Ep. 07 - Psychiatric Nursing: Unlocking the Locked Unit - Sarah Richards, MSN, PMHNP-BC
On this episode, we peek behind the curtain of the locked unit. Joining us to discuss psychiatric nursing was special guest, Sarah Richards, MSN, PMHNP-BC, who has worked as both an inpatient and outpatient psych nurse during her career. Calling on her unique experiences, Sarah sheds light on typical psych nursing patient populations, understanding psych ward codes, the effects of COVID on the psychiatric health community, and more.
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We Discuss
- (0:00) An introduction to Sarah and her nursing background
- (4:44) The typical patient population for inpatient and outpatient psych nursing
- (10:29) How to address patients with psychiatric issues
- (18:20) Understanding psych ward codes
- (22:09) The importance of specialty therapists in psych nursing
- (25:22) Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS)
- (37:09) Memorable stories from outpatient psych nursing
- (39:44) COVID effects on the inpatient psych community
- (45:43) The challenges and rewards of being a psych nurse
- (50:56) Areas of improvement for the psych nursing discipline
- (54:31) Advice for prospective psych nurses
About Sarah Riggleman Richards, MSN, PMHNP-BC
Sarah Richards is a newly certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She has seven years of psychiatric nursing experience, including four years working in an acute inpatient psychiatric hospital setting and three years of community case management. Sarah will be starting the next step of her career at an outpatient community clinic in Boston, where she currently resides with her husband and their three-legged golden retriever, Sydney. You can keep up with Sarah by following her on:
About the Show
Producer – Jonathan Cary
Assistant Producers – Katie Schrauben & Sam MacKay
Music & Editing – Aidan Dykes
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