Kaiser Scholarship--hot

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everybody!

Can I get some input/advice/suggestion from you? So here's the deal, I applied to a nursing program this year and the school that I applied to offers a scholarship. It's called a Loan Forgiveness program and the scholarship is funded by Kaiser Permanantance to give you money to go to school, but when apply to this scholarship, you have to sign a "contract" (sort of) to work for Kaiser 3 years after you graduate. If you were me, would you apply or not? What's some pros and cons? Reason I asked becuase some people told me not to apply becuase what if the job sucks later and you have to stick w/ it for 3 years, while others say apply becuase you are guarantee a job after graduate. You input is greatly valuable. Thanks in advance.

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Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

I personally wouldn't work for Kaiser.

I've had many problems with the Santa Clara Kaiser with my daughter who's an asthmatic. Things in the ER where she's barely breathing, 02 sats 90% and triage says, take a seat and if it gets any worse, let us know. HELLOOOOOO! She can't breathe, she's about to pass out-it ALREADY IS worse!! This has happened on more than one occasion.

I also have a friend who got her CNS and is helping to design and open the new cardiac surgery program for the new Kaiser that's being built off Lawrence Expy.

I also have a friend who works administration at Kaiser Santa Clara. He never comments on anything I have to say. :)

Kaiser's a for-profit HMO and if you search the web you will find tons of information about them.

I work with a few RN's who came from Kaiser and are much happier now.

ANyway, there are lots of choices of hospitals in the Bay Area. Do your homework. Is Kaiser the only one that offers payment for your schooling?

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Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

One other thing hello_nurse. There are plenty of jobs in the Bay Area for nurses. PLENTY. I would think that this is one of the reasons Kaiser makes this type of offer. It makes them more competitive. Some places offer ridiculous sign on bonuses. To me, this is a red flag. Why do these places have to make such offers? Do they have a hard time attracting and keeping nurses?

I wouldn't use having a secured job after school as a factor in making your decision. You can pretty much pick whatever job you want right now in this area and as far as I know, every single hospital in the area has a new grad program.

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i personally wouldn't work for kaiser.

i've had many problems with the santa clara kaiser with my daughter who's an asthmatic. things in the er where she's barely breathing, 02 sats 90% and triage says, take a seat and if it gets any worse, let us know. helloooooo! she can't breathe, she's about to pass out-it already is worse!! this has happened on more than one occasion.

i also have a friend who got her cns and is helping to design and open the new cardiac surgery program for the new kaiser that's being built off lawrence expy.

i also have a friend who works administration at kaiser santa clara. he never comments on anything i have to say. :)

kaiser's a for-profit hmo and if you search the web you will find tons of information about them.

i work with a few rn's who came from kaiser and are much happier now.

anyway, there are lots of choices of hospitals in the bay area. do your homework. is kaiser the only one that offers payment for your schooling?

actually, kaiser is considered to be non-profit. and actually goes beyond simply being an hmo (when our class was asked by one of our health profs how many were members of hmo, she explicitly excluded kaiser, because--even tho' kaiser is considered to be one of the first hmos, kaiser's organization is far more sophisticated (made up of several organizations) than other "hmo"s.

did you try talking to the kaiser patient rep when you had these problems? they have a huge membership in california, where something like 1 out of 3 californians is a member (so i've heard...)

on the opposite side, i have also heard that kaiser really encourages use of nps, crnas, etc.; that they have been instrumental in promoting advanced nursing practice in general.

i knew a nurse who worked at stanford who was seriously considering changing from stanford medical insurance to kaiser insurance. reason: it would take her 3 mos to get an appt. kaiser, at least, you can almost always get a same-day appt. i lost contact with her so don't know whether she did or not.

nursefirst

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Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

Whoops I forgot to post a comment with that link.

Yes, Kaiser is one of, if not the original "Manager Care" places.

I wish you luck in whtever you decide to do hello_nurse!

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very informative. Explains a great deal. I usually tend to be pretty skeptical of "the sky is falling" type pieces.

