Mission Health & other agencies in West NC

Meowzers · Aug 11, 2017

I work as a PRN CNA at Mission while I am in Nursing school, and I love it. They are great about working with your school schedule. If you are a hard worker with good references, it is not difficult to get a job with them, as they have several open positions for both CNAs and RNs. My manager and everyone I work with is very involved and helpful. Obviously this can very from floor to floor but everyone I have worked with so far is friendly and seems happy to be there. The starting salary range for nurses is around $23 (new grad) to $38 an hour. I can say that even though I'm PRN and have only been working there a few months, my base rate has increased by nearly $4 already due to going through some of their training, signing a contract, etc. They want you to move forward in your career as much as you can and will help you do so. They do have some tuition assistance available for school and a career center to help you move forward in pursing a degree or getting the job you want after you get one. There is a lot to like about Mission in my opinion! I hear good things about the VA hospital as well, but jobs are much harder to come by there.

WCU is a great school and their nursing program is top notch.

Asheville has become rather expensive recently. I had been researching moving here for several years and my husband and I made the move about a year ago. The prices have increased a lot since I first started looking, but if you aren't married to the idea of living directly in the city it can still be very affordable. We live about 30 minutes from Asheville and we love it, we got a lot of bang for our buck when we bought our house. Rent is also much cheaper if you live just a little bit outside of the city proper.

If you have questions feel free to ask me! Good Luck!

INN_777, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2017

Hi Meowzers!

Thank you for your very encouraging response! Not married to downtown and we have toured a few smaller cities like Weaversville and Swanannoa - liked it. If you don't mind me asking, in what town did you land?

Also, what are the nurse to patient ratios @ Mission?

Thank you so much again!

Meowzers · Aug 18, 2017

Of course! I live in a town called Waynesville and it is great. About 30 minutes from Asheville, very safe, a neat little main street and a couple of very good breweries. Weaverville and Swannanoa are both great

The nurse to patient ratios depend on which floor you are working - they very much take acuity into account. On my floor, which is a med surg floor, nurses have no more than 5. CNAs have no more than 12. In the ICU, it's no more than two. Mission is pretty good about taking the latest evidence based research regarding patient safety/satisfaction into account. For example, in addition to patient ratios, there is a hospital wide sepsis screening protocol going live soon.

Hope this helps!

INN_777, BSN, RN · Aug 19, 2017

We recently toured the area and visited Waynesville (great) and Weaversville (wonderful). Good to know you like it. Waynsville just seemed a little far but this all depends on where work is, I guess. Haven't been to Swannanoa but loved the name;)

CNA ratios are definitely in the high side. But nurse ratios seem reasonable and similar to my employer here (a major teaching hospital). I am in Oncology here and we are max 4. Assume it will be similar over there,

This all seems very positive! Thank you so much again!