Anyone working or have worked for Davita

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I applied to Davita in the DFW area and nothing, its hard to inquire about my application since there is no set HR dept. I am an LVN with med/surg experience but no Dialysis experience. Does anyone know how they go about their hiring? I want to go into something other than "Hospital work". Also do they work 8, 10, hr shifts, and any tips would be appreciated! :twocents:

Specializes in Float Pool, Hemo Dialysis.
The famous quote about HD is "They hire 3 and we're lucky if 1 stays".. It's a steep learning curve. Among other things.

That's the most true thing I've ever heard about dialysis nursing.

Maybe that's why the one's that stay, burn out.

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Specializes in Med/surg, Geriatrics, Home Health, LTC.

4-6 14hr days a week? Did they mandate overtime? I can they make you work those crazy shifts?

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Specializes in Float Pool, Hemo Dialysis.

No mandation of overtime. As a matter of fact, our FA would "mention" every minute of overtime you had. If you are the only RN in the building.....then guess what? Because you don't want to loose your license, you stay. Sometimes you stay with just one patient...waiting for their ride.

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Specializes in jack of all trades.

Lol, yep I never had another RN in the building when I worked for either Davita or KRU Medical. Therefore you have to stay until that last pt leaves the premises. I have had people wait on public transportation not be picked up till several hours after end of treatment. Couple of times it was after 10pm. Then you have the situation where all the RN's quit and your the only full-timer on staff and none of the per diems will work or dont have any LOL. This is where the 6 days come in. Happened too many times for me.

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Maybe that's why the one's that stay, burn out.

Dialysis is truely a love it or hate it type of nursing. Many just can't acclimate to this type of nursing. It's like nothing you've done before. Some days can be a breeze others a bear. I came from a very busy M/S floor and I believe that helped me. I'm not in favor of these units who want ICU experience. ICU nurses are very smart and capable, but they are used to 2 maybe 3 patients not 18-24 at a time. They are just not used to that type of care. I've seen many come into a unit during their job interview wide-eyed unbelieving of the number of patients they would be responsible for. I don't like acutes because I am bored with just one patient at a time. Just watching that pump go round and round and round for 4 hours drives me batty.

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Specializes in Med-surg, acute rehab, cardiac, oncology, dialysis.

I worked for a doctor-owned facility that was bought out by Davita. There were lots of processes and policies that Davita put in place. OMG...Everyone from Davita was really nice and helped us get this stuff going, but just getting used to it all, holy cow. Lots more paperwork, lots more computer work, way more emphasis on infection control (and we weren't slackers in that dept. before, believe me). They get crazy about measuring heparin down to a 10th of a cc. Our administrator is working 60 hours and is so stressed out, like that other person said, trying to get us what we need and still trying to be a mom, I think eventually she'll quit or go back to being a floor nurse. Overall, though, I think it would be the same for any large company. Benefits are good. Free uniforms, your choice. Pay equitable. Kept same staff. Patients were really anxious and blamed all the changes on Davita even though we kept telling them that many of them were on the new emphasis from Medicare. Whatever.

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Specializes in Med Surge, Hemodialysis.
If I knew what I do know I would have never gone into chronic dialysis. Dont get me wrong I did love the type of work but didnt like the conveyor belt mentality of majority of clinics. I was told 3-12's a week and ended up working 4-6 days aweek 14-16hr days as it was almost impossible to retain RN's in the job. Most either turned out not cut out for it or hated it when they seen the truth of the field rather than what the interviewer take was on the job. I couldnt believe I was seeing people clock out and come back on the floor to finish up and it was encouraged!!! To do the LMS on my own computer at home so I wouldnt get paid because they didnt have time to let me do it at work since I was the only nurse 99.9% of the time in the building. Granted there are some decent clinics out there but if the FA fights too much for his/her staff and pts then they dont last as sooner or later it comes down to the bottom line and they must give in. Especially is it's a smaller clinic with under 20 chairs. I ended up leaving and going to another company and became drafted into the DON(FA) position and found it was the same old crap. The more I fought for staff the harder it became till eventually I decided my health and sanity was suffering. Never again!!! I miss dialysis but I dont miss the politics. What surprised me was how since leaving the field other non-dialysis employers dont have a clue of what a dialysis nurse does and dont consider it Nursing experience or bedside experience (so what they are in recliners instead of beds) although you do very similar monitoring, teaching, comorbity treatments, etc. Even with my extensive background in other areas of nursing, working in dialysis the last 3 years hurt me in trying to return to other nursing areas. I know other dialysis nurses on this site who have left and encountering the same issue. I was even told "you dont do venipuncture or use needles in dialysis" from a potential employer lol. Jeez!!! It's a love it or hate it job. And I worked harder in dialysis then any other job I have ever worked. Consider I have been in Critical care and Trauma for over 25 years and it's a breeze compared to the physical work of dialysis in my eyes. I wish I had never left the Critical Care/ER area now as it's too difficult to return to since working dialysis.

