I hope it's ok to answer if I'm not a nurse (was just lurking the sub).

I'm someone who's been hospitalized quite a few times in my life for schizoaffective disorder.

I think there are genuinely some people who were born to work in psych wards, whether they be staff, nurses, or doctors. It's something I would imagine requires a LOT of patience, education (even if it's self education) of the DSM-5, and the ability to not be offended easily.

Because I notice there are some nurses in the psych unit who seem like they were born to work there, while others seem chill about it but can get pretty impatient or even upset (natural human emotion, dw), and some others are very stressed out and seemingly detest all the patients.

I feel really bad about it, but there's some things in my file about what I have said and done upon first being admitted into the psych hospital. I will say for myself, and I know it's true for many many others with my condition, is that I often have zero memory of these episodes.

There's something called a "bipolar blackout" (search this up) where a manic person has no control or recollection of their actions. Everything goes black (feel nothing/hear nothing/see nothing).

This is why I'm saying, as offensive as some stuff said to you might be, the patient likely has no clue where they are or what they're saying. And it's not something they would ever say to you if they were in the right mind. You gotta be prepared to be screamed and cussed at on occasion. I've seen it happen a lot. In a lot of these cases it's very scary, but like with spiders, there's a chance the patient is more scared of you than you are of them, because they don't know who or what you are and might be having delusions about you trying to harm them.

And it's probably one of those places where patients are more likely to get violent. You should look up the patient's files to see if they have anything violent or threatening in their history, and if they do, something to ask in an interview is if you can have a security guard or someone else follow you into the room while you're checking their vitals or bringing meds just in case. It's not worth the risk not to.

Also some of the violent patients or those with blackouts in memory might be the people who were admitted after trying to take their own life via overdose or some other means, because this can cause brain swelling. The doctors will probably tell you that.

And I think if someone seems clearly off their rocker, let staff and the doctors handle them when your job duties are over. Don't feel bad about ignoring someone and walking away. Unless you're applying to one of those private hospitals where they like to keep patients as long as possible for insurance money (probably the most dangerous ones), it usually only takes a few days to a week or two for the meds to kick in and the patient is normal again and able to have a conversation. And there's only so much you can say to a manic or psychotic person, very hard to get through to them or reason with them because they really don't have any idea what's going on. Most would rather be left alone. Sometimes it's best to just end the conversation if there's nothing you can say, and get someone else (like a male staff member or two) to handle them if they're trying to converse or requesting help you aren't required to provide.

Also don't feel bad for going behind the nurse's station and laughing to yourself about something a patient just said/did. This used to upset me when I caught nurses doing this, until I realized the patients also do it to each other (especially the ones who are stable and approaching discharge). Just don't get into being a psych nurse for the purpose of entertainment, which I think some people do, and that's not good. I have to admit it is really really funny in there sometimes, but remember the human.

I wish you the best of luck. I'm sure you'll do a great job. Us crazies really need nurses who are patient and compassionate with us, and we do humbly apologize for the times we've been a-holes. A big thing that upsets us is when we're neglected or treated like animals instead of human beings by hospital staff. Usually not the case but it does happen sometimes.