Pros
My two stars here are for the fellow nurses and PCAs I worked with. 98% of the "on-floor" staff have been absolutely fantastic, kind, and helpful.
Cons
The amount of work for the PCA role is massive and in my personal opinion a detriment to patient safety. Many shifts were understaffed more often than not, and a base pay of $15 per hour does not compensate a 16+ patients to PCA ratio. It could even get as high as 20 patients per PCA. Especially when a quarter of the census could be total care, it makes it extremely difficult to do the whole job effectively. Additionally, while being understaffed it was demoralizing to keep admitting patients just because of open rooms. It seemed that the system did a good job keeping patient to nurse ratios appropriate, but not patient to PCA rations appropriate.
