Select Specialty Hospital

renerian, BSN, RN · Jun 27, 2003

I had one say horrible things but four said they loved it and learned alot! They all said due to the complexity of the client they had a very good team approach. One said they did primary care not team which surprised me. I emailed the agency today to get benies information.........as the manager did not have that informaiton......

renerian

1996RN · Jun 28, 2003

i worked at select specialty hospital for about a year, back in 1997-1998. i didnt care for it all that much. it seemed like an over-hyped nursing home, for the most part. yes, there was the occasional younger person who really had hope for recovery, but a lot of them were just kinda hanging out there. i did work a lot in the 'high observation' unit, where the pts were on vents, and i learned a lot about vents, and not to be scared of them. but yes, there are a ton of dressing changes, very nasty bedsores and things like that. if you are not into wounds and fecal impactions, it's not the best place to work. dont get me wrong, the staff was very nice and it was a decent quality place, but it wasnt for me. i worked both days and nights throughout the year, and days was soooo much busier, with all of the different allied health people there... occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, yada yada. nights was more laid back. anyway, i hope i didnt confuse you too much! if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Agnus · Jun 28, 2003

I worked at one SS. Not the one you are applying to. I can only speak for the one I worked at. The above discriptions are accurate. I cut my teeth there as an new LPN and then as a new RN. Excellent place to learn. If they will hire you as a new grad go for it.

Agnus · Jun 28, 2003

P. S. their current medical insurance sucks. They are terrible when it comes to claims. (Blue shield of Pensylvania) There 401K is with Fidelity. I lost money consistently with them.

Pay is competetive with the local community. (the pay at each select is different according to where you are) The first 3 years you get 144 hrs, PTO per year. Your sick time, hollidays and everything is figured into that. 6 holidays a year IF YOU WORK the holiday you get time and a half. They use Delta dental and it is a good plan. Then they have the usual life disability etc.

obviously I am not excited about the bennies other wise I recomend it.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2003

Thanks angus and damy. I know they have 30 beds with 22 vents when I was there. A couple young but mostly older folks. I thought I could learn alot with vents. When I worked on the BMTunit we shipped them to the unit ICU if they were intubated as we could not special, 1on1, them. WE did do CVP lines, dopamine drips, insulin drips, tons of blood and of course chemo. I have never done tele so they said they would teach me that....

I had money with Fidelity and lost a bundle........

renerian

ageless · Jun 29, 2003

I work at a SS hospital this week. The staff was very inexperienced and disorganized. I was quite disappointed, after reading this thread, I expected better patient care.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2003

I wonder if the staff was new? That is a good observation. Can I ask I assume you worked agency ageless? did they have alot of vents when you were there?

renerian

ageless · Jun 29, 2003

No, I don't do agency. I am contracted to do occassional bedside procedures....sometimes on an emergency basis.

No lab is available on this site (labs go by cab to a hospital..stat has a whole new meaning) Pharmacy hours are 8am at 5 pm. The supervisor has the key to the pharmacy after hours.

Staff turn-over is a whirlwind. Many vented patients. Codes are run by the floor nurses (no code team or MD) and RT, because there is no other staff in house, boy..that is an example in chaos!

Many of the staff have been coaxed to hire on there from the local nursing homes so their skills are more toward chronic rather acute. Many fresh grads on the floors coupled with nurses aids. LPNs function as primary nurse for a group of patients, leaving an RN from another team to do their IV pushes..etc. I see it more as an acute hotel....I hate going there because of the liability.

I do notice many in-services available

Sorry, but there are two in my area and I can only speak of my experiences. Of course, situations can differ area to area.

Best Wishes!

renerian, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2003

Thanks ageless. I wanted honest observations and I appreciate your input....

renerian

Ortho_RN · Jun 29, 2003

Wow... The Select Specialty near me sounds ok actually... They are on the 6th Floor of one of our hospitals, 30 bed unit... The nurses DO NOT have to run their own codes, they pay the code team in the hospital to do it... The nurses seem extremely happy. They get to make their own schedules, OT is great gets up to like $50/hr after 36hrs in a week....

There main complaint is alot of people don't know about select so they end up have a bunch of Agency nurses coming in.... They do have LPNs but they take the less complicated patients (long term antibiotics, wounds, etc) Leave the RNs for the Vent pts and the really bad ones...

They had one patient who would not eat anything, and the manager went in and asked what she wanted and she wanted a specific dish from her favorite restaurant, so for the next 3 or 4 days the manager went to the rest. and ordered this lady what she wanted to get her better.. :)

Brita01 · Jun 29, 2003

The Select Specialty Hospital in this area (about an hour away from me) started off really good. I've worked there as an agency nurse several times. The ratio on nights was 5 patients per nurse and there were more than enough CNAs (4) that also did blood sugars and assisted with wound care. Everyone was happy. The meds given and paperwork done on each patient was tremendous, but having only 5 patients, allowed for getting it all done and leaving on time in the morning. Several months went by and I went back again. What a change! The nurses had 7 patients (several ventilators and telemetries on the floor), there were only 2 aides, who of course no longer did blood sugars because they just didn't have time. The staff, which had once been friendly and helpful, had become snappish. The tremendous meds and paperwork was the same, and there was no getting out of there on time in the mornings. I stopped going there. A couple of months later I saw one of their nurses working at another Long Term Acute Care facility. I asked her what in the heck had happened, it had once been such a nice place to work. "New management," she said. They had ruined a good facility.

renerian, BSN, RN · Jun 29, 2003

Wow brita thanks for your insight. i know they are a 30 bed facility, 22 vents the day I was there, with 5 to a team/one tech/aide to a team with one RN. They had a RT on staff 24/7 with day hours for pharmacy and weekend hours oncall for the pharmacist/who came in for five hours on saturday.

I have gotten about a 50/50 split from several nursing clubs saying some bad/some good. It seems to depend alot on the facility.

Again everyone, thanks for the input.

renerian