spunkymunkey

To Twigloo: I am from Massachusetts. McLean Hospital is one of the country's finest psychiatric hospitals. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard University. Here is their website www.mclean.harvard.edu. Good luck to you!

I decided before I even started nursing school that I wanted to be a psych nurse. I am hearing impaired and find Med/Surg very overwhelming noisewise and as much as I have an amplified stethoscope, it is taking it's told pulling the aids out and telling the patient that I can't hear them when they are out. It is very stressful, and I fear one of these days, pulling the aids out as much as I have to on a Med/Surg unit that I am going to lose them. My psych rotation was wonderful. My hearing aids stayed in and the floor was basically very quiet. The patients and staff were great. There is a psych hospital near my home that offers programs for new grads, with outstanding results!!! I'd like to hear from "seasoned" nurses as to whether they feel a year or 2 in med/surg is warranted in being a psych nurse. With the shortage, I was told by my instructors that the sky is the limit in nursing, and we don't need to "pay our dues" in Med/Surg before we go on to a speciality. I am also 50 years old, not too old, but also not very young!