Ancora Psychiatric Hospital - any recent news?

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Hi all,

Am a new RN (second career, BSN May grad). Went to a nurse fair and Ancora Psychiatric Hospital recruiter was there and immediately offered to scheduled me for an interview. Now, as every new grad RN in NJ/PA/NY knows, there is a major new RN GLUT in NJ, so I did not hesitate to say YES though it is not med/surg and the hospital is more than 60 minutes away. I really wanted to work at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital near where I live, but they were not hiring anybody new. Ancora is a state hospital as well (good benefits and pay). My question is, does anybody have new info on the working environment there since the shakedown and revamp that arose after all that bad press earlier in the year/last year? I googled the hospital and most of the info was bad press which makes me scared to even set foot in the place (that may explain why they need nurses for such a nice salary:$59K++ for new staff). My husband has been there and disapproves of me even interviewing. There was news about a new chief taking over. Hopefully, he has made some improvements to the working and patient conditions in that place. I really need to start working since my husband just got laid off, but I don't want to put my life and limb and license at risk either.

thanks for all your input! I may need some feedback from you in the future about Ancora if ever the housing crisis is over and we manage to move to Southern NJ to be close to my husband's family. Right now, I am stuck here in mercer county, and I am thankful there are plenty of hospitals (state and otherwise) where I can find work (as long as I get one year of acute care under my belt). Good luck to us both!

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I worked for TPH - it was HORRIBLE and so unprofessional, well not everyone was unprofessional-but, it was and is a DUMP. NOT FOR ME!

I currently work in Occupational Health a per-diem position- I like it, I have alot of down time; which allows me to work towards my BSN. I plan to continue to work per diem until I get a FT day position in the hospital one day.

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I worked the night shift 11-7. I am not aware of changes. I'm telling you this place is dangerous! If your a Nurse best bet is to go to a county BHS hospital. The problem with state hospitals is that the patients that arrive come in with "mental illness" and leave with 3 times worse of a condition. It was sad for me your not able to be helpped and support from co workers is not given. This is at least my personal experience. As a nurse there is no patient contact your behind a glass window. Like I mentioned before if your interested in psych best bet is to go a county hospital. State pay cleaner and more interaction. Good luck to you all....:crying2:

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Specializes in Orthopedics/Med-Surg, LDRP.

When I was a student we had to do rotation in TPH and I can say that it sucked there. There's no real 'nursing' that goes on there. The nurses are more like case managers. The LPN's pass meds and do more of the one on one care and the techs are the ones who really babysit the patients during the day. In our month there, there were at least 5 escapes, only 2 of which made it out to the media and a man who was found dead on their own grounds who committed suicide but was unfound for days. Ann Klein was no better. In fact it was downright scary. They were on lockdown the one day we went there. They took us to the male wing and it was like a zoo. All kinds of men just screaming, baning on doors, walls, naked, masturbating while looking at us, peeing on their windows.... It wasn't any better on the female wing either. And while it's nice they had a new gym facility and a nice library with internet and the ability to take college courses plus companies that come in and provide them jobs at minimum wage, it just seemed bizarre in a place like that. Rehabbing the criminally insane? While the money was great and the benefits were good, there's no way I'd ever work there. I had also decided against capital health when we came out of there and my classmate had 2 bullet holes in the driver side of her car. My safety is worth more than that. Good luck!

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Yeah I understand what you are saying about the safety factor. It's not the warm and fuzzy safe feeling of working in different hospital. Honestly after being there for a few months now I really miss the people at the other place I worked. It just isn't easy walking away from the benefit package that the state gives especially in this economy.

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