St. Joesph Mercy-Oakland

I don't know what the starting pay is. I did my Peds rotation there and the HR person came to talk to us about working at St. Joe's Oakland. One of the questions we asked her is how long is the GN orientation. She said they don't have a limit on it. You start out with say, 6 weeks and if at the end of that time you don't feel comfortable they extend the orientation. One time they paired a GN up after 6 weeks with an experienced nurse so she wouldn't feel all by herself. she had the experienced nurse there backing her up until she felt more comfortable. Kind of a bridge between orientation and off orientation. She said they found nurses were starting at St. Joe's, doing orientation and then leaving because they felt overwhelmed at being on their own, so they started to let everyone have what they need for orientation, not a set amount of weeks. U of M said they do the same thing - extend orientation if you need it to feel comfortable. St. Joe's also said they bring in nurses off the floor to sit with the managment and help in making the decisions that the nurses have to live with. Can't say how this is working but it sounds good - nurses having a voice in their jobs. St. Joe's isn't a flashy new hospital but what struck me was that the employees were so nice. The nurses in Peds and OR were wonderful. And I did a day at the ambulatory surgery center. it was like a family - everyone helping each other out. And the scrub tech who had been a scrub tech for 10 years said they all have bad days but there is always someone to bring you up when you are down. Speaks a lot for St. Joe's I think. They also offer tuition reimbursement. I think you get $600 every 6 months. You just show them you graduated and they reimburse you. Not sure what the limit is if any or if they just keep going until you have whatever your school cost you. This is only St. Joe's Oakland. The one in Ann Arbor doesn't offer tuition reimbursement the HR person said.