Psych RN salary?

[TAE, RN]

Fellow nurses, I have a prospective job at an adult inpatient psychiatric hospital. I was just wonder what the typical pay is as an RN at a psych hospital. I think I'll be working nights in intake. I'm in Houston, TX. I have 3.5 yrs med surg experience. Thanks!

[verene, MSN]

In my neck of the woods (north western US) adult in-patient with some nursing experience would start at about $37-38/hr base pay + differential for nights and weekends, but our pay in general seems to be a bit higher than other areas of the country.

[RatchedAfterMidnight, MSN, APRN]

In DFW the starting salary for new grads in psych is on average $4/hour more than medical/surgical nursing as it is a specialty area. New grads flock to the medical hospital but not necessarily psychiatry. After 2 years of experience in psych inpatient that jumps to $30/hr, 4 years of experience $33-35/hr. That's in DFW, on an inpatient floor. Intake pays lower as you are doing assessments and not managing patients on the floor, up to 10-25% lower. There is so much to know in psych, definitely a learning curve but I hope that gives you an idea of what to ask for.

[SDStudent1]

Socal: $48 with benefits | $59 per diem. More with differentials. Probably another 5 -7 in differentials if on nights . Depends on where you work though. I worked for county an the pay was half of what I got in hospital locked unit

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

In the Northeast psych RNs get around $30, plus whatever differentials. From what I've seen, psych nurses here are paid less than medical. For NPs, it's the opposite.