Pros
You will work with an incredible diversity of patients across the hospital system (float to all units in the hospital responding to a psychiatric need, from adults to teens in inpatient psych units to SI patients throughout the hospital or TBI patients in Neuro). You will learn how to calmly handle quickly developing issues, such as a patient attempting to hurt themselves or staff, a patient attempting to leave the hospital system, behavioral and safety issues associated with the onset of a manic or psychotic episode, etc... Gain experience from the workers in the adult and adolescent psych centers, as well as coming across a variety of psychiatric issues and presentations. Variable and open schedule that would be convenient to students, including overnight shifts. Great experience for anyone coming into the field of psych.
Cons
Oftentimes left to fend for yourself for the majority of the shift, especially on non-psych units, as the nursing staff tend to have a high patient load and consider you to be a substitute for their care when assigned. (This can be combatted by engaging with nursing staff at the beginning of your shift, developing a rapport, and discussing what you will need to have a successful shift, typically this will result in nursing staff being a bit more attentive to your patient when need be.) The variety of patients mean you can sometimes sit in a room with a sleeping patient for 8 hours or sit with a patient in active psychosis or a TBI patient that requires close attention and care for 8 hours (not able to set expectations prior to your shift). Can be a very lonely position where you feel little social support as you are floated to new units consistently and aren't able to properly establish working relationships with other staff in a singular shift.