Psychiatric mental health nursing is one of the specialties within the nursing field, and the nurses who choose to work in this profession help to take care of the physical as well as the mental needs of the patients for whom they care. The nurses will be able to offer assessments of the patients, help to treat those patients and their families who have psychiatric disorders, and more. These nurses through the use of therapeutic relationships provide psychosocial interventions including assisting the patients with activities of daily living as necessary with a special focus on patient safety. These nurses are also responsible for medication administration as prescribed by the physician and monitoring patient’s responses to the drugs. Learn Great and Valuable Skills When one pursues a psychiatric nursing specialty, they will learn a host of valuable interpersonal skills that compliments their other clinical skills. They work with both young and old. You will find a number of different routes that you will be able to take in this field. It is even possible to find and choose a sub-specialty if it suits you. For example, you may find that a career working as a psych nurse in the field of adolescent or child health would be a good fit. Others may rather work in gerontology. Others still might want to work with those who abuse drugs. A career in forensics could be in order as well. As you can see, the specialty field of psychiatric mental health nursing is just the beginning. You will have many other options once you are in the field, and you will be able to choose a job about which you feel passionate. Schooling Your basic nursing education will provide you entry level skills in caring for psychiatric patients. If you want to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist you are also going to need to obtain your master’s and perhaps a doctorate because of the advanced skills and knowledge that you are going to need to have for this advance level of practice. These degrees will also allow you to work in certain roles that you would not be able to otherwise. In addition to the advanced degrees, you will find that these jobs are going to pay even better than some of the other nursing opportunities out there do. Is It the Right Fit? You might be wondering if working in this field is going to be the right fit for you or not. It is a good idea to start researching this area of practice before you choose it as a specialty. In addition, you are going to want to find some psychiatric mental health nurses and then speak with them about what their professional life is like and what they do on a daily basis. The more you learn about the job now the easier it is going to be to know if it is a good choice for your career.
