Harborview or Swedish?

[Icess64]

I wasn't sure where to put this, so hopefully I'm posting it in the right spot!

So it's come time to think about where I'm going to work (graduating in June-yay!). I am debating between Harborview Medical Center and Swedish, both in Seattle. I like the idea of Harborview more because they offer a well-established residency program for new grads whereas Swedish claims on it's web site that they don't have a formal residency program but they are sometimes available. I like the thought of having extra training for a specific hospital before I'm dropped into the crazy world of nursing!

So I was pretty set on Harborview as my first choice until someone told me that her friend works there and how she doesn't feel safe there. She was talking about how they've had to hire a ton of extra security because of several attacks on staff (sometimes even having to be escorted by security from one area in the hospital to another). I looked online for information and I found only one article talking about it, which talked more about the security guards feeling unprepared rather than the rest of the staff feeling unsafe. I'm not sure if the woman who told me this is exaggerating, or if I should really think twice before going there.

I know working there would be great experience, but as a new grad, I'll have enough stress to deal with without worrying about my safety all the time. I could use some input from people who work there, know people who work there, etc.

Also, any input from anyone at Swedish would be great too. Their website doesn't offter much info on opportunities for new grads. Any experiences with them would be great to hear about too. My head is spinning from trying to figure all this out! Help!

[JennieO]

I have worked at both Harborview for 12 years and Swedish for 7 years. I have never met a nurse personally who has been assaulted at HMC, nor have I met a nurse who has left HMC for Swedish. On the other hand, I worked in the ICU at Swedish and during a two year period, 15 Swedish ICU RNs left Swedish to go to HMC. I still run into many of them at HMC and nobody has any regrets. When Swedish needs RNs, they love you. When they have too many, and it happens, you are "restructured or laid-off" and treated like you are dirt. Again, that pension at HMC is certainly worth putting your time in--much better than Swedish's. Oh, and the MDs at Harborview treat you much better than the docs at Swedish.

[tamsonfirst]

I've worked at HMC for 1 year as a Nurse tech and have been hired as a New Grad RN to start in July. I have seen many unstable people in my time there but I have NEVER once felt unsafe. Security at Harborview is great, prompt. Also, public safety will escort you and even drive you to your vehicle after your shift 24 hours a day.

I chose HMC because I love the cultural diversity of the clientèle and the staff plus, because it is a public hospital, I feel like I am truly helping an under-served population. Swedish is a private hospital;they do have excellent employee perks and I have known nurses who are quite content there so, really, it all depends on where your heart is.

Hope this helps...

[aeauooo]

I've worked at HMC for 1 year as a Nurse tech and have been hired as a New Grad RN to start in July.

You might want to write about your RNI experience on the "Hosptials suck at orientation" thread. HMC was a great place to be a nurse tech and a new grad.

Congratulations, and good luck.

Just be careful who you pi$$ off.

[tamsonfirst]

Thanks for the encouragement and the reminder...I know all organizations have their positives and negatives. I am laboring on the assumption that if I can learn to be a good nurse there, I can work anywhere...

[aeauooo]

I am laboring on the assumption that if I can learn to be a good nurse there, I can work anywhere...

IMO, that is a very safe assumption.

[grad*student]

A man jumped out of his 5th floor window at Harborview yesterday. He's in critical condition. Be prepared to deal with lots of this kind of drama.

[tamsonfirst]

5th floor is Psych Unit, not surprising, but, believe it or not, that sort of thing doesn't happen very often. Yeah, lots of drama but you get used to it and it saves you the trouble of having to watch television!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/358387_jumper10.html

Here's the link...

[kriscoo]

baby RN what were your responsibilities on the Harborview surgical trauma unit? I just got an interview there and I would like to be really prepared.

Thanks!

[campbe11]

@maximus418: VMMC is really great. Can't say enough good things, but they are currently in a hiring freeze :/ I'll be lucky if I'll get the job I was verbally offered. The only negative I can think of is that they see a smaller patient population (lower census overall than the surrounding seattle hospitals). Hope this helps!

