Albany Medical Center Review?

[CardiTeleRN, BSN]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to go ahead and post my experience working at Albany Medical Center as a travel nurse. I feel that our experiences should be shared with factual data so anyone that may be considering employment or a travel position at these facilities will have some background before accepting these opportunities. 

 

I began my contract in November of 2021 and it originally ended in Feb of 2022. I should have got out of dodge then haha. I chose to extend it because they actually seemed to need the help. Major regrets. The unit was a near unit and they floated the travelers first. There was no rotation schedule, it was just whomever they felt like floating during that shift. The entire experience was horrifying on so many levels. The high acuity of the patients versus the ratio, the lack of staff. There would be multiple shifts with no PCA/CNA help. Endless use of restraints. Personally, I have worked in facilities that strongly advised against the use of restraints. So to see so many restraints used was just a personal shock to me. I had to call pharmacy on several occasions to correct meds that were clearly given in error prior to my shift by previous nurses. Meds that were E-R being crushed, ordered meds that were listed as patients' allergies, etc. The facility also would regularly delay scans by days, be it CT/MRI/etc. They also regularly would transfer patients throughout the hospital during shift change. I've read studies proving that transferring patients during shift change indicates an extremely high risk of falls amongst other things and of course there was no report being given at the bedside. Beside report was a norm for me prior to accepting that contract.

 

Aside from that, the staff nurses were some of the rudest batch of humans I have ever come across towards travel nurses. I will leave it at that. 

 

I was recently cancelled because I refused to work the oncology unit with chemo patients because I am not chemo certified nor was I told I would float to a chemo unit. My contract stated I may float but I thought common sense would kick in and I would float to other med sure units since that what I was contracted to work. Needless to say, I let the charge nurse, house supervisor, and of course recruiter know I was not comfortable working that unit. NOW, keep in mind, I floated 70% of my time during the contract that began in November without issue. The house supervisors decided to corner me in a room, create a very hostile situation by pressuring me to stay and work the unit and began questioning my competency after I repeatedly stated I was uncomfortable working the Oncology unit and I am not chemo certified. The house supervisor then called me rude and went to the patients and my replacement nurse and began bad mouthing me. The only reason I know the house supervisor bad mouthed me is because my patient and my replacement told me. The next day, my recruiter let me know the facility decided to cancel my contract effective immediately. Hopefully, this sheds some light into the facility. I will also add 5 other travel nurses cut their contracts short during the last 4 months for similar reasons of unjust treatment. 

I have been working since I was 16 and in health care since I was 19 and I have never had a complaint against me by patients, I've had patients request for me to come work for them for private pay and still to this day as a CNA to RN. I have never had issues with coworkers or staff until I started working as a travel nurse. We have to do better nursing team...

 

Thankfully, my recruiters were amazing and there are other job offers. 

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

I worked on the Onc unit for 13 years. It does have Med surg overflow patients and even some of our own staff nurses weren’t chemo certified. I actually worked there 7 years before I was certified. I always felt uncomfortable getting floated to neuro or post op cardio. But I can’t argue with any of the rest of your assessment (I was always nice to travel nurses though.) Maybe try St. Peter’s. The acuity is lower and they seem to have better support staff/treat their staff with more respect. 

[CardiTeleRN, BSN]

On 4/6/2022 at 5:20 PM, sistrmoon said:

I worked on the Onc unit for 13 years. It does have Med surg overflow patients and even some of our own staff nurses weren’t chemo certified. I actually worked there 7 years before I was certified. I always felt uncomfortable getting floated to neuro or post op cardio. But I can’t argue with any of the rest of your assessment (I was always nice to travel nurses though.) Maybe try St. Peter’s. The acuity is lower and they seem to have better support staff/treat their staff with more respect. 

Wow, sorry I am just now seeing this. You're definitely right. Many hospitals I've worked with have had overflow all the time. It's a pretty common practice. I recognized that. That night was just horrifying, they didn't have overflow and the support staff was extremely unhelpful and moody with us that were trying to help. The 4 of us weren't chem-certified that were working the unit but I had witnessed them pin things on travelers and were just 500xs harder on travelers even when travelers were going out of their way to help. At that point, I had just rather lose the contract than my license. Thankfully, I've found other work and am continuing on my path of transferring out of nursing.

 

I did find my brief 3 hours on the oncology unit to be amazing with the patients there. They always teach me so much. I love that population, I even loved it in school but I would never agree to doing anything that I know Im not certified to do just to management please. Patients always come first. ❤️

 

[Epidural, BSN, RN]

So sorry to hear this.