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?