St. Francis Long Island

Hydakins · Mar 13, 2008

One of my closest friends work there, and she is not that happy. The salary (dont quote me) I think is about 68k or somewhere around there. They give about $7500 or $8500 a year for tuition reimbursement. Their insurance payments arent that bad (going by what my friend has). The hospital wants you to look out for the hospital first and not your license. From some other posts that Ive read, other nurses are not too happy there either. Did you try North Shore LIJ? I know an NP there and she is happy (along with other nurses) and the salaries are pretty good there from what I hear.

AmyBRN · Mar 14, 2008

HI!!

I just started at St. Francis, and I'm hired for there OR program. I'm very excited to start working there. They hold their RN's up to high standards and expect a lot from you, but in the end it makes you a better nurse. I honestly feel that I will be learning 'the right way' to do things. I am currently in their Orientation, I will be hitting a Med/Surg floor before the OR prgram starts (to learn paperwork and hospital policies and such). I have heard great things about this program from people who have done it. And honestly, about people liking it or not, it is just what your 'fit' is. I was at North Shore, and there were a lot of unhappy people there to. It just depends on the 'fit' they have with the hospital.

Any questions, you can PM me, and if you do go into the program let me know. I won't be starting the OR portion until May/June, so we might be in the class together.

Amy

larsta · May 28, 2008

I've been at St. Francis for four years. The hospital has changed and not kept up with the times. The culture is very different here than other hospitals. Med/surg , which is telemetry in reality, gets 8-9 patients a shift. Critical care, you are almost always tripled. It is not a teaching facility and for that reason, a great down fall. As patients prefer it to Northshore or LIJ, I would go to the city. Their system is much more updated. You will see a variety of patients and you will be able to transfer to different areas of the hospital very easily.

Natingale, EdD, RN · May 29, 2008

Hey I work in the CHSLI system. St Francis nurses float to our hospital from time to time. It is true their emergency room doesnt see as many diverse cases as ours, but I will tell you one thing. Their nurses ROCK! Their CAs ROCK! I havent met a true St Francis nurse (except for 2 or 3 but I shouldnt let those bad apples speak for the whole hospital) that wasnt hard working, and who knew their stuff.

Also the way ST Francis treats their staff really makes you want to retire there. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but IMHO they do their best. Every hospital has its downfall, but if your only complaint 8-9 patients (and seriously thats like the new norm) and youre not seeing a diversity then its not sucha bad environment to work in. They actually care for their staff.

BSNin2008 · May 29, 2008

I did work at LIJ as a tech and the RN's on my unit always had 8 patients. If a nurse called in sick, they would have even more if coverage couldn't be found. I saw the night nurses sometimes have 10 patients. I think having 8 patients is the new norm.... at least in NY. It's sad but true.

MrsGPR · Jun 2, 2008

I did a clinical rotation there in school this past semester. I remember leaving there with the underlying tone in my gut of "yeah - I think I could work here"...

I saw the nurses respecting each other and the other staff as well. They were delighted to have a nursing student quite literally on their hip all day. I also observed them working together and helping each other out. It was a heavy floor and I believe the nurses were typically caring for 8 - 10 pts on days. I wasn't exposed to their leader much so I am not sure how that situation is. I have to admit, in my experience, mgmt/ leadership can make a huge difference in the culture/dynamics of the floor.

I floated through cardiac cath and dayop and found those environments to be pleasing as well. Endoscopy was interesting.

As stated above - I also believe all hospitals have their downfalls.

By any chance does someone have confirmed salary info. for them? Just curious.

billythekid · Sep 14, 2009

Any updated salary range for St Francis? Also, I've heard policy is three twelves a week, with no fourth day per schedule? Anyone know if that's true?

roseynurse345 · Sep 14, 2009

Yes, that was true when I worked there. Only 3 12 hr shifts a week. I also wanted to state I worked there for 7yrs as ancillary. SFH has its positives and negatives. They work their nurses hard, and alot of them burn out fast. On the tele m/s it was not unusual to have one code a night. The pts that would be in a step-down unit or CCU in other hospitals would be on the med-surg floors at SFH. If someone would call in, usually the nurses work short. The doctors are beyond arrogant, and difficult to deal with. Due to the burnout of nurses, you would constantly see new grads all the time, you rarely see nurses lasting more than 3yrs, if you look around you hardly see older nurses working @ SFH. Their salary is competitive, the Christmas bonuses are nice, and they have great benefits. It is also v. clean facility. FYI, when I worked there they didn't take too many experienced nurses, they prefered newbies, because it is easier to brainwash them to SFH way. I learned alot about nursing from SFH, but I was not blind to how they operate.

billythekid · Sep 17, 2009

rosey,

We appreciate your 'inside' perspective... it's difficult to learn the true culture of a hospital.. until you're in it!

roseynurse345 · Sep 17, 2009

That is for sure. However, I just want to add, I did learn alot when I worked there, and working there really helped me with nursing school.

I_See_You_RN · Sep 18, 2009

Well my friend is a new graduate and she already seems burned out. She just got off of orientation and she already regulary gets 8+ patients. She is not the lazy type at all and does not like to delegate all her duties to the aids (since she knows first hand how busy they can get as she was one just a few months ago), but she says the night shift barely has any aids to help her out anyway. their starting salary I believe is 65K and then there is BSN and shift differential.

She also complained that though her orientation was OK at showing her the new skills that she needed,.. they weren't that good at showing her all the paperwork and documentation things that she needed to know.

However, I must say that OR culture and med/surg culture are two very different things. I've done an internship in the OR and the nursing roles there is completely different,.. the whole patient ratio thing won't bother you, but of course its always better to have 2+ nurses to a case in the OR.

good luck!