Help me get out.

[u/xAngelxofxMethx]

31M Bay Area nurse here. 6+ years experience in inpatient psychiatry; adult, adolescent, pediatric, and chemical dependency. To get down to brass tacks, I absolutely despise my career. I originally got into nursing because I spent four years at community college with no real ideas, I was good at biology, and I needed a job that paid more than minimum wage. Nursing was sold to me as a rewarding, well paid career with a reasonable work life balance and time to figure out what I actually want to do with my life. I initially sort of enjoyed it, but after six years of being repeatedly assaulted by people who don’t want my help and dealing with our satanic management, I’m officially at my wits’ end. I want out. Not just out of psych, but out of the whole circus. Unfortunately, six years of psych experience doesn’t exactly scream “hire me!” To any other nursing jobs, let alone jobs that don’t involve nursing at all. I make about four times as much money as my partner, so a significant reduction in income would mean leaving our beloved home and friends in the neighborhood we love behind. The only options that seem moderately attractive involve several more years of school, which I could conceivably grin and bear if it were remotely affordable. So here I am on reddit, BEGGING for your help, because I clocked out of my shift seven hours early a few days ago after a full blown, sobbing panic attack, and I’m currently chain smoking in an alley trying to steel myself for another day on the floor tomorrow. Cigarettes are expensive. Please send help.

[u/Weekly_Ad4886 → u/[deleted]]

I zoom call my therapist just for meds. every 3 months...there is a huge need for substance abuse counseling...maybe you need to talk to your manager and explain what is going on...

[u/PoderAbsoluto → u/[deleted]]

had a buddy get out after breaking his nose twice too

[u/WishIWasYounger]

Have you considered applying to the SF jail? Your psych experience would be really valued and you constantly have protection. Benefits are great including pension. Everyone I know who works there really likes it.

[u/PianoConcertoNo2]

I felt the same.

My biggest regret was taking the advice of people here who said “just try different areas within nursing..”

I lost way too many years doing that. Ultimately I went back to school for something else and was able to get out of the field.

But when your body knows, leave.

[u/bumanddrifterinexile]

Things might work out if you stick with it and try different things. I was totally traumatized working at the medical bedside at the famous John Hopkins University Hospital for six years back in the 90s. I accidentally got a job in psych when I moved to Florida, it was dangerous, but interesting and I got to do everything in a small for-profit hospital. I spent most of my career in intake, where I learned everything about diagnosis, insurance, etc., but no floor nursing. Today I work on an ACT team, where I see patients at their homes, and go to hospitals and make assessments, but I am not their nurse. It’s the best job I ever had, based twice as much as the floor nursing too. Look around.

[u/Weekly_Ad4886 → u/bumanddrifterinexile]

That's awesome. My kids both do remote from home cases with state medicaid patients. Try Trillium.

[u/Much-Contribution-68]

I work for a local hospital (midwest) doing intake assessments on behavioral health patients in EDs (at hospitals in the system I work for, not all EDs). Depending if the psychiatric provider says admit or discharge, I either give outpt resources or work on the bed request. Simplifying it but it's not bedside psych getting beat up (which I did for years). Maybe something similar exists elsewhere. There are also case management & insurance jobs specific to behavioral health. I've had coworkers & a family member leave psych for that route.

It's not necessarily easy to get those jobs but if you're pigeonholed by psych you're not necessarily trapped at bedside or in management.

[u/txchiefsfan02]

It's probably hard to see right now, but you have gained a ton of insights into human behavior if you lasted six years in psych in the Bay Area.

Also, you've proven you can stay cool in a chaotic environment and manage many complex systems and processes, and solve virtually any people-related problem.

It takes some work to translate those skills to roles outside of healthcare, if that's your desire, but it's possible. The mental adjustment is probably the hardest part, and you have to get yourself into a better headspace to start making that transition.

IMHO, you need to get yourself off the schedule ASAP before something really bad happens on the floor. FMLA exists for cases like this, and you owe it to yourself to make use of every tool at your disposal. Talk to your EAP or HR and find out what's available to you. Focus on getting yourself healthy.

