[Tennesseeliving]

I just finished an assignment at Cleveland clinic in Weston, FL. Just wanted to shed some light on travelers who are interested in going there. My pay was $28/hr. I worked day shift and floated between SICU/CVICU and MICU. Overall my experience there was wonderful. The staff loves travelers and are often willing to help you out when you are in a bind. Even the doctors are friendly and approachable. The care is excellent and the doctors (for the most part) know what they are doing. The nurses do the doctors evaluations so you know they have been good to you. At the end of my assignment, the nurses there took me out for dinner and drinks. There is one nurse there who loves to go to South Beach and will take you out to party if you want to go.
Most of the patients are from money, but a lot of them don't act like rich snobs. They usually bring us food and snacks.

Okay, the cons: Open-visitation.....I have never experience open-visitation in the ICU, so for me it could be really stressful. The families would get in the way and distract you from your job. They would often freak out about small things and cause more agitation to the patient. I think after being there for a couple of months, I figured out that you need to train the families and have them participate in the care for the patient. This was benefiical for me b/c I would have the families help move my patient up in the bed, turn, or feed them. There is no hospital restrictions to what the family can and cannot do, so I used them as my assistants...ha,ha. I would go over what they can and cannot touch on the patient. Overall, I did enjoy the families after I trained them. I ended up becoming closer to them and some of them I stil stay in contact with.

Another con, is the pharmacy.....slow, and understaffed....need i say more?
I lived in Miramar which is a 20 min. drive. If you live in Miami....it will be a 45-60 min drive. So tell your recruiter not to house you down there.

Hope this helps.
Good luck!

[Runman1914]

I did a contract there on the med surg floor and it was a total nightmare!!! It was in 2002 so maybe things have improved. It was a total hotel. The families were the most demanding i have dealt with in my career. Security had to be called alot. The families ran the place. I did my 3 month contract and got the hell out!!

It was 9 to 10 patients per nurse. We were expected to set up meals and beds for families. Even at 2am. From my experience i would not recommend it to anyone!!

[Tennesseeliving]

You are right. Working the floors at Cleveland Clinic is a nightmare. The nurse to patient ratio is unfair and if I was a traveler for med-surg or tele, I would not recommend it. For ICU nurses, it is a nice place to go. I did forget to mention that they will float ICU nurses to telemetry and for anyone who never has worked the floor, it can be daunting. For ICU nurses, make it clear that you do not want to float to the floor and have them put it in your contract. Good luck!

[Runman1914]

Originally Posted by Tennesseeliving

You are right. Working the floors at Cleveland Clinic is a nightmare. The nurse to patient ratio is unfair and if I was a traveler for med-surg or tele, I would not recommend it. For ICU nurses, it is a nice place to go. I did forget to mention that they will float ICU nurses to telemetry and for anyone who never has worked the floor, it can be daunting. For ICU nurses, make it clear that you do not want to float to the floor and have them put it in your contract. Good luck!

Please o please tell me your secret with those families there. I have worked at over 20 hospitals in my 11 years and never seen families even close to what i dealt with there. When i was there we had an iranian family that was unreal. Every night at midnight we had to stop all nursing and remove all chairs from the waiting area. Then we had to lay blankets on the floor to their liking so they could do some religious thing. If the blankets were not perfect they became irate!! They stay for a month. Later found out they had fake insurance and the hospital ate a 500 thousand dollar bill.

I still have nightmares about that place and from what i have heard lately it is worse. Last year i spoke to a traveler that did a tele contract there and she had a million family horror stories. Worse than mine!!