butterfly05

i completed a 13 week assignment at alta bates/summit. it was the worst assignment i have ever been on. i worked on the med-surg unit. i don't remember the floor. the regular staff nurses are not nice and do not work as a team. most are contract nurses from other countries - uk and philipines. the unit has a high turnover rate and cannot maintain staff. that is why travelers are always needed. the reg staff nurses grab all the equipment and put their name on it so the travelers have nothing to use until 1am (night shift). the other traveler i worked with got cancelled by the manager because of "attitude" - she accidently took a vital sign machine with a nurse's name on it and got into a confrontation with that nurse. there are no nursing assistants on night shift and the traveler's always get the heavy patients - and when i say heavy, i mean heavy---paraplegics and quads. many of the patients are disrespectful and swear if you are working nights, the manager has you orient on day shift. i complained about this because when i went to nights, i didn't know the routine. i spent all day on my orientation helping my "precepter" do patient care. a couple words of advice: if you stay overtime, make sure your charting reflects why you needed to stay late. the hospital will argue with you every minute you stay over and refuse to sign your time sheet. this is not a good first assignment. i would reconsider. but who knows, maybe you can handle all the crap. i would never recommend the med-surg unit. i floated to tele and one other unit - they were ok - it was actually nice to get off the med-surg unit. if your manager's name is beware! ucsf-mt zion campus is great. so is california pacific medical center. i hope this helps. thread edited to conform to the tos of this site. suzanne4