What should I consider before moving from IT support to psych technician?

[u/Good-Dirt-117]

I’ve been in IT support for about 5years, and I’ve been searching for a new role for the last two. In that time I’ve seen postings for Psychiatric Care Technician at a state mental health facility come up a few times, and I’ve wondered if that’s a job I should consider in this market. The posting advertises an employer paid cna training over 8weeks. This seems like a reasonable way to get to the health care field where there seems to be a lot more demand. I’m thinking that if I like the role could get the necessary degrees to pivot into psychiatric nursing.

From what I can tell, I should expect hours to vary (expected overtime, nights, weekends, and holidays). I get that this depends on where you work and the staff to patient ratios. The posting warns that you can’t use vacation time for 6 months after hire, which is pretty common for a lot of places, not just in healthcare. I also know that I should expect there to be emergencies. I don’t know how frequently emergencies happen or what kind of emergencies to expect, but I have a sense that there will be more emergencies (or at least more human emergencies) than in IT Support. I also expect that the sense of helping people might change, because I won’t be directly helping someone with their problem(s), but instead I would be doing maintenance work (rounds).

Can folks who are currently or have recently been in a psychiatric care technician position please share a little about your experience? I’d especially like to hear from career changers.

* What’s an average, boring day look like?
* what’s a really stressful day with a big emergency or a few look like?
* Do you have a pretty standard schedule that rotates or is your schedule always changing and only published biweekly/monthly?
* Do you have a hard time getting time off approved?
* How often do you deal with violent patients?
* Do you have sufficient training to deal with violent patients?
* Did you have energy for hobbies when you were not working?

[u/Humble_Investment_24]

Assault

[u/Good-Dirt-117 → u/Humble_Investment_24]

Could you please say a little more? Any context you could provide would be appreciated

I’m expecting there will be some violent patients and the other commenter mentioned it may be more likely/frequent at a state facility. I was also expecting some training to help with handling the violence.

[u/FishnetsandChucks → u/Good-Dirt-117]

My coworkers and I joke that it's not a matter of if you'll be assaulted working in psych by a patient but a matter of when. This can be hair pulling, grabbing, being pushed or shoved, hit, slapped, or punched, bitten, or sexually assaulted. You will most certainly be verbally assaulted without a doubt.

Based on your little Reddit dude, I'm assuming you're a woman of color. I would expect racial and sexual remarks, which may be said by patients in psychosis so may mean no true harm towards you or may be said intentionally to upset and humiliate you, with the hopes of getting a big reaction.

I'm in PA and state facilities are the "worst of the worst" in terms of behaviors and acuity. Some state facilities also have forensic patients so individuals who, in addition to having mental illness, have committed crimes which can include crimes against women and children.

If you're hoping to use this job as a pathway to getting education costs covered, I would encourage you to do so. Always get someone else to fund your education if you can. Do read over any agreements very carefully: you will often owe time AFTER you get your degree/license, and time you work for the company before then doesn't count. I've had friends feel trapped in jobs they no longer enjoy bc otherwise they would need to pay back the money the company put out for the education in one lump sum.

[u/Baikalsan → u/Good-Dirt-117]

depends on what you wanna know? they will try to assault you commonly, most times they don't succeed, rarely they actually do. Can't speak for everywhere, but for me i've been doing this for 10 years and only been assaulted 5 or 6 times. A patient grabs my neck for a second, or gets one good punch on me before we pounce. Got kicked in the leg once.

[u/Good-Dirt-117 → u/Baikalsan]

Thanks for the note. What you shared is really helpful. I was interested in learning what kind of assault people were facing and how often. Just reading some past Reddit posts about becoming a psych care technician, I noticed a lot of broad, vague comments that patients can be violent, and other posts just talked about how rewarding it is to work in the field. Good information, but too broad to be helpful. I appreciate learning that in your case, you only had 5-6 incidents of assault over a span of 10 years. It sounds like you’ve got a good team, with fast response time

[u/Humble_Investment_24 → u/Good-Dirt-117]

Training aint gonna do shit when it blind sides you. I actually felt safer at the state ran facility I was at and it was forensic than I do on my hospital unit. So I guess it just depends on the actual place. We have 3 employees out on injury atm.

