after working on the psych unit i wonder why i am often so drained. true it is not the same back breaking sort of pain and exaustion from my experience on other units. instead i feel drained emotionally and mentally. in fact, i think a little part of me shuts down after working simply bc i cannot handle anymore interactions that suck even more attention and focus out of me. it takes me the drive home to recompose, recover, and be selfish for a bit. on a cardiac unit you would have tell tale symptoms and telemonitors in order to predict the patient's condition. you can at least predict what happens during or before a code or be geared toward how patients will respond to various interventions. whereas on the psych floor you are forced to have your guard up at all times. and the patient's mental state is constatly acute and ever changing as a result. i often catch myself with my guard down during down time. this is alarming because anything could happen at anytime and daydreaming poses a huge risk for all peoples on the unit. patients react appropriatly one second and often will have the opposite reaction the second you turn around. the mode of interaction with individual patients also require consideration. i often mentally prepare situations while i am on the unit in order to test my responses, reaction time, and intervening techniques. however, inevitably there is always a span of time when i just need to take a break and think about non work related issues. in some aspects i am eager to move onto the "jaded" part of psych nursing because by then i will be more seasoned and less frantic and obsessive about providing a stable environment. there are many things you can control on the floor but never the thought processes of human beings (and by no means should this right be taken away). eventually i hope to let this neverending nervousness go. thank goodness for the wonderful and supportive staff on the floor. i am so proud to be a part of the amazing team of pros and soon to be upping my position as a psychiatric RN :D