St Anthony's -St Louis

[SillyStudent, ASN, RN]

I am considering a 'change of venue' :)

Anyone work at St. Anthony's? What area, and do you like it?

[RockyCreek]

I work at St. Anthony's on the General Surgical unit -- I definitely recommend it!

[roseeRN]

I used to work at St. Anthony's. If you do go to St. Anthony's, don't go to the telemetry unit. The nurses that work there are great, but the Nurse Manager makes it nearly impossible to do patient care. There has been more paperwork added to the already huge stack that has to be done. Personally, I like patient care more than the paperwork, but I know that everything needs to be documented. Also, report took place at 0700 and 1900. The Nurse Manager tried writing nurses up for not clocking out by 0707 in the morning and 1907 at night. That didn't last. When I was there, it seemed as though the Nurse Manager was just looking for someone to write up. Luckily, I stayed under the radar with my 8 telemetry patients on nights. If you do go to this unit, again, the nurses you would work with and the PCT's that you would work with are fantastic. And you would get a lot more education time in the beginning. I was greatful for my time there. I learned a lot. It was, to me, a bootcamp for nursing.

Good luck.

[RockyCreek]

In my 23 years as a nurse, I have worked at 4 different hospitals. In every case, one of the biggest complaints was the paperwork! I bet if you were to do an informal survey of the nurses on these boards, documentation demands would definitely rank in the top 3 for things to change. That said, you are not going to get away from it no matter where you practice. The state boards of nursing, the Joint Commission and countless attorneys in the world are only going to require more in the future. There isn't a Nurse Manager in any hospital that can stop it.

There is also a strange contradiction that takes place in hospitals -- they want you to give the best possible care but they want to do it in the cheapest way possbile. Many times this means rushing madly between patients but trying to appear as if you aren't rushed at all. Oh, how I envy the student nurses when they come and spend an entire shift with only 1-2 patients! I wish I could read the charts, take people for walks or really listen to family concerns but that just doesn't happen in the real world.

I think we are doing a lot of things right at St. Anthony as our staffing has been very stable and our patient satisfaction scores are in the upper 15% of the similiar size facilities. We are growing fast, adding rooms and remodeling old ones to meet the demands of the south county area. Are we perfect? Heck, no! Are we a good place to work, absolutely! When will everyone agree with me? Not until the day that pigs fly first class without a ticket!

[SillyStudent, ASN, RN]

Update:

I did go to St A's. I like it. Thanks for all of the info.

[kmj1228]

What department are you in and what do you like about it? I'll be graduating in May and have been thinking about the possibilities. Do they still have tuition reimbursement? I know some of the hospitals have stopped it for the time being. I was just counting on having that when I took out my loans.

thanks!

[RockyCreek]

I work in a General Surgery unit - 5 East. What I like it is the wonderful staff of truly dedicated nurses that I work here. No matter what is happening, they are always there to back you up or share their knowledge. The things I don't like are the things that I have not liked at ANY hospital -- the paperwork, working holidays/weekends/etc. As far as I know, the tuition reimbursement is still available for nursing students that are working as Nurse Assistants while they are in school; I think the loan forgiveness has been put on hold due to the economy. If you would like to know more, youi may PM me.