Brookdale.??

Nascar nurse, ASN, RN · Oct 12, 2007

I did this job for about a year several years ago. The company was called Sterling House at the time and they have been thru several name changes. The job is basically a director of nursing position.

The good: I loved assisted living. Sometimes I found myself doing laundry with a LOL who lived their - she would come help me wash the tableclothes after lunch and just "chat" - who's got time for this is nursing home! Jeez - real 1:1 was great. I still passed meds, I spoke with families/Dr's regarding clinical needs, supervised staff, etc.

The bad: The coorporate management was extremely unstable - always someone new and with a new idea. Within a month that planned got scraped and we'd start a new plan.

The ugly: Coorporate vision is that residents will "age in place". Meaning no matter how sick they get, they want to keep them in the building and not sent to a higher level of care, such as nursing home. This sounds good, til ya got some really sick people w/ no extra staff, no real medical supplies, no real way of possibly providing for that type of care need. I couldn't take this part of it.

bcoaggiemom09 · Dec 1, 2008

Nascar Nurse, you hit the nail on the head. Believe me when I tell you that things have not changed one iota. "Aging in place", management instability, etc.,.... bad place to work.

2006RNCS · Dec 4, 2008

Nascar Nurse, you hit the nail on the head. Believe me when I tell you that things have not changed one iota. "Aging in place", management instability, etc.,.... bad place to work.

I too am finding out about working for this company. I have been putting in almost double time the past couple of weeks. Well, I am salaried, and guess what, I am sick from exhaustion. My new ED is alienating all staff, and firing people without just cause. Everyone is stressed and walking on eggshells around her.

I feel so "micromanaged" in this position of RN Healthcare Coordinator. I also have my administrator license, and was promised a salary increase upon completion, but that likely will not happen. This company wants their employees to work for as little as possible. I do not feel good about the company in the long run, because the stock is bottoming out. We'll see, but something has got to give!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Dec 4, 2008

I ran like a rabbit from that company after only three months on the job---they pay RNs pretty well, but they also demand total loyalty and most of your waking hours. It wasn't the least bit unusual for me to work 60-hour weeks, and of course I was on-call 24/7, meaning my days and weeks were never truly over. Plus, the staffing situation was horrific given the fact that a third of our 70 residents should have been in nursing homes, and to top it all off, I had NO say whatsoever in admissions---the marketing people make those decisions---and whatever they brought in, I had to deal with no matter how inappropriate a resident was for assisted living.

And yes, they do micromanage their management teams. I couldn't even order bandaids for the med room without OK'ing it with the regional manager first. Yet the kitchen manager blew a gigantic hole in the building's budget by purchasing a new oven, new chef's uniforms for the kitchen staff, new dishes and flatware, new water goblets, and new tablecloths to "enhance residents' fine dining experiences". Yeah, right--half of 'em had dementia so bad they didn't even recognize their own kids, you think they're gonna care about fine dining?! And he did it without even running it past the ED, let alone Corporate.......and got away with it. Yet I'm still fighting with them over $120 that they were supposed to reimburse me for out-of-pocket travel expenses, and haven't received to this day.

Nope, I worked too hard for my RN license to risk it working for a company that doesn't care about anything but its profits, and I'm too old to want to work myself into exhaustion. I would advise you to get out while the gettin's good!