What's so scary about psychiatry?

I can only sigh.. in our newspaper today (the age) they had the wonderful news that they will look into an undergraduate program that specialises in Mental Health to assist with the chronic Mental Health Nurse shortage. Then they went on to tell everyone how dangerous psychiatry is, how 75% of psych nurses have been abused, how x% have been assaulted. What hope do we have....

I would argue that my psych unit is safer than any Emergency Department, or any dementia ward. All of my staff are aggression management training (yes all, the ward clerk, the allied health, the nurses and the doctors) with an emphasis on managing people who are angry, and identifying it before it is an issue. We have high dependency areas and seclusion rooms for those most at risk.

Please, don't believe the hype in the media.... the reality is not what they love to write about.

Hi Matty, looks like you and Darren have been busy on the forum today. Happy New Year to you all.

What a sad story you have Matt, unfortunately not a story in isolation. Mental Health would have to be the most poorly funded and government supported field of medicine/ nursing around. Yet as you say the need for psych skills covers every area of health.. most importantly in the ED department. Sadly the admissions are based on the most needy and discharges on the 'least' unwell. We now discharge based on reduced risk, not improved mental state. I wish I could offer you and your friend some advice.... at least she has a good friend.

jen

personally i dont think mental health nursing is scarey i think it would be quite interesting and something that i will defiently be looking into in a few years time. the only reason im waiting is that i would prefer to get experience in more generalised areas of nursing before settling into a 'specialised' area of nursing as im just starting out in my nursing career. i think the biggest problem with people finding mental health psychiatry nursing 'scarey' is lack of knowledge, lack of info available and what people see and hear in new papers, crappy internet sites and movies/tv. i really think that there needs to be more seminars/workshops/education on psychiatry nursing and then hopefully there will be more nurses willing to work in this area of nursing

Hi Sassy,
I would like to point out psychiatry from another view - perhaps just something to think about. When I was half way through a nursing degree and in the top 15% at uni, I was diagnosed with a mental illness. I had to give my nursing away at that time because I became so unwell. When I had previously studied EN for 1 year before going to uni, I was curious about the pscyh wards with the "crazy people", but when I became on the other side of the fence (which I would not wish anyone to be on) - I got to see a whole different view point. People talk about psychiatric nurses being hit, bitten, etc. etc. and I do not disagree that this does happen - but sadly another thing I saw was that many patients are also injured (some quite badly to the point of broken bones) from nurses who let their anger of situations get the better of them. Emergency nursing is also another area where I have seen psychiatric patients treated badly. Those of you who work in psychiatry / emergency will know exactly what I am referring to - sadly very few people speak up about it because it creates tension and difficulties in the workplace.

For patients who go into a hospital - they can see their rights, but in reality their "rights" are very limited. If a patient complains about being assaulted - it is often their word against the nurses. And believe me, very few nurses report their colleagues to the correct authorities because it puts them in an awkward position with their colleagues. In WA (and I imagine the rest of Australia) because of the laws governing privacy, a patient will have little success in seeing that a complaint is even reviewed before the nurses board - because the patient needs to provide the nurse's board with the nurse's surname - and nurse's don't wear surnames on their badges. Also, because of Privacy Laws, the nurses board is not legally allowed to phone up the hospital and ask for the nurses surname, even if they have the nurse's first name, date of incident, and shift the nurse was on. If the patient goes to the police - they have to file an incident report, and once again - it is the nurse's word against the patients. Even when other patients have seen things happen - they (chief psychiatrist etc) refuse to interview patients to find out what was seen after it has been reported to them.

From the view of a psychiatric patient, nurses can choose to go into psychiatric nursing. On the other hand - when you are a psychiatric patient, unwell and don't have a choice about where or whom you spend your time with, it is absolutely terrifying. It is also terrifying when other patients tell you to avoid a particular nurse because they have an "aggression problem".

I don't know why nurses fear mental health nursing - it should be the patients who fear it - and they are trapped whether they are in a hospital or outside, in their own personal hell. I have come across some brilliant, BRILLIANT nurses in my time - but I found, in general, that the nurses who have trained in the UK had the most empathy and confidence and seemed to know what they were doing. If I can generalise once again, they also seem to be the most skilled at defusing situations. On discussion with one of these nurses, I came to think that perhaps it is because of their different and extensive training they have in the UK in mental health. Australia could certainly learn a lot from UK nursing.

I hope to go into mental health when I finish my nursing - I am sure once again I will see another side but I am fortunate to have stood in the shoes of a patient and can hopefully bring this experience to helping those in need.

Hi Senior RN,

I can understand your own personal situations with "a raving manic or an aggressive psychotic" are obviously different from my experiences as an inpatient in hospital. My own personal complaint comes from a nurse who almost broke my wrist in a locked ward - other patients (who were NOT psychotic I might ad) witnessed it. The doctors report also documented the condition of my wrist after having to be transferred to another hospital to have it x-rayed.. I fought for 2 years going to numerous agencies including The Mental Health Law Centre, the Police and The Chief Psychiatrist, to have this nurse's surname released to the Nurses Board of WA so that they could at least do a hearing. But, because of privacy laws governing WA, this never happened. I gave up after 2 years - the nurse still works at the same hospital doing night shift. I'm sure you get to see people who have delusional psychosis and aggressive patients, but from my time in hospital my experience was that most of the inpatients had depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and PDs - amoung these there were very few people who intentionally tried to cause problems (and this was on a locked ward). I find it hard to believe your comment about complaints against nurses, especially seeing as, in WA, all complaints have to go through the nurse's board.... and the nurses board WILL NOT look into a complaint unless the surname of the nurse is handed to them! WA also has the privacy law where a nurses surname will only be given out to the police if the patient dies (I guess then they wont be complaining after all).

Psychiatry is "scary" because a lot of people, perhaps the majority, do not want to be exposed to themes and incidents that psych nurses deal with on a daily basis. Many people find concepts such as suicide, self harm, sexual abuse and rape, addiction etc, quite confronting - and understandably so. As psych nurses, we are trained to deal with such issues, and our knowledge and training, combined with an interest in psychiatry and a desire to work in the field empower us to handle the challenging aspects.

I have been assaulted several times, involved in physical restraint, witnessed the direct result of successful and attempted suicide, viewed some absolutely horrific instances of self harm --> none of this was pleasant, obviously, but it is just part of the job - a job that I enjoy.

Why? Because I like psychiatric nursing. It is as simple as that, you either like it, or you don't.

No joke - I would be far more traumatized if I had to complete a week of shifts on a busy surgical or general medical ward - because that is the type of nursing that I dislike.

Generally, nurses and students who I have observed as being "scared away" from psychiatric nursing were never really suited to it in the first place. That is not to say that they were "weak" or "unworthy" of course, simply that they were unsuited.

" Mental health nurse training has been reduced from three years to three weeks"

Where on each did you hear that? I have spent an entire semester learning mental health at uni, and that is the basic mental health for nurses not wishing to pursue a MH career. I am going to continue doing MH nursing in third year and will be spending 10 weeks on placement at MH facilities, as well as 4 units dedicated soley to MH.

Once I graduate my undergraduate nursing degree, I will be doing a grad year in MH nursing, and undertaking a year long postgraduate diploma in MH nursing.

Can you tell me WHERE I can get this supposed three week training course which makes me a RPN? I'd love to save my time doing the year long diploma.