Pros and Cons of Working for Hospital for Sick Children

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Although I am a few years away, my end goal of my nursing career was to work at the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) in Toronto. It seems, based on their website, to be a very progressive, rewarding place to work if you enjoy any pediatric areas of nursing.

I work part-time as a Ward Clerk in a teaching hospital, and overheard a student nurse talking about her desire to work at HSC when she graduates. She was asking our floor nurses if she should be concerned that Sick Kids is not unionized. Non of the nurses she was talking with seemed that enthused about being a nurse at HSC and both the student nurse and I couldn't understand why. They would not really give an answer, except one nurse said that there was a high turn over of nurses at HSC.

Would anyone who has any insight into working at HSC be so kind as to share their opinions?

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Med-Surg..

If you have heard there is a high turnover at HSC from a reliable source, then it is likely that there are very legitimate reasons for this high turnover.

You need to keep asking around and find out what the reasons are for high turnover as there could be many reasons such as unsafe workload, not enough orientation, being asked to take too many patients, management that is not supportive or it could be none of these things.

Another thought I just had is to do a search on the forums at this website.

Also, if you want to work with kids, you could do it at many hospitals in the GTA.

Best of luck.

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Could you arrange to go in and spend a few days with one of the staff - someone to be like a mentor - so that you could shadow - meet some of the staff, find out a bit more?

People do this sometimes when they are considering changing jobs (for eg. one nurse came over to my place of work and I took her around for a few days, while she decided if our place was what she was looking for, before

quitting her current job).

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Could the nurses been referring to the fact, the don't want to work with sick children? I never had a desire to work with children. You have to be a special type of nurse, it sounds like you maybe one of them. Shadowing is a great response you got. Best of luck.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

No, I think there's a lot more going on than that, Alexk49. The Hospital for Sick Children is very well-known across Canada by reputation at least. Our national broadcasters, CBC and CTV, have mini infomercials for them all the time to raise money for whatever. They even have a TV reality show set there. It gives the impression that Sick Kids is THE children's hospital in Canada although there are more than a dozen very well-respected others. (My hospital admits and treats kids that Sick Kids has turned away... story for another time.) I think there are serious issues within the hospital: they're one of only a handful of high-profile hospitals that aren't unionized, which gives them carte-blanche to do what they please with and to their staff. They're elitist in attitude and if one doesn't meet their high standards they find a way to make one disappear. My hospital has enticed a lot of their staff away. (Not to imply that where I work is any Nirvana, cuz it definitely isn't!)

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Being on the frontlines you know the scoop, thanks for the information. Sorry to here that this hospital is having trouble, especially when they take care of kids.

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Specializes in Peds.

I know someone who has worked there recently. I asked her about the turnover today and her answer was, "They're OVERWORKED!" They don't have a union, like janfrn said, and the nurse to patient ratios are ridiculous. In their PICU they're assigning 3 ventilated patients to one nurse, or as she put it, "two vented kids and an admission". The pay is competitive, but there doesn't seem to be much protection for the health and welfare of the nurses... or so much for their patients either.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Med-Surg..

I think it is great that the op is able to come to this site and get candid information about which direction to take her career. Wish I had done it a lot sooner. Anyways, best of luck momonamission.

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I think it is great that the op is able to come to this site and get candid information about which direction to take her career. Wish I had done it a lot sooner. Anyways, best of luck momonamission.

Thanks, Linzz - this has been an illuminating discussion. Gosh, I wish that RPN's had the opportunity to work in pediatrics - I plan to do the RPN to RN bridge, but when I complete the bridge I will be without any pediatric experience. Hopefully, if the shortage is still here in five years I'll be able to get a pediatric job regardless!

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I just started at SickKids this summer and thought I would throw my 2 cents in. I love it here. We have a 12 week long orientation that combines a ton of classroom time with preceptored shifts. The patient load can be heavy due to the complex nature of the problems these children have but the challenge is a large part of what drew me to the hospital. There is turnover on my unit but also a number of nurses that have been working there for years.

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Thanks, Linzz - this has been an illuminating discussion. Gosh, I wish that RPN's had the opportunity to work in pediatrics - I plan to do the RPN to RN bridge, but when I complete the bridge I will be without any pediatric experience. Hopefully, if the shortage is still here in five years I'll be able to get a pediatric job regardless!

It must be an Ontario thing, LPNs work peds in the Stollery out here. I did a placement there as a student and knew it wasn't for me.

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Specializes in Peds.

Peds isn't for everyone, that's for sure. I know I could not work with the elderly. That's not to say that I don't love elderly people, because I have the greatest affection and respect for them. I just can't nurse them. My hat is off to those who work in long-term care; their job is just as difficult as mine and receives about as much respect from the powers that be. In peds, if you don't work with neonates or oncology patients, you're invisible.

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