Pros
The money and benefits here are great compared to other DA/NA positions in other hospitals. 15 days paid vacation per year. Paid sick leave. Paid holidays. Cheap health insurance. I also love the people I work with in the department. Managers don't hover over you which is great. My boss is approachable and friendly. If you are not a Diet Office position, you get to take your breaks when you want to.
Cons
The department refuses to hire more DA's, especially for help in the Diet Office. The patient count has been going up and up, yet we receive no extra help. They won't even hire more full-time or per diem employees to replace those that have left, just temporary employees for 5-6 months. It often takes that long after someone leaves just to get them in the door. The workload is ridiculous to the point where it's often impossible to take breaks. Super bureaucratic/corporate policies. Vacation requests will be denied unless you request them about a year in advance, quoting, "operational needs" even though they refuse to hire more people. Scheduling. You can be scheduled to work at any time between 5am and 8pm. Sometimes you will be scheduled to work until 8pm one day and start work between 5-7am the next day; this is not rare. We work rotating weekends, with split days off. I find this schedule exhausting and not great for work/life balance. If you are new expect to work mostly PM shifts until someone with seniority leaves, usually 10:30am-7pm. You must work at least 2 of the 3 following holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. If you are new, you don't get to choose. DA's work all holidays, hospitals don't close. We are not treated with much respect for our positions. DA's are always getting the short end of the stick. Upper management makes budget cuts to our position constantly, and I'm pretty sure they are trying to phase most of us out. Although the pay/benefits are great compared to other hospitals I've seen, it's not great compared to other positions within UCDMC and even the department. Technically a BS degree is not required for our position, yet 99% of the people hired within the last 10 years have had a BS in Nutrition or a related field. By not saying that it's required, they get to pay us less. Other positions in the Food & Nutrition department make the same rate as us, and they don't hold a degree. High turnover. This is due to the fact that it is really a stepping stone to becoming an RD, but also the job can be high stress because of the workload. The amount of food wasted here is astronomical, and could actually be decreased if they would hire more DA's :)