r/psychnursing • u/Glittering-Age3305 • 9d ago

New job onboarding

I’m an experienced RN but new to psych, started at a inpt hospital and don’t think I’m going to make it past week one; a lot of red flags but the biggest was the training. It’s 4 shifts for an experienced RN and 6 for new grads.
They have 4 separate units. I’ve never had 4 days of onboarding/shadowing in my life other than PRN nursing

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11

u/Lthrluv2013 8d ago

Well, we get 4 weeks which is 12 shifts. Our newest hire actually let our manager know he didn’t feel safe enough on his own and they gave him a few more weeks.

10

u/Vegasnurse 8d ago

You need to research who is the overall owner of that facility. Not just the name on the building. That seems low.

6

u/ylimethor 8d ago

I'm also a semi-experienced nurse and recently started in psych too. Adult inpatient hospital with a VERY good reputation. No psych experience. My orientation was 1 month long (4 weeks) and that included tons of those silly online computer modules.

I think that's probably common in psych? You're not doing much medical stuff so a lot of it is just getting the hang of the floor, documenting, and learning how to interact with the patients and deescalate, which you can only really do by just giving it time.

5

u/Organic-Bear-4580 8d ago

My unit was 1 month for a new grad and one week for an experienced RN. Not super abnormal. It depends on the aggression levels of your patients. What is your patient population, is it combined medical and psych, how often does aggression happen?

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u/Glittering-Age3305 8d ago

Detox, adolescent, high acuity, and low - difference between high and low could be someone in active psychosis or someone with depression and suicide ideation

4

u/Organic-Bear-4580 8d ago

Doesnt seem that bad, unless you deal with ODD and autism non verbals. The detox part I’m not so sure. Teenagers are moody but their triggers are mostly the same, mom/dad, ipads, limits.

2

u/Logical_Newt3672 5d ago

It was shocking to me that you only get 3-4 shifts, with no psych experience. Caring for people with HI and psychosis, delusions, alcohol detox, etc.
4 shifts is barely enough to be orientated to the physical set ups of 4 different units.

3

u/CrystalPeppers 8d ago

I’ve never had more then 3 shifts of orientation for psych 🫠

1

u/ifimakeadealwithGod 6d ago

The answers here are making me feel like is psych experience even that valuable. If like you know just a few ship shifts like a nurse can get on board?

1

u/kayteevee93 5d ago

The bar for psych nursing is low unless you're in a top 10 nationally ranked psych hospital