not nutty, but still worth it (Nursing in general)

Member Name: flupen

Product:	Nursing in general
Date:	15/10/01 (927 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can always find employment, being part of a respected profession

Disadvantages: the pay!!!

Whenever I tell people that I’m a mental health nurse, they tend to respond in one of two ways. The first is along the lines of “I could never do that”, and the other is “how interesting – id really like to do what you do”. So, for those of you of think you could never do it, well, you are probably right and don’t try because the less of us that there are, the faster I get promotion and earn more money!!!! For those of you who think it sounds interesting, then I hope this op will give you a an indication of what it is really like.

To start off with, you have to train to a become a nurse. There is no shortcut and without the basic registration, you cannot practice. Nurse training is linked to universities and the course takes three years to complete, if you want a diploma of higher education and a nursing qualification, or four years if you want a bachelors degree and a nursing qualification.

The academic qualifications you need to be accepted onto the course varies from university to university, but a minimum of five GCSE’s, including English, math’s and a science is the usual – although some universities will accept a college access course pass for “mature” students. Many universities ask for more qualifications than this, but it is worth checking it out with them. You will also need to pass an interview to get on the course. And in mental health, whilst we don’t discriminate age wise, we actively encourage older students up to about 50, because they bring with them a wealth of experience before they even start the course. So don’t let your age put you off!!!!

Student nurses are paid via a bursary, as opposed to a wage or indeed a student grant. The current bursary is in the region of £440 per month for the duration of the course. Whilst this is a pittance, at least you don’t have to pay it back at the end!!!! However, if you already work for the hea
lth service as a auxiliary or care assistant, ask about being seconded to the course, as this means you will be paid on your normal wage – most hospitals are doing this more and more as you have to commit to working for them for a period a time once you qualify ( usually one year).

The training is generic for the first eighteen months, in that you get to experience all nursing disciplines – not just mental health, and the time is split between the university and placements either in hospitals or in the community. The last eighteen months is course specific, so if you are studying to be a mental health nurse, then the last half of the course is spent studying this at Uni., plus relevant and appropriate placements. Providing you pass all your course work, exams and placements, at the end of it your name will be put forward to the UKCC, the nurses professional body, and providing they accept you onto the register, you are then free to practice.

As you would expect for any professional, you have to keep updated and you must continue to practice a minimum number of hours each year, study a minimum hours each three years and keep a portfolio showing your fitness to practice. Whilst many nurses hate doing this, I think that the public deserve to be cared for by up to date, research aware nurses, rather than out of date, unsafe practitioners.

When you qualify, you should be assisted by another qualified nurse for one year (called preceptership), who will assist you in the transition from student nurse to qualified nurse. The pay starts at about £16,000 (including enhancements). Its not much but as you get promoted and more experienced, it goes up. For example, I have been qualified ten years and am a senior sister and earn a basic wage of £26,000. It sounds a lot, but there is a whole lot of responsibility that goes with it.

As a psychiatric nurse, you can work in the public or private sector. Nursing homes don’t tend to
pay well, and are mainly looking after the elderly, but if you want to specialise in, for arguments sake, the treatment of drug and alcohol problems, then many private clinics are available to work in and providing you hold a suitable post registration qualification, then they pay well and tend to have good working conditions.

In the public sector, you can work for the police, prison service, armed services or the health service, to name but a few. Hospitals offer a range of specialties, from eating disorders, to elderly care, acute psychotic patients, secure units ( such as Broadmoor), obsessive compulsive disorder or long term care of seriously mentally ill. With the current move to community care, there is a wide range of posts and specialties open in this field too, including a great amount of counseling, on issues such as childhood sexual abuse, depression, and bereavement.

However, to be respected and to practice well, you really need to get some post registration qualifications. To give you an example, I specialise in community treatment of post trauma events and having qualified as a nurse, I continued to work full time as a staff nurse, but undertook a course at university one day a week to get qualified in the community treatment of mentally ill patients. It did mean I was working very hard, but it was so much easier to get better jobs and negotiate better terms at interview with this additional qualification.

I must tell you that despite the hard work, I love my job. It’s a real privilege that people trust me enough to share deep and distressing thoughts with me, in the hope that I can help them process them in such a way that they can then carry on and enjoy the rest of their life. Whilst at times I might be frustrated or angry with some patients, on the whole I find it really fulfilling and mentally stimulating.

People usually ask if I have been attacked, or what is the worse thing I’ve seen, and I must t
ell you that I have never been hurt whilst on duty. The art of being a good psychiatric nurse is being able to spot potential problems and sort them out before they escalate, or once they have escalated, to use all the skills and attributes available to ensure no one gets hurt. I think I have probably been lucky in never being injured, as sometimes patients are so unwell it doesn’t matter what you do, but this is very rare.

If you are thinking about nursing, consider mental health nursing. Your local community team of hospital will be more than happy to talk to you about it. You could try being a hospital volunteer first to see if you like it. If it appeals to you, find out more. It may be the best decision you make.

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