Hi everyone!! I will be getting my ticket to test in January and I am trying to think ahead of the game in terms of potential employment. I haven’t had much experience in working in a facility that is primarily psych focused and have a yearning interest to work in that field. I’m just afraid of trying it out as a new grad and realizing that it might be a specialty that I lack the knowledge in or dont have enough passion in if I haven’t fully endwelled myself to the full “psych experience”.

My nursing program has its limitations on allowing their students to certain step out/specialty rotations we can and can’t do. So far, I’ve primarily worked at several medsurg floors at different hospitals and had a few step outs including corrections, home health, pediatrics, and ICU—-which aren’t nearly enough to expand my general knowledge on psych. I’ve looked into shadowing nurses at psych facilities or any new grad residency programs in AZ… but haven’t found much luck besides those in medsurg. I’m aware that I would be working with illnesses that often aren’t exactly logical or reasonable added with manipulation, violence, and drug seeking— so a lot of it comes down to remaining uncalloused and caring for the people that genuinely need you. I’ve also heard that it’s expected psych nurses to deal with a lot of assaults and I’m concerned if I’m unable to deal with violent patients. I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on what I should do. Thank you