What is it like to work in a good hospital?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

One day I was doing chitchat with my co-worker. She said she wanted to work at another hospital located a few hours away, but she mentioned it was very hard to get hired into the hospital because no nurses leave unless they retire. It made me wonder what it is like to work in a good hospital like thst. I have worked on medsurg and in OR at a hospital, and definitely the experiences were unpleasant. High turnover, low pay, intentional short staffing, punishment on use of PTO, poor benefits, the list goes on. If you think you work for a good hospital, could you share what you like about the place?

3 hours ago, jazzjune said:

Management of expectations is 99% of happiness.

When I first read this my mind skipped over "of expectations" and I did a double take/read.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
On 7/14/2019 at 10:11 PM, adventure_rn said:

That's definitely a myth. All hospitals have a constant degree of nursing turnover for all kinds of reasons--people move, they go to NP/CRNA school, they drop down their FTE to spend time with their kids. Even units with relatively high retention (like NICU) have constant attrition and are constantly hiring. Granted, hospitals with lower turnover may have fewer positions with greater competition for those positions (i.e. you may need to apply with a BSN and experience within your specialty), but there are always RN positions to be found. Have you checked that hospital's HR website to see what's available? I'm guessing there are RN jobs posted right now.

Some of the things you've described occur at the hospital level (like benefits and salary), but others are very much dependent on the unit. It's possible to be on a great unit at a crappy hospital, and it's possible to be on a crappy unit at a great hospital. Things like staffing, turnover, scheduling, and ability to use your PTO are often much more dependent on the unit itself than the hospital system (although hospital admin may put pressure on unit managers regarding some of those topics). Personally, I'd rather work on a unit I love in a hospital that isn't great (even if it means having worse salary/benefits) than work for a 'great' hospital on a unit I can't stand, and I've known coworkers who changed jobs for that precise reason.

One final thought: a drawback to working at a hospital or on a unit with exceedingly low turnover is that it takes forever to build seniority. We see this very often in NICU since the specialty has such low turnover. I've worked in NICUs where it takes 5+ years to go from night shift to days. Any time there's such little turnover, it means that you could spend years working a schedule you don't like (including nights/weekends/holidays) while building up seniority.

Some hospitals definitely treat their staff better than others, but there's no perfect hospital and no perfect unit; no matter where you go, the grass is always greener somewhere. Every job will have parts that are great, parts that aren't so great, and parts that stink, but you tolerate the bad parts because the good parts are worth it.

It definitely depends on the NICU. Some new grads have walked right into a day shift position or had to wait only two or three months for one. Lot of turnover in the NICUs in my area.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Community Health, Med/Surg, ICU Stepdown.

I would love to find a great hospital but for now at least I have found a great unit! I started out on the worst unit in our hospital. My entire shift was new grads and we never had a charge nurse, unit clerk, break relief or any CNAs and always maximum ratios. We had no one to turn to with questions as we were all new... so unsafe! I thought I wanted to quit nursing. Our manager was a nursery nurse who they hired to run the Med/Surg unit so she couldn't help us either, only print out policies when we had questions...

I did an internal transfer and now work in a great stepdown unit with a manager who has 25 years of experience in critical care. We have a clerk and break relief because our manager actually advocates for us. We have a great mix of new and experienced nurses. It's still not perfect because our patient population is difficult but with the great coworkers and manager and staffing it is manageable. Nothing is perfect but it is possible to find somewhere to work that doesn't make you want to drink, do drugs or die!

3
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency medicine, primary care.

We have high turnover in the ED because we hire new grads and after a couple years, they want to go to ICU to do CRNA, or they want to travel nurse. We are always short staffed and I’m getting tired. If I didn’t have a year left of school, I’d probably be checking to see what’s out there. That said, I have really excellent management who accommodate my school schedule and are super flexible and that’s one of the best perks of my job. It’s a rarity, I know.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
On 7/21/2019 at 9:30 PM, LibraNurse27 said:

Nothing is perfect but it is possible to find somewhere to work that doesn't make you want to drink, do drugs or die!

I have had a job where I wanted to do all three! So, I know exactly what you mean.

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment