Vibra Hospital

[stepbystep12, BSN, DNP]

Need info about Vibra Speciality Hospital in Portland. I eventually will be moving to Portland area and might end up working in Vibra. For those who know it or have worked there, is it a regular hospital or is it more like a nursing home/ long term care? Do they hire new grands? Do they require a BSN? Does experience in Vibra count in trying to get a job in the bigger hospitals? Any info would help esp coz i am not from around and so i don't know much about the area.

Also feel free to recommend facilities that would hire non BSN new grands. Suggestions for nursing homes or assisted livings are welcome. Any that would consider LPN experience?

Thank you.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Vibra is a specialty LTACH (long term acute care hospital) that deals with ventilators, tracheostomies, drips, and complicated wound care. I know nothing about the Portland location. I only know of the Vibra locations in the metro area in Texas where I live.

[LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN]

Yup Vibra is a LTACH.

I haven't heard good things about them, most nurses I have talked to who had worked there were leaving.

I toured there on an interview gone bad, I wrote a thread about it here.

Basically the manager took me on a full tour then tried to belittle me during the interview. He had no intention of hiring because I didn't have acute care experience and he asked critical care questions. To which I responded that I am sorry I didn't know but I can and will learn. He said ya I didn't think so, you don't have acute care experience.

It wasn't what he said but the tone.

That was years ago, so who knows if he is still the manager......his loss as years later I am rocking it in the ED

[AlwaysLearning247, BSN]

I work at a Vibra Hospital in MA and we get many people straight from ICU who can no longer stay at the hospital for insurance reasons but are way too sick to be sent to a SNF/LTC facility. It is defined as a long term acute care hospital. You'll see many people on vents, trachs, gtubes, IV's, PICCs, IVP meds, wounds, drips, blood transfusions, codes, rapid responses, etc. It is definitely a good learning environment for sure. I am a new grad and they have hired many other new grads as well. It is definitely the place to get into the acute care routine. Good luck!

[SassyTachyRN]

I have a friend who works for a Vibra... I have heard they are high acuity patients like others said before (basically from icu) but yet I have heard staffing ratios are anywhere from 4-6 patients to one nurse, which seems crazy for such high acuity patients, not to mention unsafe.

[stepbystep12, BSN, DNP]

Thank you all for your input. If that is the nurse/patient ratio, it sounds dangerous. Does anybody know if experience at Vibra would count in trying to get a job in the ER/ICU/acute care floors in the bigger hospitals?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Does anybody know if experience at Vibra would count in trying to get a job in the ER/ICU/acute care floors in the bigger hospitals?

Experience at a Vibra Specialty Hospital would look good when applying for jobs at general acute care hospitals.

[Princess Bubblegum]

We have a few former Vibra Portland nurses now working in ICU and ER where I work now. My sister worked there several years ago as a ward clerk/monitor tech and had some odd stories about managers/coworkers, but I understand that there's been a lot of turnover since then. It's not a sparkling new facility with the most high-tech equipment available, but it's good work experience.