It is interesting to me, however, that one devout Christian Kaiser physician that I know retired from Kaiser, no thanks to Kaiser, but apparently due to stock market profits. Another person, a Kaiser psychologist, also didn't seem to fare too well. I guess Lawrence is raking it in on lots of ppls' backs.

You have to wonder what the influence is on health care, since KSC is a teaching hospital and has Stanford Med students doing clinical rotations there. Hmmmm.....

NurseFirst

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thank you very much! I really appreciated your comment and sorry it took me a while to reply :p

take care

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Interesting: I know several nurses who are happy with Kaiser. Their pay and benefits tend to be better than most. At one local hospital in my area, nurses are fighting for the same pension benefits that Kaiser nurses get.

As for the Kaiser papers, etc ... Is there any hospital, or chain of hospitals, that hasn't screwed up and had some malpractice issues? I don't know of any hospital that's immune from this.

This is what I like about Kaiser:

They broke from the other hospitals in California to support the ratio law.

When the bad news on Vioxx cardiac issues started to come out five years ago, they were ahead of everybody else and cut back on the drug, usually only prescribing it for elderly patients who truly were at risk for GI bleeds.

The British government has been using Kaiser as a model for their healthcare system, after a study determined that Kaiser delivered better services at the same cost as the British system. The federal Department of Health is also using Kaiser's computer system as a model for their systems.

They also have a 12 week new grad orientation program. That's a lot longer than other hospitals which, typically only give you six weeks.

I don't think they're saints but, I do think they tend to be better than other organizations.

As far as the scholarship/loan program, my understanding is that you can opt to pay the money back if you decide you don't want to work for them after you graduate.

Also, the loan amount is reduced for each year you work there. So, if you decide to quit earlier than planned, you won't have to pay the full amount back.

:coollook:

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Interesting: I know several nurses who are happy with Kaiser. Their pay and benefits tend to be better than most. At one local hospital in my area, nurses are fighting for the same pension benefits that Kaiser nurses get.

As for the Kaiser papers, etc ... Is there any hospital, or chain of hospitals, that hasn't screwed up and had some malpractice issues? I don't know of any hospital that's immune from this.

This is what I like about Kaiser:

They broke from the other hospitals in California to support the ratio law.

When the bad news on Vioxx cardiac issues started to come out five years ago, they were ahead of everybody else and cut back on the drug, usually only prescribing it for elderly patients who truly were at risk for GI bleeds.

The British government has been using Kaiser as a model for their healthcare system, after a study determined that Kaiser delivered better services at the same cost as the British system. The federal Department of Health is also using Kaiser's computer system as a model for their systems.

They also have a 12 week new grad orientation program. That's a lot longer than other hospitals which, typically only give you six weeks.

I don't think they're saints but, I do think they tend to be better than other organizations.

As far as the scholarship/loan program, my understanding is that you can opt to pay the money back if you decide you don't want to work for them after you graduate.

Also, the loan amount is reduced for each year you work there. So, if you decide to quit earlier than planned, you won't have to pay the full amount back.

:coollook:

Yes! it is true that if you decide not to work for them after you graduate, then you'll pay back the loan w/ 10% interest, and if you work for them then the amount is being reduced for each year as well. Thanks lizz for giving me another perspective on this. Appreciated. :rolleyes:

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Hello,

I understood the "payback" was two years work, not three. (If you're referring to SJSU's new accelerated program). There are other hospitals in this program: El Camino, Valley Med, Los Gatos community....

Have you already applied?

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I worked for Kaiser and I have to say, it was one of the best places that I have ever worked at. I worked at both Kaiser Oakland and San Francisco. The pay was great, staffing was better than other facilities in the area, and I thought the patients received very good care. No, it wasn't perfect, but I would put Kaiser at the top of my list.

And just to know, Kaiser has gone beyond the mandated ratio in many facilities and has a 1:4 on med/surg. They are at 1:5 in others.

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