registered nurse

mental health technician

nurse educator

clinical nurse manager

Dover Behavioral Health System

For what it's worth, I worked there for over 5 years. For life of me I couldn't tell you why I didn't move on. 

It was great for the real-world experience, and a foot in the door job into this field. But for the love of God, as soon as you find something better, do yourself a favor and take it immediately. Don't let this job put you off mental health in general.

Management is splintered. "If we don't see a problem, then there is no problem" mentality. Some nurses do their job and more, some don't. I believe the employee retention is something along the lines of 50-60%, which is awful.

The environment is extremely chaotic, but that's the "Real World" for you. It is an acute mental healthcare facility, keep that in mind.

Mental Health Techs will be expected to wrestle patients to give them sedative medication. Zero backing for potential post incident injuries. (Just giving it to you straight)

MHT's will run groups, plan activities, take people to the cafeteria, supervise, train others, Q 15 checks, 1:1 DAP note documentation, putting out fires (damage control), Protective Holds, potentially care for emotionally and cognitively damaged adolescents and adults, One to One for dangerous patients, schizophrenia, personality disorders, depression, substance abuse. Some days there is a lot of screaming, yelling, and tears. Some days there's none of that. 50/50.

Lot's of different criteria to learn from if this is your career. If your a former corrections officer, I don't think you'll like this place, there are no tools to help maintain order; just your wits and grit.

Again, this is a high octane environment, enter at your own risk. In my humble opinion, the money doesn't justify the work. This job is not for everyone, and do not feel bad for not sticking around, DBH sure won't think twice. 

Good Luck

Started this job thinking I would be making a difference in the lives of d&a patients.  DBH claims that they will "never leave you alone" in the job description, what a joke, 2 days after coming out of orientation I was left alone on a units with over 15 patients and only one nurse working with me for a full shift.  Just remember the responsibilities are: 2-3 evening groups, getting patients to cafeteria for dinner, getting patients to an evening activity, doing paperwork for 7-3 next morning shift, getting progress notes done on each patient, and last but not least, getting all of this done in between doing mandatory 15-minute checks on each and every patient on that unit.   You will be told by the head charge nurses that "once we get people trained things will get better"...well after watching 3 different training classes get trained and 2.5 months later still no changes, I got to work at 3 for my shift, found out I was alone on the unit once again and had turned in my keys and badge to the head charge nurse by 3:15 and walked out!!!  Good luck to those who go there, just hold on to your sanity 

Unfortunately this survey will not be taking into consideration, because DBH is not serious aobut patient care.. I was excited about working for DBH when i arrived, I quickly learned that patient care turned into patient billing... The administration would rather look goood on paper by coaching nurses and staff what to write on progress notes, rather than give proper supervison or training to lay employess with seasoned experience,, DBH care is sub standad because 90% of staff Doctors,( Psychiatrist),social workers and MHT's all have other jobs, which leaves patient care in the toilet.

DBH is out dated they still have not instituted EMR, Holistic dining for health concious patients, they still use keys to unlock restricted areas, they have rooms that are not OSHA regulated, ( constantly flooding)... 

DBH is one of the oldest Mental Health facilities and should be the trailblazer and the model facility for the others, howerver it has become the least of the bunch, and i believe the State gives them Accredidation out of senority, and not because of care.

DBH OUT OF TOUCH

Overall I enjoy my work, I feel the field of mental health is very rewarding to be able to help other when they feel at their worst. The facility struggles with adequate staffing when really affects how well I can give care since I feel like I'm juggling so much at one time. The work/ life balance is terrible. It seems like they push for staff to come work as much as they can tolerate. I think the facility needs to address the lack of work-life balance. It a shame that a mental health facility seems to have such little regard for the mental health of it staff members. I feel management is unapproachable. I feel like I'm inconveniencing them whenever I bring anything up. They need better management and more staff training since groups are often run by unlicensed personnel. In its current state I would not recommend it for any of my family members.

As a nurse in a mental health setting, it is expected to deal with some behaviors.  What shouldn't be expected is the anxiety of wonder whether you will make it home safe or not.  The safest unit was the substance abuse unit.  Even though there was a unit designated for the more acutely psychotic, it wasn't uncommon to have violent patients on any other given unit.  I definitely enjoyed helping people, especially those with substance abuse problems, but when working the other units, you almost feel in survival mode.   From patients finding creative ways to try to hurt or kill you to the management not creating any changes or supporting the floor staff, I definitely cannot recommend this to anyone.  Only apply if you know mental health is your favorite area of nursing and you don't want to advance yourself at all.

Some of the staff members lack the compassion required to best serve the population. There were some really great people but the staff members who worked closely with patients needed to understand that their stay could be traumatic for them so they should be showing care. I was also stigmatized in my position as a previous consumer of services. I was called names and my coworkers made suggestions as if I had used substances or had a deadly disease. It was a stressful work environment. Not because of the patient most days, but because of the staff. When I was injured, my co-workers didn’t care much. I ended up experiencing burnout pretty quickly and resigned. I did enjoy the monthly and weekly meeting. It was nice to hear the overall progress of the organization. I also like spirit week which was fun. We got to dress up and there were plenty of events.

Shut up and do the overwhelming, outrageous assignments you are given. If you ask for help, we will assume you are an idiot and move you to another unit. The incompetent nurses who have been here for a while, are the DON's spies, (that's how they keep their jobs) so watch everything you do. The BHTs will sit and play on their phones, don't interrupt them; Or worse yet, ask them to do their jobs, if you do, they will laugh at you and complain about you to management. Many of them are also spies. You may be assaulted by dangerous, violent patients. If you are, we will blame you for "asking for it." And, finally, when we are tired of you and your needy, sniveling self, we will cook up some outrageous accusation to get you out the door. Don't work here if you care about your emotional and physical health and your sanity.

Typical work day is very stressful, not guaranteed a break, severely short staff , and chaotic . I learned a lot about mental health which is a plus. Management is HORRIBLE and i will leave it at that. It is a very diverse place with different cultured staff. Hardest part about working here is dealing with upper management. If new CEO,CNO, and  Hr Director can be implemented this place would have a positive turn around . The most enjoyable part is helping the patients, working close with some of the doctors and nurses , you meet some really good employees and the patients grow on you very fast 

The work culture is very deceiving. There is a lack of consistency in regards to what needs to be done from shift to shift. Mental Health Techs and Nurses are allowed to bully newer employees without repercussion. The building is constantly understaffed. When you ask can you get support for a number of different issues you will be told it'll get better without any problem solving. The patient to Mental Health Tech ratio is higher than what is told.  The synergy is off. You are told you are able to work as a team but when asked what you which group you want to do you are told you do not have a say because you are the junior staff member and the more senior staff member has all of the say in which groups that they want to do. 

A typical day was to attempt to produce 12-16 hours of productivity in an 8 hour time period. I found working closely with doctors to be very insightful in the fiel od mental health. Immediate Supervisor was very fair and open to listening, but I found upper management not to have any concerns for the staff in general. For the most part co-workers got along well, more so if they worked in the same department. The hardest part of the job was meeting the needs of the patients and attempting to meet the expectations of management. The most enjoyable part of the job was departmental meetings, working together to discuss ways that Social Workers could best serve the patients.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 5 salaries reported	$43.80 per hour
Mental health technician 3 salaries reported	$16.23 per hour
Nurse educator 2 salaries reported	$81,500 per year
Clinical nurse manager 2 salaries reported	$112,000 per year

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