Nursing Training

McLean’s Nursing Department offers training for undergraduate and graduate nursing students focused on psychiatric nursing.

In order to facilitate these training opportunities, the Nursing Department has contracts in place with many local colleges and universities in the Boston area including Boston College, Northeastern University, Regis College, University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professionals, and Curry College. Students should consult with their school’s faculty regarding available positions.


Undergraduate Nursing Students

Undergraduate students may complete a practical semester at McLean. Working in an inpatient unit, training focuses on the assessment, reassessment, individualized care planning, interventions, and outcomes of psychiatric nursing practice. Instructors from the various undergraduate schools of nursing accompany, teach, and directly supervise the students’ practice.

How to Apply

All clinical placements are arranged by the Nursing Department’s coordinator of staff development working directly with representatives from the contracted schools of nursing.


Senior Nursing Student Synthesis Practicum

Undergraduate seniors may specialize in psychiatric nursing during their senior synthesis practicum. These placements are for those who have completed an undergraduate psychiatric clinical rotation and are a semester in length. Students may request a particular specialty or diagnostic category and efforts are made to accommodate these requests.

The synthesis semester is a practical experience where the student observes and learns the role of the psychiatric staff nurse attends rounds with the interdisciplinary team, learns crisis intervention techniques and ways to support a safe patient environment, and participates in patient and family teaching and aftercare planning. Students are paired with a registered nurse on a unit and work the staff nurse’s schedule. The mentoring staff nurse retains accountability for all patient care delivered by the student. Supervision and evaluation of the student is completed by the staff nurse in collaboration with the student’s faculty.

How to Apply

Interested students may solicit their own school of nursing placement advisor who then arranges such an experience with the Nursing Department’s coordinator of staff development.


Advanced Practice Nursing Placements

Graduate level student nurses are matched with an advanced practice nurse at McLean Hospital who supervises clinical care. The student has an individualized educational plan and learns about current psychopharmacological, behavioral, biological, and dynamic approaches in psychiatric nursing. The supervisory advanced practice nurse from McLean works in collaboration with faculty to evaluate the student’s performance.

How to Apply

Registered nurses actively enrolled in a psychiatric master’s degree or nurse practitioner program in universities contracted with McLean Hospital may apply for graduate level placements through their school faculty.