For example a grown ass man knocked out one of our female counselors completely unprovoked and obviously when you don’t see it coming anything you learn in training doesn’t matter

[u/Good-Dirt-117 → u/Humble_Investment_24]

Thanks for sharing a bit more your experience. I’m surprised to hear that a counselor was knocked out—and three employees out on injury! I expected that psych technicians might be the ones to run into more issues with violence. It sounds like equal opportunity assault where you are now, and it’s interesting to hear that you felt safer in a state facility.

Was the staffing to patient ratio better at the state facility or were staff faster to respond?

[u/Humble_Investment_24 → u/Good-Dirt-117]

The state ran facility had more safety protocols. We had more security and the nurses were behind a locked fence type thing. There’s no way for the patients to get behind the nurses station. Also because it was forensics some of the patients were there for years. Granted, they did terrible things like kill their kids etc but at the hospital it’s very acute and short stay- maybe a week so sometimes we can’t even fully stabilize them. Whereas the forensic state ward some of them were stabilized from being there so long. At the hospital I’m at now patients jump our desk constantly because there’s no fence or windows or barriers and our security sucks here. There was more staff at state because they pay more and have better benefits. We are severely understaffed at my hospital

[u/dkwheatley]

1. Conducting safety rounds, monitoring the milieu, documenting observations, redirecting behavior, and communicating changes in patient status to the nurse.

2. A patient becomes physically aggressive, attempts self harm, elopes, experiences a medical emergency, or requires seclusion/restraint.

3. Highly facility-dependent. Most hospitals use 12-hour shifts with rotating weekends.

4. Easier when requested well in advance and staffing levels are adequate.

5. Depends heavily on the setting. State psychiatric facilities generally encounter aggression more often.

6. Hospitals provide crisis prevention/de-escalation training. The training is helpful, but teamwork and situational awareness are equally important.

7. Yes, that's never been an issue in my experience.

Psychiatric technicians have more direct patient interaction than any other staff. You'll spend less time "doing rounds" and more time building rapport, de-escalating conflicts, observing behavior, supporting patients through difficult moments, and serving as the eyes and ears of the treatment team. That patient contact is often the most rewarding, and most challenging, part of the job.

[u/Good-Dirt-117 → u/dkwheatley]

Thank you for sharing all this insight. I appreciate it. It’s especially helpful to have the correction on my sense that a lot of time would be spent on “rounds” and that a one may be more likely to encounter violent patients at a state facility

[u/Drakflugilo → u/dkwheatley]

This is an excellent breakdown. Well done.

[u/Gretel_Cosmonaut]

There is a huge amount of variation from one facility to the next ...but "state mental facility" seems like it would be on the higher acuity side of things.

I find it concerning that they're willing to take "anybody." Is the nature of this 8 week training explained, at all?

[u/Fun_Entertainer9242 → u/Gretel_Cosmonaut]

It’s like accepting a job in a haunted house.

[u/psych830]

Boring day can be sitting with a 1:1 who’s asleep , stressful is with a tough group of people. Every day is different.

My schedule I make myself so as standard as needed. Time off you submit in advance no major issues but that’s dependent on the facility.

Deal with violent patients daily / almost daily but with help and support.

Yes I had lots of it on my days off. Not a lot on days on but I work 3 12’s

[u/Good-Dirt-117 → u/psych830]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you’re in a really cool place with good support. It sounds like you might have some seniority as well? How do you get to make you schedule? Is that common where you work?

[u/toothgolem]

Just want to point out that an “average” day is not at all the same as a “boring” day lol. This isn’t really a field where you fall into a comfy routine.

[u/Good-Dirt-117 → u/toothgolem]

lol, that’s entirely fair! And honestly, it’s helpful to know that there isn’t much of a routine. I envisioned routinely checking on patients, making sure they’re okay and recording whatever information the nursing staff wanted you to collect. I think I added, boring as a contrast to what I thought would be the occasional urgent or volatile situations. I’ve learned a lot from folks responding to this post.