Psychiatric Nurse

The Position

This is a continuous filing exam. Next filing cut-offs are at 5:00 pm on: 3/16/26, 5/18/26, 7/20/26, 9/14/26, 11/16/26. Note: Vacancies may be permanent or intermittent on-call (per-diem). Shift differential may be available in addition to base salary. PM (swing) shift - 5%. Noc (grave) - 10%. Weekend-$1.00 per hour worked. Note: For additional nursing opportunities please see Registered Nurse DCF Level I/II, Public Health Nurse Level I/II. Psychiatric Nurse performs professional nursing duties in the care of mentally ill and emotionally disturbed patients; advises and collaborates with other staff and interdisciplinary health treatment teams in diagnosis and treatment planning for such patients; and, assists and participates in various administrative and mental health program activities.

Examples of Knowledge and Abilities

Knowledge of professional nursing principles, procedures, and techniques used in the care and treatment of psychiatric patients; social, psychological, and physical factors of mental and emotional disorders; medical and psychiatric terminology; medications, including narcotics and their effects upon psychiatric patients; control procedures, preparation, and administration of medications; state of California laws and regulations on nursing practices; basic laws and regulations pertaining to psychiatric nursing and treatment of the mentally ill; basic theories, principles, and techniques of group and individual psychotherapy; basic general procedures and organization of mental health treatment facilities and multidisciplinary treatment teams; symptoms and behavior patterns of emotionally disturbed and mentally ill patients; standard professional methods of physically restraining psychiatric patients; medical and social community resources available to patients; first aid. Ability to apply professional psychiatric nursing care principles and practices in the evaluation and treatment of psychiatric patients; communicate with and gain the cooperation of patients; keep accurate written charts and records of patient activities and progress; learn and comply with laws, rules, regulations, protocols, and procedures, including security requirements, applicable to the work unit; use professional judgment to determine and apply appropriate intervention techniques with patients in crisis; work cooperatively with other mental health treatment practitioners to provide an integrated treatment plan; conduct and review reports of interviews of patients to evaluate their condition and determine the circumstances causing them to require mental health treatment services; conduct and assist in formal and informal individual and group counseling; assist in and physically subdue resisting patients with a minimum of force necessary to effect a restraint; communicate effectively, orally and in writing, with patients, their families, facility and clinic personnel, and others; maintain patient confidentiality.

Employment Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications Possession of a current Registered Nurse license issued by the State of California. Note: If the minimum qualifications include an educational or certificate/license requirement, applicants must submit proof of requirements with the application. Failure to submit proof of requirements may result in disqualification from the examination. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable. For guidelines on submitting acceptable proof of educational requirements, please click here or speak to someone in our office before the final filing or cut-off date listed in this notice. General Qualifications Certificates/licenses: All persons appointed must possess and maintain a current Registered Nurse license issued by the State of California. Failure to maintain such license may be cause for disciplinary action in accordance with Civil Service Commission Rules. All persons appointed will be required to have, or obtain, and maintain a valid CPR certificate. Note: Individuals who do not meet these requirements due to a physical disability will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Special Requirements Background/Criminal History: The County may access criminal history information on all candidates who have accepted a conditional offer of appointment for the above job class consistent with the provisions of the Board of Supervisors Resolution No. 82-602, Personnel Policies and Procedure and applicable federal and state law. The County shall not consider for employment any candidate who has been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor that relates to or impacts the candidate's ability to perform the job duties of this class unless it is determined that mitigating circumstances exist. For purposes of accessing criminal history information, the candidate will be fingerprinted. A subsequent arrest notification may be obtained. The County may also conduct a background check on the candidate prior to appointment to a position within this class. The background check may include personal and professional reference checks, credit history check, Social Security Number verification, professional license/registration verification, military service information and driving history. Information obtained in the course of this background check will be considered by the appointing authority in the selection process. In obtaining such information, the County will comply with applicable consent and disclosure practices in the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act. Physical Abilities: All persons appointed must be physically able to restrain and assist in restraining patients. Persons appointed may be required to work evenings, nights, weekends and holidays. Psychiatric health facilities such as the County's Mental Health Treatment Center are licensed and regulated by the California State Department of Mental Health Services; such regulations include staffing and personnel standards which may apply to the class and may supersede the above minimum qualifications. CHILD AND ELDER ABUSE REPORTING: Persons selected for employment must, as a condition of employment, sign a statement agreeing to comply with Section 11166 and 11160 of the California Penal Code relating to child and elder abuse reporting. Probationary Period The probationary period for this classification is six (6) months.

Application and Testing Information

Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply immediately. All applicants must complete and submit an online County of Sacramento employment application by 5:00 PM on the posted cut-off date. Employment applications and all documentation requested in this announcement must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on the cut-off date. Your application should highlight all relevant education, training, and experience, and clearly indicate how you meet the minimum qualifications for the position as of the cut-off date. Application information must be current, concise and related to the requirements in this job announcement. You may only apply for this recruitment once. Duplicate and incomplete applications will be disqualified. A resume may be included with your application, however it will not substitute for the information requested on the application. Applicants are required to provide a full and complete response to each supplemental question. The Supplemental Questionnaire is located in the tab marked "Supplemental Questions". Please be descriptive in your response. Note: Responses of "See Resume" or "See Application", or copy and paste of work experience are not qualifying responses and will not be considered. Supplemental Questionnaires must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on the cut-off date. The supplemental questions are designed to elicit specific information regarding a candidate's experience, education, and training. Responses should be consistent with the information on your application and are subject to verification. Please provide place of employment, pertinent dates, and concise, descriptive and detailed information for each question. If a job included responsibilities applicable to several questions, separate the different functions of the job to answer all the questions completely. Resumes or referral to the application or other questionnaire responses will not be accepted in lieu of completing each question. If you have no experience, write "no experience" for the appropriate question. For many individuals, it is more efficient to develop responses to the supplemental questions in a word processing document and then paste them into the final document to be submitted. Changes or corrections to your Supplemental Questionnaire cannot be made once your application packet has been submitted. If the Supplemental Questionnaire is used in the Formula Rate exam, failure to complete all of the questions or incomplete responses will result in a lower score. While scoring the Supplemental Questionnaire, the candidate's application and/or attachments will not be reviewed, therefore, a candidate's responses to the questions should be accurate, thorough, detailed, and complete. All candidates meeting the minimum qualifications by the cut-off date will have their Supplemental Questionnaire scored in the Formula Rate Examination. This examination will evaluate the relevance, level, recency, progression and quality of candidate's education, training and experience. The candidate's application or other materials will not be included in this examination. Therefore, the candidate's responses to the supplemental questionnaire should be thorough, detailed and complete. The score from the Formula Rate Examination will determine the ranking on the eligible/employment list for this job. All candidates competing in the testing process will receive written notice of their examination results by email. Notices can also be accessed in their governmentjobs.com inbox. Applicants achieving a passing score will be placed on the eligible list in rank order. The rank is determined by the test score attained from the examination.