What "kind" of hospital to work for?-Kaiser vs. County vs. John Muir

[RNforGod]

Hi All,

I'm currently in the process of requesting a preceptorship from my university's list of available hospitals. I am allowed to choose three hospitals within the vicinity of the university, and will be placed on a medsurg unit from one of the three.

I would like to precept at a hospital where I would like to work, but so far none of the few med-surg floors I've been to have really stuck out to me, so instead of basing it on the unit or whether I have rotated there, I was thinking of basing it on what kind of hospital it is.

For those of you who are RN's, what made you decide to work where you do (other than that they were hiring)? (ie- What are the deciding points for working for Not for Profit Hospital vs County hospital vs Kaiser or Sutter)

thanks!

[RNforGod]

Any thoughts?:)

[Cuddleswithpuddles]

You may get more attention if you post this question in the general board where licensed nurses frequent.

As for me, when I was a student I picked the worst of the worst patients on the floor. Isolation, numerous diagnoses, homeless, combative etc. My mindset was I wanted to learn as much as I can, be efficient, see the interplay between multiple diseases, multiple meds etc. School was the perfect time to do it because I was not fully responsible for the patient, the bulk of the charting and I had more downtime to explore and research. Why NOT have a hard patient?

My school mandated which hospitals we went to but if I had a choice I would have extended that logic and chosen hospitals that dealt with difficult patients (most likely county) and/or the most technologically-advanced if I got to see such interventions (like if I had a OR rotation there).

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

You will make a lot of money working at Kaiser and most places are going the way of the Kaiser or Sutter system. You WILL most likely be working for one of these two systems. So, with that, I would recommend Kaiser. Just know, that you will be working your butt off.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Just to be clear, "not for profit" means nothing whatsoever in terms of patient care. It's strictly a tax category and relate to where the money goes-- shareholders? Etc. Plenty of "not for profit" hospitals make lots of money over expenses.

[Kandy83]

Well the greed in me says go for Kaiser:uhoh3:. Are you in California?

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Sutter & Kaiser are also not-for-profit organizations.

If you are trying to make a decision about working environments, it is much better to examine the organizations mission, values and philosophy - along with the patient population served..... rather than the financial classification. IMO, one of the clearest indicators of the character of an organization is the employee benefit structure because this shows what they are willing to invest in.

If they claim to fully support employee development, but have no (or miniscule) tuition reimbursement, that is a real disconnect. If they claim to be a great environment for nursing -but do not participate in Magnet, Pathways to Excellence, or a similar program - another disconnect. Do they support flex scheduling? Do they force employees to use "PTO" for sick time? See if you can uncover information about turnover - this is very revealing.