Pros
Job Security, Benefits, free parking.
Cons
Nursing staff are not being paid for over time. I'm frequently on the floor 30-60 minutes after my shift waiting to hand off patients to the next shift, management won't pay civilians for this time. It's against labor laws, but somehow they keep doing it. Leadership is really far removed from staff. They recently started implementing new falls safety procedures. Having a bed alarm on every patient doesn't prevent falls, adequate staffing does. Depending on unit management there's a lot of extra hoops to jump through. On my unit we're required to sign up for a working group (group that improves something on the unit/conducts various audits), however civilians are not allowed admin time to participate in these groups, and management can use this to negatively influence yearly raises (i.e. we're not participating). Most civilian hospitals require six 12 hour shifts in a two week period. At Tripler, we work seven 12 hour shifts, with an additional on-call day in a two week period. We're also required to attend a two hour staff meeting every month. Work life balance isn't very good. Not much room for growth. It's difficult for civilians to transfer to other specialties. Tripler doesn't like to civilian staff.