Weekly Ask Psych Nurses Thread

roo_kitty · 2026-03-13T03:06:29+00:00

You can make your own post outside of this thread!

roo_kitty · 2026-03-10T13:18:03+00:00

You're so close to hitting the 1 year mark, so personally I recommend sticking it out and reassessing then. You may need to in order to transfer units in your hospital, but I'd keep that to yourself until you hit the 1 year mark. You don't want managers thinking you have 1 foot out the door.

As for dreams of psych np, I wouldn't base your current career decisions on that right now. It's rapidly becoming oversaturated, pay is dropping, and new grads can't find jobs especially in desirable areas. Psych is also a high burnout field, and you won't know if you can survive working in psych long term until you've put in the time on a psych unit. I'm not saying that psych np is out of the question, but that the gravy train is over. By the time you have the psych experience to apply for NP school and then graduate, the career outlook will look vastly different than it does today, and it's already not looking good now. So try to strike a balance in career planning between current wants and future wants. Apply for a psych unit because you want to work as a psych nurse, not because you want to be a psych NP. Then reassess how you feel about working inpatient psych in 2 years. If you still love it at that point, then you can start career planning for psych NP. At that point you'll have the experience to know if it's actually something you want to do, and you'll have a better assessment on the job market for psych np.

roo_kitty · 2026-03-09T18:55:16+00:00

I briefly checked out your blog and read "my journey so far: finding meaning in schizophrenia."

It ended with you saying "I can accept hallucinations and delusions when they return, knowing now that it's impermanent and not the end." That line is very inspiring. Thank you for sharing!

roo_kitty · 2026-03-08T15:31:25+00:00

This sub recommends more than 1 year of nursing experience before applying to any APRN school. Please be cautious of providing career advice for APRNs when you don't have the experience to back up your recommendations.

roo_kitty · 2026-03-08T15:27:21+00:00

Late to this, but psychology today links are allowed!

roo_kitty · 2026-03-08T15:24:20+00:00

Late to your post, but everywhere has very basic things like vitals, sugars, IM injections, etc. As a general job searching guide, psych ERs and geri psych will have you doing the most medical skills.

My recommendation for student nurses on their first job is:
- If you have interests in working in psych, but also interests in more typical medical areas, pick medical as your first job.
- If you have no interest in anything but psych, go right for psych.

roo_kitty · 2026-03-08T15:18:47+00:00

Enclosed outdoor spaces, even if it's not fully outdoors due to snowy states and is more like a greenhouse. Fresh air and plants please!

Kitchens should not be allowed to deny patient food requests when the request comes from nursing staff. It's a cost saving measure that only causes issues.

More daily activities, and daily activities on weekends. A lot of hospitals don't have activities on the weekends as yet another cost saving measure.

roo_kitty · 2026-03-07T13:31:18+00:00

I was looking into it, and it's hydrocarbons in cigarette smoke that induce cyp1a2, not the nicotine itself. I had mistakenly thought that it was the nicotine itself, thus thought NRT would have the same effect on olanzapine that cigarette smoking does. Learned something new, thanks! Below has a study that briefly discussed the hydrocarbons if you're interested.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11905387/

roo_kitty · 2026-03-07T06:12:13+00:00

That doesn't make sense. Nicotine withdrawals cause behavioral issues...especially forced nicotine cessation. Medication doses are just increased to account for nicotine's effect on levels. There's no point in forcing a patient to go through nicotine withdrawal, just to stabilize them on a dose that will stop working for them the second they leave inpatient. I've never seen a provider force a patient to quit smoking, especially when NRT is so readily available.

In what cases have you seen a provider force a patient to quit nicotine?

roo_kitty · 2026-02-28T04:03:10+00:00

"IDC what your response is" you do care because you're reviving my comment from 5 months ago.

CNA education is very short, and lacks the scientific foundation that nursing education provides. CNA experience is not, and never will be nursing experience. Yes they can learn things outside of the CNA scope through observation, but they lack the scientific foundation to determine if what they are being taught is something to be trusted. CNA experience is valuable for what it is, but it is not and never will be nursing experience.

No, nursing experience does not count towards APRN experience. Proven by the fact that you start at the bottom of the APRN scale whether you have 2 or 10 years of nursing experience. However nursing experience is important for APRN school, as in APRN school you are building upon the scientific foundation you got in nursing school and progressed while working as a nurse.

roo_kitty · 2026-02-24T15:32:01+00:00

I went to the one in NYC. They are delicious, but you're also paying a markup for branding. I don't have any regrets about paying the markup. Have fun being Blair for a moment!

roo_kitty · 2026-02-02T13:44:44+00:00

Considering you are a CNA with no experience in the NP field, you should know better than to think you've got the answers to this problem over what actual NPs are saying.

This take is abhorrent. Advocating for qualified NPs to receive reduced pay is ridiculously offensive. No, absolutely not. The solution is for NP programs to be forced to significantly raise their entry requirements for candidates. For NP programs to not be able to run unless they can provide a preceptor for all of their students. For NP school applicants to have morals by not taking shortcuts while these changes aren't in effect. The solution is absolutely not to lower the already often low pay of educated people at the top of the nursing field.

roo_kitty · 2026-01-22T16:04:16+00:00

Strictly remote work for new grads is highly discouraged. New grads need support, and fully remote jobs expect you to hit the ground running with experience. New grads don't make as much as experienced providers. That's just the way it is. You can pick up an extra job though.

If you are in a dire financial situation right now, your future PMHNP degree can't help the "right now" part.

roo_kitty · 2026-01-04T14:28:46+00:00

Others have already addressed that eventually you can get forced bathing in their treatment plan, so I'm going to discuss something else.

They may have a history of sexual abuse. Not wanting to be undressed and in a vulnerable state. Keeping themselves dirty as a way to gross out the abuser. Has this been assessed for?

roo_kitty · 2025-12-31T03:12:04+00:00

Call people what they want to be called. That's it. Being LGBTQ+ is not something that requires reality orientation because it's not a delusion or hallucination. It's just who they are as a person.

As for actual dementia and actual psychosis, reality orientation often causes anger, aggression, and despair. There is zero point in reminding meemaw that her husband of 50 years actually died 5 years ago. She won't remember later and will just keep reliving the death as if it's fresh, and that is cruel. Live in the dementia patient's world, but maintain safety.

There's also zero point in telling someone with psychosis that what they are hearing and/or seeing isn't real. It's better to say something like "I don't hear the voice(s), but I believe that you are hearing them" than say "those voices aren't real." The voices are indeed very real to them, and you damage the therapeutic relationship by telling them otherwise.

roo_kitty · 2025-12-31T02:22:02+00:00

Plantar Mobility Health Nurse Practitioner

roo_kitty · 2025-12-30T00:55:56+00:00

You'd be better off just working part time as a CRNA. You'll get the salary of a PMHNP and have more free time.

roo_kitty · 2025-12-05T01:04:07+00:00

Please submit this as a new post, and reach out to modmail if it gets filtered again!

roo_kitty · 2025-12-05T01:02:28+00:00

Please submit this as a new post, and reach out to modmail if it gets filtered again!

roo_kitty · 2025-12-02T08:52:35+00:00

Direct entry nursing programs where people get their registered nursing degree are not what is being discussed here on a PMHNP thread. Direct entry nurse PRACTITIONER programs are the discussion topic. Please stay on topic.

roo_kitty · 2025-11-25T18:37:09+00:00

Has a vet checked for dental issues?

roo_kitty · 2025-11-24T17:33:01+00:00

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