Select Specialty Hospital work environment

ladside, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Sep 22, 2011

Hello,
Does anyone know much about Select Specialty hospital and what their work environment is like? I have an interview and wanted to get a general basis. I've read their website and all.
thanks.

I'm sure their facilities vary by location. Which one are you considering? I have experience in only one of their facilities and trust me when I say that you don't want to know my experience. :eek: :devil: :devil: :devil: :devil: :eek: :down: :down: :down: :mad: :mad: :mad: :eek: :eek:

sasha1224 · Sep 22, 2011

I worked for one and while it wasn't the worst place I worked it wasn't the best either. As for a Long Term Acute Care Hospital, it was far better than the other one I worked for. As for patients, it was almost all bedridden, total care type patients with complex wounds, g tubes, trachs and vents. The one I was at had an ICU where we did drips and the occasional ETT/vent. As for ratios, the ICU was 1:3-4 and our floor areas were 1:5-6, with techs. We also has a mix of LPNs and RNs, unlike the regular hospitals. One positive I had was the medical insurance was the best I'd had since being in the medical field.

MomRN0913 · Sep 22, 2011

I know a little bit about it as the LTACH I managed had Select as their rival and many nurses who worked for me also worked for them.

I heard some good mixed with bad. They are getting more critical pt's in their LTACH from what I hear, vents, wonds, drips. The ratio isn't always what it should be though.

Any particular facility you are speaking of?

Some of the Drs in the one I know I have worked closely with and are great MD's.

dream-a-little-dream · Sep 23, 2011

I worked at SS for a year. Horrible manager, who I just heard was resigning! (Ann Arbor, MI). It was my frist job out of school, and it's no place for new grads, but, it was the only place that hired me after 6 months of job hunting as a GN. Hard, hard work! No breaks. You'll lose weight though! LOL

Bruce_Wayne, ASN, RN · Sep 23, 2011

I just toured a select specialty hospital today and will start doing clinicals there next week.

I was really impressed with the location I toured and I was thinking to myself that I might enjoy the wide variety of patients they have and all the wound care.

However I also kind of thought that a lot of their patient population are people that chose the "live no matter what even at the cost of quality of life" kind of patients. And let me be clear I'm not trying to be judgmental of those patients or their families choices, but it wasn't my favorite thing. Definitely not my calling.

But if you're into that kind of thing and a lot of gnwarly woundcare then maybe LTACH is for you.

dream-a-little-dream · Sep 23, 2011

Correct, a certain percentage of SS patients should be referred to paliative care much sooner. Now that I work in Hospice, I look back and realize that now. However, most acute care enviornments conflict with the Hospice philosophy, plus SS is a for profit hospital.

tyjane7 · Sep 23, 2011

thanks for all your replies...it did confirm for me what i already thought. i had done my preceptorship at the hospital they are renting out space for in pontiac. i'm worried because they are more difficult patients for sure...so i"m still having my reservations but thought i'd go for the interview anyhow to see. i'm part time right at my current employment and it's cutting it for me benefit-wise with a family. and my current employment doesn't have any full time right now...with select, it's full time 12hr/shifts.

AngiereeRN, ADN, BSN · Sep 23, 2011

I currently work in an LTACH, I started in May as a new grad. The patients are usually very sick and require lots of care. We have lots of vents, wound vacs, chest tubes, tube feeders, central lines, complicated wounds, etc. It's hard work but I've learned so much already and I'm developing skills that will open up lots of opportunities for me in the future. The patients can be unpredictable and deteriorate quickly so you really learn to think critically. The team I work with is awesome, there is always someone there to help or answer questions. My shift manager is always saying "we're all in this together". An LTACH was not my first, second, or third choice but I've discovered that who you work with is just as important as where you work.

MomRN0913 · Sep 23, 2011

An LTACH was not my first, second, or third choice but I've discovered that who you work with is just as important as where you work.

Amen to that one!

Who you work with to me is far more important than where you work. A good team with critical care patients in necessary.

And yes, in an LTACH some of these people should be on palliative care before they got there. The when they do before their 25 days are up, you get in trouble as the nurse manager as if that was your fault.

Thats a whole other story.

But yes, you gain great experience in an LTACH and is a good place to work if you are looking to get into the ICU.

apocatastasis · Sep 26, 2011

There was a Select Specialty renting space within our own generally very scary and backwards (outside of the ICUs) hospital. They had a high obs unit where we often sent our SICU patients when we couldn't hold them on the floor but they still needed various facets of intensive care.

Several of the nurses on the unit called it "Neglect" instead of "Select." I could tell stories, but I'll let it speak for itself.