I have heard alot of nurses talk about psych nurses. Like they are not real nurses and couldn't function in the 'regular' fields of nursing. I don' think that is fair to say because that is a type of speciality nursing, I think. They need to know alot about how the mind works and so on. Plus the drugs given have some terrible side effects that these nurses have to be aware of. I say do the type of nursing you feel you would be good at. That is the great thing about being a nurse- you can go into what ever field you like.

We should in this day be over the stigma of mental illness but we truly have not come very far from the days when they were housed in jails and people paid fees to come "look at the freaks." I have not heard any one in a long time say that a psych nurse could not make it in the medical field. Psych patients have far more medical problems than the general population. Think about it, would someone who is not in their right mind get medical care? Will someone living under a bridge keep dental or doctor appoinments? Psych nurses have to be sharp in medical assessment and recognize the differences between delirium and psychotic features. Truth is most medical nurses would not make it in psych. I used to hear "you have to be a bit crazy yourself to work in psych" Can you picture what mental health would be like if we had "crazy" nurses taking care of "crazy" patients? That is all a part of the stigma, it is extended to the caregivers in mental health and even in faculty in nursing programs. You should not have started me on this one.

We all have a prejudice somewhere. I work with mentally ill forensic clients and everyone says why bother Just let them live on the streets or jail. or maybe society is just jaded

I have worked in mental health before i was ever licensed and it's actually what made me want to be a nurse. I was 18 when i started and 23 when i was licensed. I worked with physically, emotionally and mentally abused children and teens on a very acute level. They would come to us after they left the ER. Nothing is as rewarding as taking care of an animal child and actually getting a positive response! Medically people get better as a physiological process, mentally people get better, not only with medication, but also because someone took the extra time to sit with someone or to talk to them or to just be there to listen. As cdnurse said, we have to function at all levels and believe in holistic care, not just pick and choose what we feel like doing today. I wish more nurses could function on this level. How wonderful it will be when all nurses can recognize all functions of the patients, not just the physical.

I have posted several topics on the stigma of mental illness. It is just very disturbing to me that the phobias and stigma exist within our profession. I will never understand why someone thinks that psych is not real nursing or real medicine. Those with psych disorders have far more medical disorders than the general public. They cannot tell us most of the time. Therefore, we have to be even more alert and current to medical issues than others. In addition, too many times we have had patients sent to the psych hospital from the ER simply because they have a psych history and no medical cause was determined in the ER. I have had several sent to my unit when I was working in the hospital that were life threatening. Two went straight tow emergency surgery after I phoned the ER back, gave them a report and raised Hell with them. Don’t get me started on this!!

I had posted the topic “What Is Stigma” but for some reason it is no longer coming up. I will see if I can re-write and post again.

I actually considered psych nursing at one point during school - I know, it's a little off the beaten path for where I come from (over 10 yrs EMS experience and now a Nurse going into ICU) - but so is my current career concept (subject to change without notice, LOL).

Psychiatric nursing is such an incredible opportunity to learn and to teach, to touch people at their most vulnerable, and to challenge our communication skills daily - isn't that the heart of nursing?  How anyone could think that it is somehow less a part of nursing to work with this rapidly growing and underserved segment of the patient population is beyond me.  I just discovered in myself that I do not have the patience to deal with the abuses the system places on the mental health facility - inappropriate 72-hour commitals because the police don't want to take the drunk to jail or deal with the 17-year-old who took 2 Xanax; or the jail refuses to handle the inmate because they take Seroquel.  It adds an unneeded burden and disruption into a system and onto other needy patients that are already stressed - and I don't have the patience to deal with it.  It makes me too angry.  That's just me, my faults, my own understanding of myself, and my perception of how things are.  I chose a path that fits my personality better - because that serves my patients better.

Just my 0.02.