The splitting is accurate in my experience too, though it’s still more than I’ve gotten for peds and gerontology. In my program we get either peds or maternity, not both, and the community health “clinical” was us packing medical equipment in a warehouse… Was med surg 2 considered high acuity? I’m in a BSN program as well. I definitely have my gripes with it, but I graduate this year so it’s almost over.

I’d have to respectfully disagree with mental health only being a blip in nursing school. We have an entire semester devoted to mental health nursing (both lecture and clinical), whereas other specialties like gerontology and pediatrics only get a lecture. Very much agreed that it’s a tough sell, especially with the amount of abuse psych nurses have to be prepared to go through. I know one who had her wrist broken by a patient and another who was stabbed in the head.

This is so well said and I can attest to all of it. Today I finished my mental health clinical that had us working in multiple inpatient psychiatric units at a local hospital. I saw some patients that have been on these units for months, including a patient who has been in the behavioral emergency department for 6 months.
The oversimplification of this systemic nationwide issue is so misleading. Yes, it’s awful these patients are not getting the treatment they desperately need and deserve, but where do we send them when every other facility they could go to has no open beds? Unless we get an influx of funding, staff, and facilities (both inpatient and outpatient clinics in the community) nothing is going to get better.