ABSMC, Berkeley

HELLOOO!!! There MUST be at least one person who works at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center out of over 150,000 members, right?[mouse]ABSMC[/mouse]

I worked there from 2002 to 2005. What is your question?

I will be working there soon and I just wanted some information about the facility. What was it like? Did you enjoy working there? Pay rates? That sort of thing.

I will be working there soon and I just wanted some information about the facility. What was it like? Did you enjoy working there? Pay rates? That sort of thing.

Sutter Health (of which ABMC is part of) and Kaiser has the highest pay rates and best benefits in the SFBA. I made the most money of my life there and only left to return to school. There is a union, which is both good and bad.

Parking can be a problem. Monthly parking is expensive, and you can sign up for the car pooling only twice a year. Many employees carpool. Your best bet is finding a coworker to carpool with, or ride a bike if you live close enough. The weather is nice enough most of the year to bike :) There is $5/day parking in the "pharmacy lot" if there is space available, which you can ask a regular about when you get there. You can find street parking, but you have to park a few blocks away to avoid the 2hour street parking limits. Berkeley will fine and ticket your car.

The cafeteria closes at 2:30 on the weekends, which is a PIA, but Whole Foods is across the street, open til 10pm. They should have given us a discount for all the pt's families we sent there!!! There are places that will deliver. Telegraph Avenue has many high quality inexpensive (compared to CT!!!!!) eateries, as Berkeley is a great university town with lots of housing, movie theaters, bookstores, and is very closes to SF by BART.

Much depends on the floor you'll be working on. Before the CA mandated staffing ratios, I heard and read on many message boards complaints about terrible short staffing on many of the med surg units, but this situation must have improved with minimum staffing laws. I've heard mixed things from RNs about the critical care units. I worked in L&D, which while it had its problems (all jobs do) overall it was the best OB job I ever had for specific reasons. Summit Hospital, also Sutter, is down the street in Oakland and has a reputation for being more "diverse," ie more poor and public aid pts than ABMC. 2 years ago ABMC and Summit had problems with JCAHO. My friends there tell me they were just inspected again.

Good luck. Hopefully you'll get more answers here.

:thankya: Thank you Anon Nurse. You have given me so much information and there were quite a few things that I had'nt even thought of such as carpooling. That will be difficult for me as I don't know anybody there yet. Hopefully I will be living close enough to cycle there and the nice weather will make it easier. It seems that you enjoyed working there and of course as you say, there are problems in any job no matter what the job is. I just hope things will be more good than bad as I will be under a contract for at least 18 months. Thanks again for your help and good luck with your studies.

Sutter Health (of which ABMC is part of) and Kaiser has the highest pay rates and best benefits in the SFBA. I made the most money of my life there and only left to return to school. There is a union, which is both good and bad.

Parking can be a problem. Monthly parking is expensive, and you can sign up for the car pooling only twice a year. Many employees carpool. Your best bet is finding a coworker to carpool with, or ride a bike if you live close enough. The weather is nice enough most of the year to bike :) There is $5/day parking in the "pharmacy lot" if there is space available, which you can ask a regular about when you get there. You can find street parking, but you have to park a few blocks away to avoid the 2hour street parking limits. Berkeley will fine and ticket your car.

The cafeteria closes at 2:30 on the weekends, which is a PIA, but Whole Foods is across the street, open til 10pm. They should have given us a discount for all the pt's families we sent there!!! There are places that will deliver. Telegraph Avenue has many high quality inexpensive (compared to CT!!!!!) eateries, as Berkeley is a great university town with lots of housing, movie theaters, bookstores, and is very closes to SF by BART.

Much depends on the floor you'll be working on. Before the CA mandated staffing ratios, I heard and read on many message boards complaints about terrible short staffing on many of the med surg units, but this situation must have improved with minimum staffing laws. I've heard mixed things from RNs about the critical care units. I worked in L&D, which while it had its problems (all jobs do) overall it was the best OB job I ever had for specific reasons. Summit Hospital, also Sutter, is down the street in Oakland and has a reputation for being more "diverse," ie more poor and public aid pts than ABMC. 2 years ago ABMC and Summit had problems with JCAHO. My friends there tell me they were just inspected again.

Good luck. Hopefully you'll get more answers here.

Just wondering-what are the rates for RNs there (you can give me a scale). I worked at CPMC in SF for 2 years and they were known as the highest pay (I think it's pretty much b/c the campus I was at was nonunion). New grads start at 40/hour there now and they basically give all nurses a 6-8% increase each year.

Just wondering-what are the rates for RNs there (you can give me a scale). I worked at CPMC in SF for 2 years and they were known as the highest pay (I think it's pretty much b/c the campus I was at was nonunion). New grads start at 40/hour there now and they basically give all nurses a 6-8% increase each year.

I can't tell you the pay scale. Wow, 40/hr for a new grad? Amazing. I think it was low 30's for a new grad when I was there just a couple of years ago. (New RNs here in CT make, I think, in the mid-20's!!!) I wonder what more experienced RNs make? I know they don't increase it 6-8%/year; I forget what the last contract negotiation won, but I don't think it was over 8% over a 3 year period (my memory is faulty here). Nursing is notorious for pay compression (pay for new grads keeps creeping upwards but not pay for experienced RNs). CPMC is also with Sutter; don't they all have the same pay scale? Aren't all the Sutter hospitals unionized?

The other thing I liked about the "Bates" is the founding mother of the hospital, as it were, was an actual nurse, Alta Bates. There is a huge portrait of her with the story in the main lobby.

Hi all

I am a British RN, coming to work at the Summit medical Centre on ICU later in the year. has anyone got any advice or information I might find useful. I am bringing my wife and 2 children with me (8 & 12). any advice re housing and school districts would help too!!

Any help or advice welcomed

Adrian

Hi all

I am a British RN, coming to work at the Summit medical Centre on ICU later in the year. has anyone got any advice or information I might find useful. I am bringing my wife and 2 children with me (8 & 12). any advice re housing and school districts would help too!!

Any help or advice welcomed

Adrian

Welcome to the states, Adrian! Your best bet is to check out this website, http://parents.berkeley.edu/ There is a wealth of information about the SFBA, schools, housing, &c. Sign up for the email lists. The staff are on vacation this month, so they are not putting out the newsletters until August. You can introduce yourself on the email lists and get answers to your questions there. I would think there is a good sized British expat community in the SFBA. You can also check out http://www.craigslist.org

I work at ABSMC at the Alta Bates campus in the NICU. Parking is a major hassle. You have to carpool to park in the garage unless you work night shift then, you get a night pass. If you don't carpool, it is $12 a day to park in the garage. Other options are the pharmacy down the street that just increased their rates with our raise to $7 a day. You can also park out in the community and move your car every two hours but, the hospital looks down on this. They don't want us upsetting the community. Personally, I love working here especially, in my unit. I work with the greatest people ever. We have a lot of fun. Pay scale I think is very good. I think it starts somewhere in the $40/hr range. I'm currently at $55 but, I've been with Alta Bates for over 15 years. Our contract expires in 2007 and I'm sure our rates will go up again. Cafeteria is now closed on the weekends so, make sure you bring your dinner or you will be vending it. During the week it closes at 7pm so, you need to get out to dinner or run down and buy your dinner before that time. JCAHO did visit us again and you'll be happy to know we PASSED! The hospital also has shuttle service to two BART stations and they provide discounted BART tickets through work. BARTs last train leaves at Midnight so, it's not convenient for pm shift unless you really hussle your butt out the door at the end of the shift.

I hope this helps. Welcome! I think you will like it here. Everyone is very nice and we appreciate each and every new person that arrives.