massive anxiety on daily basis

[PAdreamt]

I'm a new grad and have been working in psych for 3 months.  My patient load is 8 patients per day max and I  get 45 min for new patients and 30 min for follow ups. I experience CONSTANT CHRONIC DAILY ANXIETY about getting sued. I overthink every little detail and if a patient is upset with me I stay up for nights thinking about it. My sleep has dwindled away and my spouse is so sick of me coming home and worrying about work. I don't know how you guys do it but I feel so stressed. I'm already an anxious person by nature but this is a new level. Not to mention I don't know all the tips and tricks and ins and outs of how to protect myself all the right ways so I think I keep missing stuff. I have a great SP but he's very busy and sees patients all day long. I'm not able to reach out to him at all hours of the day. So I try to write down all my questions and talk to him end of the week, otherwise I'm completely autonomous and see any and every patient that comes through the door. I feel like sometimes i dont know what I dont know and my biggest fear is getting sued. Its very draining daily and making me miserable. I just needed to get this off my chest. 

[ohiovolffemtp]

At 3 months in, you're just learning what you don't know.  Some anxiety is normal.  Maybe yours is excessive, I can't say.  Several things:

• talk to other PA's working in psyche: ask them how long it took them to feel comfortable.  Most likely it was years, probably at least 3.
• focus on learning a few of the "most commons" at a time.  It's better to gradually build mastery a few things at a time than to show gradual improvement across the board but no mastery for a long time.
• Get some realistic data on how often psyche providers are sued, and what percent of those suits actually go anywhere.  Don't listen to the horror stories that some educational programs tell - they're interested in selling you their course on how to avoid them.  Talk to your SP about how often suits really happen, what really triggers them, and how many actual lead to some sort of payment.
• Get a perspective on which mistakes are actually major vs "it could have been better" - most are in the latter.

At this point, you're goal should still be to be the promising learner - NOT the skilled provider.  That takes years.