[diane227, LPN, RN]

I worked for years at the hospitals in the Texas Medical Center. Large teaching hospitals. I learned a lot but I REALLY learned and "made my bones" at the public hospital. You will not get the same quality of nursing experience anywhere else. You will see things at Harborview that you will never see anywhere else. If you can be a successful nurse there, you can do it anywhere. My husband works there in the Neuro ICU. They have great security there and they are VERY serious about it. I went there one night after I got off work (I am a nurse also) to get the house keys because he had locked me out and they would not let me in the hospital. They made me wait at the metal detector and he had to bring the keys down to me. You are safe in that hospital. A patient or visitor might try to assault you but you will get that type of thing no matter where you work. Your major danger area around any hospital is the parking lot and in the stairwells. As long as you use precautions, you can keep yourself safe. At Harborview they take the security of the staff very seriously and it is their top priority. My husband has told me stories of times when people got out of hand (like down in psychiatry) and security was right there, on the spot, to take action. And from what he says, they don't fool around. They are agressive with getting people under control. At least the security officers at Harborview have the authority to arrest someone. Not like at my hospital where we have "rent a cop" and they don't even carry pepper spray. They are totally useless.

[klhmc729]

I volunteered at Harborview for a couple years while I was working on my nursing prereqs and I loved it. I have no experience with Swedish, but I can say that I did not feel unsafe at Harborview at any time. Granted, I got to park in the garage there with my volunteer permit, but I'd give other employees rides to their car if they needed them, and HMC's safety unit will pick you up and drop you off at your car anytime you need it. The post above is correct - Swedish and Harborview are pretty darn close together (a five or ten minute walk), so anyone that you're likely to see loitering around in front of Harborview, you are just as likely to see at Swedish. I liked HMC because of all the different kinds of people and cases I saw, so I wouldn't rule out if you are looking for experiences that will challenge you and build you into a good nurse.

[LethaChristina]

Hi, I've worked at Swedish and Harborview... and also been a patient in both facilities. I do not think Seattle is a very good place for healthcare generally...especially having worked/been a serious visitor in other parts of the country. The amount of "psychiatric survivors" on the streets is legion (what does that say about psychiatry there--or anywhere?) When "healthcare" becomes "power" (who am I talking about here? having also participated in the same)... and people are not called "people", but less than human (even when their behavior indicates they are not functioning as a human) because of "the fault of the medical system" as well as the many, many myths WE have perpetrated as a society (including that we have the right to "intervene" in others' lives and life choices--i.e. "socialized medicine" causing people to lose their will to survive as well as the demonization of learning from mistakes and suffering, and the dignity of life and death). Having myself seen the results of "considering someone less than human and less than dignified" and the resulting loss of human identity--what can we expect? Needless to say, I am no longer welcome in any nursing capacity in Seattle--the "system" does not seem to tolerate change agency very well... too much money involved in the "status quo" apparently. By the way, VM is NOT known generally as a good place, either. Having had a friend's husband die from their incompetence, as well as an 18 y/o nephew with cancer of the roof of his mouth so badly mismanaged (he could easily have lost his life: this scholar-student and star football player)--whose family could not afford the kind of care he needed... so his treatment was delayed to a dangerous point by VM (why was not he referred to where he could get immediate care?)--and when the intervention came, it was a total disaster. There many such "case histories" there I could give you, but won't. I have had other friends move out of Washington, as well... the reason? "It is a police state" (quotes from a friend, a Sorbonne-educated artist). When forced-detention is done to un-sick and politically-active people--as recently I quoted the supervisor of defense attorneys for the county as saying to me over the phone--and to "many", I'm sorry--it's pretty grim out here! Call it the effects of "liberalism" if you will--I say we educated people have a general lack of humility and a good deal of "following the herd mentality" in order to 'get along'" to perpetrate our own well-being.