Thursday, May 22, 2014

Psych

I recently attended a class which was mandatory training for all ER personnel. It was a CPI class (Crisis Prevention Intervention). The instructor was the director of the behavioral health department. Now I have worked with him many times because he performs the psych intake interviews in the ER when we have a behavioral patient. I did not know he was the director of the department. The class was suppose to be a large one, but only 3 people showed up. Not too good for the first day of this particular class.

The good part was we could go quickly through the material and the instructor wanted a lot of input from us. He surprised me after I answered a few of his questions regarding 'what would you do in this situation' or 'how have you handled a patient like this in the past?" and offered me a job in his unit.
Throughout the class, he heavily recruited me. He offered me the job, training and said he would pay me more than what I made in the ER - all in front of my coworkers.

I'm thinking about it. However, I don't know if psych nursing is a good fit for me. I remember when I was working on my psychology degree, I got a part time job in a residence for children with autism. My assigned child was a kid with severe symptoms who had parents that would take him home every weekend and basically reverse all of therapy during the week by not following his plan of care. He performed self stimulatory behavior every chance he got. When I had him, I was suppose to perform positive reinforcement to stop his behavior. He would pick up pencils, straws, his hands, etc, and flap them in front of his face. I was mentally exhausted by the end of the day. My last day there (I didn't keep the job very long), they had a BBQ outside for all the residents. The landscaping did not have mulch, but little sticks - everywhere. It was a field day for him and a nightmare for me.

I'm wondering if it'll be like that. I guess I could speak to the director and see if I could start training - sort of a trial. The one thing that did concern me was the fact that there is no security at the facility and only 4 staff members in the unit which is a free standing building and not attached to the hospital. My concern would be my safety. I may talk to him about it - I haven't decided yet.