Pros
Pay rate is great. Benefits are free for now for those who are SEIU but you’re forced to see a Dignity Health doctor which puts you at risk for being cared for by a co-worker and forces you to be hospitalized at a Dignity Health facility unless you want to pay hundreds out of pocket.
Cons
There’s no human kindness in this department. Don’t let that campaign fool you. The floor is always short. When the CNAs are short staffed the LVNs pick up their workload. At times one LVN would be assigned 9 patients with some of them being total care. That means on top of your normal busy assignment, you will be showering and changing diapers. Good luck finding anyone to help. They’re too busy. Management thinks it’s ok to call an employee after they’ve called off to tell them that they have to come into work. If a family member dies, management will call you to verify that you’re not lying. As if you’re not emotionally damaged enough in that moment. If you have a disability management will harass you about it when you’re at work and on your off days. There’s a lot of bullying from the staff. Management preys upon the weak and has no problem telling you how dumb you are. Yes the word dumb is actually used. At the first meeting I attended, the manager was upset about I&Os. Those who didn’t chart them found themselves wearing a dunce cap for duration of the meeting. The manager rolled a green piece of paper into a cone and had them place it upon their heads. I’ve never worked in a more toxic and unprofessional environment. Some of the RNs are great but there are a handful who follow you around to check your work and secretly tell on you instead of confronting you. I’m sure you’re wondering if HR is aware of all this. Yes they are but they don’t do much about it which enables the behavior and makes management feel invincible. There’s a union but they don’t do much either. The department is so bad that most reps and stewards refuse to deal with it. This is only speaking about the NCU. I never heard bad things about any other departments but other departments know of the toxicity and unprofessionalism of the NCU. After you tell someone from another department that you work in the NCU, they look at you with pity and then apologize that you have to work in those conditions. When I was applying for other jobs the manager would talk bad about me to the other employer so I wouldn’t get the job. You must have very thick skin to work in a place like the NCU.