I too had to leave dialysis in an acute hospital setting. Loved doing hemodialysis but not the long hrs 15-24! Yes 24! 24 can happen when you are the "on-call" RN meaning you start at 6am and you are the last to leave. So if you are a 13hr(actually doing 13+hrs) and a 10hr (10+ hrs) is still there past 4pm, you must take over their PTs, this after you completing your assigned pt's at the bed side. Once done with your fellow coworkers pts you get a call that there is a Pt in the ED with a K of 6 or higher and are being admitted for HD tx, its 10pm and you have been there since 6am. Now you finish that PT (Dr.s orders for a tx of 3-4hrs) and gues what you are paged because there is a Pt who is being transplanted in the am and they want dialysis prior to. I have left when the next day shift comes in to take over. The attitude is "this is just how it is".:down:

The company would rather burn out a nurse than have a 2nd shift if nurses take over (especially in a hospital 24hr setting). At that particular facility there is no 2nd shift. And it was a heavy unit with a lot of pts needing TX. I mainly fault management and 2nd the nurses for putting up with it. They can't keep people there. I lasted 1+yrs and have aged 3yrs.

From what I have read from this post this is not typical of all units, but this has soured me from ever taking another HD position.

If interested in HD, talk to the nurses who work at the facility. Spend the day there/shadow, ask to look at the current schedule, how do they do on-calls, as to how often. Is it once a week and once or twice a weekend a month as was in my case. If on call do they schedule you to come in the next day? How many hrs per pt on average. These are things I was not told truthfully at the interview.

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Maybe that's why the one's that stay, burn out.

Nah, I've stayed for 13 years. Traveled in 13 states. Loved my patients. Realized I got into nursing to work hard. A least I'm never cold in the dialysis units, like I was in the shoe shop. Snow used to come in through the windows in the winter.

It truly is a love or hate job. No doubt about it, but I will say without a bit of regret that some just can't hack it. I wouldn't be able to hack ER or babies. So it's not a slam against any nurse.

The particular unit can make or break you fer sure.

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4-6 14hr days a week? Did they mandate overtime? I can they make you work those crazy shifts?

Ha do acutes. We work until there are no patients left to be dialyzed. 0700-2000 many days. And then on-call over night. Who's gonna do it? Dialysis nurses don't grow on trees.

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Specializes in Med Surge, Hemodialysis.
Ha do acutes. We work until there are no patients left to be dialyzed. 0700-2000 many days. And then on-call over night. Who's gonna do it? Dialysis nurses don't grow on trees.[/quoIte]

That was an acute unit, hospital. Begin at 6am until who knows when. It's a job you can't say "I'll meet you after work" for you never know when that is. It's not healthy to keep going like that. The day's you are off you are too exhausted to do anything but rest for the next day of work. It takes it's toll on you. The young nurses who come very quickly leave. The seasoned nurses who are still there are vested and about to retire so they will stick it out. In the unit I worked in the senior ones pulled rank in regards to who will leave early and let the newer ones stay and take over. This after they just completed their charge of PTs out in the ICU's 4+hrs each.

I once suggested they have a 2nd shift of nurses to take over and was looked at as if I had 3 heads. None the less, it is also dangerous. I know I would not want a nurse starting my HD tx at 11pm when they have been at it since 6am. But that is the way they want it.

But those days are over. I like knowing that there is a beginig & an end. I can meet people post duty with a time frame. I get to see feel sunlight on my face as opposed to glancing at it outside a PT's window. I do miss working with the nurses and patients I cared for. Maybe it was all just me.

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Specializes in Care Coordination/ Insurance Assessments.

I sent in some applications/resumes online. I was called for an informal phone interview in 25 minutes. my head was spinning. great company, culture, and Ideal. A great opportunity, I'm thinking, for a new grad.

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Specializes in Care Coordination/ Insurance Assessments.

I have to ask.....what was the pay like, back then, for requirements such as these?

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