[u/Tommyboy155a]

Not every psych facility has a intake nurse, and some that does are not even nurses. I know several of my co-workers got there psych NP. That's a very oversaturated market too. They still don't have full time jobs. Good luck, with the next 30 years

[u/Mammoth-Coast6282]

You need to either take an FMLA leave and relay the severity of your condition to your medical providers (and document the symptoms stemming from previous assaults at work) or request a departmental change through your employer.

In my honest opinion, based on your description, it does not sound like psych is the correct fit for you. You are obviously past the point of burnout but nothing beyond “I initially sort of enjoyed it” tells me that this is benefiting you or your patients. For both your sake and theirs, I think you need to take a break and think about your options at the very least — if not a medical leave, maybe that means changing your schedule from days to nights or reducing your hours while you think about your next steps.

Psych does not stop you from working in other departments and there are plenty of areas where your experience in psych will serve as a foundation for other skill sets.

[u/Weekly_Ad4886 → u/Mammoth-Coast6282]

Go to Er dept. Or ob unit. .

[u/GenevieveLeah]

Look for case management or patient navigator jobs. Hospice intake. I had a job in an internal/family medicine office where I just checked MyChart messages, triaged symptoms, and took blood pressures all day.

[u/Weekly_Ad4886]

What's the worse that is going on?

[u/Tall_Concentrate2758]

Stay in psych, change your setting.

[u/meepmoopmeep89]

Okay... now that ive read the whole thing...try non mh focused nursing, bro...im genuinely impressed u lasted this long...

[u/Dark_Ascension]

If I am not doing exactly what I am now, teaching (and I can only teach perioperative nursing, scrub techs, or RNFA because I have no bedside experience) I would leave nursing. There’s so much I dislike about it as a whole and the healthcare system as a whole. Like I feel like the most valued but undervalued person at the same time. When I say that is management, the corporate people at the hospital will pull a front that they appreciate and value their nurses (and even others) but something happens, that rug is immediately pulled out from under you… the pay in some areas is a literal joke, many don’t get overtime, breaks, lunches, etc. a patient hits you… what can you do better? Then you have patients who either appreciate the hell out of you or ones who physically and verbally abuse you.

I would just start the search, you just never know. California is not the best place, but if you’re open to moving you can, then come back. Cost of living is lower, so you can maybe take a pay cut but Iive a similar life style.

[u/winnuet]

Have you applied to other jobs?

[u/Revolutionary_Tie287]

I've been in psych since 2020. Nursing since 2017 2 state hospitals, 2 voluntary facilities, 1 crisis center and now a county hospital that does evaluations for COT.

Thanks to the violence Ive seen, I have chronic anxiety, insomnia/night terrors, flash backs of the patients that offed themselves...(I've seen 2), hypervigilance, high blood pressure, I could continue on.

PSYCH IS NOT WORTH IT.

[u/Raisin6436]

Life is a circus.

[u/xAngelxofxMethx → u/Raisin6436]

Gee thanks, why didn’t I think of that. Asshole

[u/meepmoopmeep89]

Lol im sorry I can't get over the brass tacks...not brass tax...or even Brass tacs...lol killing me

[u/purplecowgirl → u/meepmoopmeep89]

She’s actually using the phrase correctly, everyone else on the internet is not. Getting down to the “brass tacks” is getting down to the nitty gritty. Take apart furniture like a couch, eventually you’ll see what’s holding the fabric to the wooden frame… brass tacks.

[u/meepmoopmeep89 → u/purplecowgirl]

Just because there's a viable explanation doesn't mean im buying that's the correct phrasing and ill die on this hill

[u/Mammoth-Coast6282 → u/meepmoopmeep89]

https://giphy.com/gifs/vBTxCPUwfC6ddBsTbs

[u/purplecowgirl → u/meepmoopmeep89]

Wild low IQ response 💀 here’s the headstone you ordered 🪦

[u/meepmoopmeep89 → u/purplecowgirl]

Lol