/DL, and they are made of flimsy plastic.

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 :)

Looking for advice and others experiences.

38 yr/o single female no kids but I care for my elderly mother. BSN.

Experience: 1 year Charge Nurse inpatient psych,14 years Nursing Supervisor inpatient psych, 1 year Nurse Manager inpatient psych.

I applied for an internal transfer to Patient Navigator RN at the PHP/IOP at my facility and got the job. I haven't started yet.

M-F 8a-4p no weekends, holidays, on call, or people under me to manage. Finally not considered a "leader" which I have never been able to say but for my one year on the floor.

Does anyone have insight into this role? (Psych Patient Navigator). I honestly accepted it before considering what it entails due to the schedule, extreme burn out in my current role, and health issues. Outpatient psych jobs in my area are hard to come by.

Starting to question my decision as I was immediately replaced in my Nurse Manager role and there's no turning back now. Be honest. What am I in for?

I predominately work adolescent psych, but often get floated to our acute units when need be. I genuinely do enjoy what I do. I feel like I make a difference in a lot of kid’s lives and I support them to the best of my ability. Lately I’ve been absolutely hating my job and it’s for no reason other than the massive influx of IDD patients we’ve had. It’s absolutely demoralizing and exhausting to have these sorts of patients for a month or more at a time, where all we do is restrain and medicate them, often multiple times in one day. They can’t process anything, they can’t adequately verbalize what they want or need, I can’t take my attention off of them for a second before they start hurting themselves or someone else. They never improve either, the only reason we keep having them is because of EMTALA. I don’t hate people with IDD, I’m just so burnt out of receiving them as patients when I do not work at the proper facility for that; and the lack of resources in my city deeply exacerbates this problem. Anybody else go through something similar?
Again, I don’t hate people with IDD, I just recognize in myself that there is very little that I am able to do for them and the great resources it takes to provide care from them detracts from helping out the rest of the patients in the unit.

Hello

I am almost done with my new grad program and the program allows me to experience through different units. I interviewed with all the different unit managers and I got into my top choice which is psych! So super exciting but also nervous. Any tips are greatly appreciated thank you <3

Hi!

I just got my RN and im going to be starting at my first new grad job in a few weeks. I love psych, its my passion! I remember during school I would have a lot of anxiety while paired up with nurses (at clinical) because I felt like such a burden--and so stupid. At my current job as a BHT I hear people complain about new hires doing stupid things a lot, which does not help my anxiety. When I have my first 3 weeks of training, what can I do to be less annoying? What NOT to do? How NOT to look stupid?

Thanks! 🩷

Hi everyone! New grad RN here from California with an interest in going to psych eventually. I was recently interviewed and hired on the spot for a psych unit which I’m happy about considering how hard it is to get hired here in California. However, my only gripe is that I will only be having 7 shifts with a preceptor until I’m let go on my own. Is that normal for psych units? I can only get a week extension if needed as well. I really want to protect my license as much as possible.

EDIT: Just for more info, this is for a med surg/psych unit. In addition to behavioral changes, these pts apparently also qualify to med surg, and the nurse-to-patient ratio 1:5.

​Hi everyone,

​I’m a 30M RMN with 7 years of clinical experience, and I’ve landed an interview for a Band 7 Parkinson’s Disease Specialist Nurse (PDSN) role.

​While I have strong psychiatric nursing experience, I’d love some insight from anyone currently in a neuro/movement disorder specialist role or who has sat on Band 7 interview panels.

​A few specific questions I have:

​What domain-specific/clinical scenarios should I prepare for? (e.g., motor vs. non-motor symptoms, impulse control disorders, deep brain stimulation, end-of-life care?)

​How should I best structure my response to leadership, service development, and audit questions?

​What high-level Parkinson’s guidelines/frameworks are essential to cite? (NICE NG71, Parkinson's UK audit, etc.)

​Any specific advice for an RMN transitioning into a role that traditionally has strong physical health components? (I want to make sure I highlight how my mental health background is an asset—especially for things like psychosis, dementia, ICDs, and distress—while demonstrating strong competence in physical symptom management).

​Any tips, practice questions, or advice on what sets a successful candidate apart at Band 7 level would be hugely appreciated!

​Thanks in advance!

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 :)