Hospital question

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I have been around the medical field and married to a RN for near 20 years. The one thing that we always discuss before moving is where to work. I always ask isn't there a way you can talk to someone who already works at the hospital you are considering. (because up til now every DON we have dealt with just tries to make their workplace sound like utopia, this is rarely the case).

So my question is why isn't there a database where people can anonymously discuss working at different facilities within specific departments?

I think this one piece of information could save many, many heartaches and bad experiences. I can't tell you how many times my wife has been told one thing and as soon as she showed up to work it was completely diffferent. When you move and change your life to take a chance on a different job they kind of have you by the "insert what you want."

It seems the only ones who benefit from keeping RN's in the dark are the institutions themselves.

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AMEN! Unfortunately nurses are overall, too afraid to start something like this for fear of retaliation.

It is a known fact that employers scour bulletin boards online, such as allnurses, to check up on what is being said about them. With companies like Group 1 in TX, nurses are becoming even more afraid for their jobs. This is evident in the fact that nursing has not made a large amt of progress since the early 20th century. At that time, people were willing to fight for what was right - even if that meant termination. These days, the turnouts for rallies are a poor percantage of all the nurses in this country. I've been to rallies where more teachers showed up to offer support than nurses - to a NURSING rally.

Our society has become one of materialism, living hand to mouth and not prepared for disaster. This impacts even more, the number of nurses willing to risk anything to go against their employer. Nurses will be chasing their tails till the end of the world and will never make great strides like they did in the early 1900s.

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I am afraid materialism, fear, and political correctness...and a not so great economy gives institutions of all natures license to operate by the robber barron mentality....

Maybe times will have to get so bad that consequences from plain old fashioned honesty won't be any the worse than maintaining silence...for folks to find their courage.

As to the dishonesty of the institutions to prospective employees, it is usualy the mark of why the instituion is hunting for someone to begin with...they are false with folks and folks move on as soon as they can...leaving the institution to head hunt again...I hope you all find an honest one...I sure hope on exists...Good luck ayway... and please remember..these same institutions are just as dishonest with the patients oft times..

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It's v. common and reasonable/appropriate to ask, in a job interview process, to speak (privately!) with nurses who work on the floor/unit/department you're applying for. I ask to talk to the most senior staff nurse on the unit, and the newest hire. If you are applying as a new grad, I recommend that one also ask to talk to the last new grad they hired (however long ago it was that that person was hired). It may mean making a separate trip back to the facility on a different day in order for that to happen, but, IMHO, it's well worth a little inconvenience or extra expense. That can give you a much better idea of what life is really like, day to day, on the job, what you can really expect from orientation, what's good and bad about the unit/department, etc.

I've also warned people away from jobs a few times when I've been a current staff person that an applicant talked to ... :)

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Take a travel assignment at the place before signing on, or work some agency shifts first...

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Elk,

I posed the same idea only to be told that most of the nurses are to scared to share their honest thoughts for fear of retribution by the Nurse managers. It seems there is a predominating fear of sharing the knowledge one has of a particular institution. If it worked in the real world the way you depict it then I dont believe there would be the underlying fear of nurses to share their exp. at different facilities. That is not to say I don't agree with you. I most certainly do agree with you and think that interviewing a few of the staff is a great idea.

Just an observation here but it seems to me its not the work enviornment that I fear, nor the docs. It's middle management, the DON's, the nurse managers, who always seem to be trying to save their own jobs by throwing subordinates under the bus.

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I've tried to get staff nurses involved in the interview process before - they didn't like that idea. The only time that I have seen nurses willing to even speak to a prospective new hire was when those nurses were over 50 yrs old with many years of experience and/or had Master's degrees or higher. Otherwise, the younger/less experienced/less degreed nurses would run and hide first.

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Well, I can only add that, if the current staff nurses are that fearful about talking privately to an applicant, that probably tells you everything you need to know about the facility! :)

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Well, I can only add that, if the current staff nurses are that fearful about talking privately to a applicant, that probably tells you everything you need to know about the facility! :)

Some of it may be fear but I also believe a lot of it is they just don't want to get involved.

Time and again on this forum nurses are complaining that they are being told to go to meetings on their days off, take extra classes, etc. and they don't want to do it.

So many of the nurses these days don't want to do anything but the bare minimum to keep their jobs. They have the nerve to complain all the time but when they are given the opportunity to say their peace and be involved in more than just wiping butts, they refuse and throw tantrums if it becomes mandatory.

I had to start a policy with my staff that if they were going to complain to me in person or by slipping a note under the door, they had to come up with a minimum of one solution to the problem they were griping about and be involved in the solution. Funny, suddenly the number of complaints about things decreased when they had to become accountable for what was happening on the unit.

Everyone wants to complain but few are willing to be a part of the solution.

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Specializes in Trauma/ED.

I love my job and I think our dept tries very hard to strive for a better working environment with the patient being the focus (I know blah blah blah).

But if you talked to some nurses in my dept they would say how terrible things are and it's the worst place in the world to work...

My point is, there is unhappy people in every hospital and if you talked to them you would never find a place to work. The nice thing about hospitals is they are big and if you hate one job go to another dept or shift. Once you get your foot in the door you are able to move around quite a bit finding a good fit for you personally.

I would start at the hospital closest to your home and if that is not a good fit work your way out...I am a man of convenience and I hate to commute :)

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A friend of mine recently was looking into traveling. He just went to Craigs list and posted a request for information about the local hosptials. With some computer savvy he imporvised a Pros and Cons list for each facility. He was able to weed out the whining and crap stuff from the real stuff pretty easily and was able to determine that the hospital for the travel assignement was not a good idea.

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