howard university hospital

[DC_RN09]

hi! is there anyone here that can tell me about this hospital? patient acuity and the environment...

how was the interview and the employment process?

any info will be appreciated thanks!

[Nurse JS]

Hi,

I wanted to share a little bit about my experience working at Howard University Hospital. I began here in October 2009, and like you, I wanted to know more about what to expect.

This hospital pays the most in the Washington, D.C. area, but, I forewarn you, there seem to be some reasons for that. The hospital has a family atmosphere, and there are a lot of nurses who have spent there entire career there. However, the use of technology is severely lacking, and there is a lot of unnecessary confusion and disorganization in the hospital (I trained at several good hospitals in Baltimore as a nursing student, and I feel that I can make a good comparison).

Most of the patients are admitted from the emergency room, as a great deal of HUH's patients use the ER as a source of primary care. A great deal of the patients are also from the lower socioeconomic level of Washington, D.C. and suburban MD, and there are often issues associated with that.

As far as hiring is concerned, you have to be tenacious. The nursing recruiters sometimes do not return phone calls or get back to you when the say they will. In order to be employed there, I went up the hospital and requested to speak to them. The actual interview with the nurse manager was pretty standard, once I had it.

All in all, I'm grateful to have a job, because hospitals are cutting back with hiring (at least the 2nd half of last year), AND it's nice to make a decent salary (when I start complaining, I remind myself of my check). Also, the family environment can be comforting at times. But, it is honestly a challenge to work in a disorganized and, sometimes unprofessional, hospital environment like the one at HUH.

One more caveat, I'm telling my honest opinion about HUH, but please don't be dissuaded from working there - disorganization can occur at any hospital, and we have to take the good with the bad, but if you want to work at HUH, you should be prepared to deal with an often unprofessional environment and focus on maintaining your own standards regardless of what is going on.

[DC_RN09]

Thank you so much for the info nurseJS.. :)

on what unit have you been accepted?

[boisern84]

Hey guys,

I totally agree with the previous comment. I have worked on 6East for almost two years and it was been a handful at times. I could give you more info but I can't reply to private messages just yet because I am so new.

[DC_RN09]

Hi boisern84!

Being able to stay for 2 years can also mean that you're enjoying your work, isn't it?

how was your usual day in the unit? does the unit need some additional staff at the moment? or it has been filled out?

[boisern84]

I am proud of myself for sticking it out this long but honestly I have a great relationship with my co-workers. We work as a team on night shift and that really helps to endure the management issues. For the most part our census has been low usually there may be 10 patients on the floor but we can hold 17. Our floor is newly remodeled so its kinda v.i.p. I haven't had more than 3 patients in quite some time. We mostly are overstaffed right now due to low census, I have gotten use to being floated to our sister unit 6W which never has enough nurses. They are a medicine/telemetry unit and can hold 30 patients, usually the nurses there have 4-5 patients. We have the same manager and I remember her saying she could use nurses there. But on the same hand two of our nurses got fired so maybe we could as well.

[RNs-are-hope]

It's so disappointing to hear that Howard University hospital is that way. I wanted to travel to the D.C. area and work at that particular hospital: Level 1 and HBCU.