Choosing psychiatric nursing as a specialized career option in nursing profession requires a registered nurse to acquaint himself or herself with some additional qualifications and experience, because the psychiatric nurse needs to interact with patients who are not of stable mind and their activities and behavior in most of the cases will be drastically different from other normal patients.

Psychiatric Nursing could be the most satisfying of the innumerable career options in nursing profession, and, at the same time, the most demanding, frustrating and frightening one.

A psychiatric nurse, in addition to the skill and expertise in normal nursing procedures, should possess special traits in analyzing as well as understanding human behavior and development, relationship among the human beings, typical psychiatric problems, and behavior of patients affected by some mental disorders. Above all, he or she should have effective communication skills to interact with patients with compassion and patience. A psychiatric nurse treats his or her patient as a whole person and does not look to provide assistance in the treatment for the disease or ailment.

Contrary to treatment and nursing assistance to normal patients, treating patients with mental disorder can be possible and will be effective only with the co-operation of the patient and effective interaction between the nurse and the patient. Another important aspect that a psychiatric nurse should possess at all times is conscious awareness.

Without this conscious awareness and effective communication skills, one cannot perform, leave alone succeed, in his or her career as a psychiatric nurse.

Patients suffering from psychiatric problems have unstable mind and their actions and interactions cannot be correctly assessed or understood by ordinary caretakers. A psychiatric nurse should develop the skill of conscious awareness such that the interactions with the patient can be correctly assessed and understood. Without the awareness of the interactions of the patient, appropriate treatment through intervention becomes next to impossible and treating would then become a serious challenge. A psychiatric nurse should apply critical thinking while interpreting the interactions of the patients and channelize the mode of treatment and diagnosis in line with the interactions to achieve effective results.

The psychiatric nurse should interpret the interactions of the patients not merely from the social point o view, but from the therapeutic point of view. Correct assessment of the patient’s present behavior and his or her responses will, to a great extent, help the nurse interpret the interactions. With this interactions and constant awareness of the interactions, the psychiatric nurse will have to finalize the nursing procedures or processes that should be adopted to bring about the change in the behavior and attitude of the mentally disordered patient. Dynamic interpretation of the interactions with the patients on a constant basis will provide the psychiatric nurse with the level or severity of the disease and help in formulating the appropriate nursing process. The psychiatric nurse need not work in a hospital setup always and, if required, he or she can take up hospice care or specialized personal care at the residence of the patient.

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Category: Career
Keywords: nursing, nurse, nurse jobs