Pros
Trauma 1 hospital. Other than that, nothing else.
Cons
Insurance- Praises about having very low premiums in comparison to most medical insurance. They do not mention to employees the actual reason why. The insurance limits you to doctors within the University Health System and UT Health facilities. Very few places outside of those facilities accept the insurance, which is through Community First. No PPO benefits are offered. If you do not provide proof of insurance and they find out that you do not have any, they will automatically enroll you into their insurance. PTO- Not available until you have been there more than 90 days (past orientation). If you leave or are terminated before your orientation is over, no PTO is paid out. Certifications: Company does not compensate you for certifications. Beware of this as they do not mention this to people. I did my ACLS and BLS at their educational center located near HR. I was told by management that I would not be paid. The reason they gave was because it was on my own time. When I went for the ACLS the first time, it was a two-day course that lasted eight hours on both days. Regarding 8 ACU: Just throw the entire unit away. 8 ACU is like a typical day in High School. Nurses gossiping about patients and co-workers. Staff spreading rumors. Very cliquish. Favoritism-From top to bottom. If the nurses do not like you, they will not train you! They will not help you if they do not like you! High workload with unrealistic expectations. Unit is extremely stressful. They added a new unit, PCU in January. Which made things even more stressful on the floor. The new PCU unit requires more nurses on the floor. No training or orientation provided prior to the unit opening. 1:3 ratio for PCU and 1:5-6+ ACU. Prior to the new unit, nurses were assigned patients that should have been in a PCU or ICU. Charge nurses do not help with patients. You can find them in their cozy office. The nurse educator seldom makes an appearance on the unit. Most of the experienced nurses left the unit during the pandemic. They do not adequately train new grad nurses. Nurses are paired with more than one preceptor, which can make learning difficult. One new nurse had five different preceptors during their orientation. New nurses may be set up for failure, depending on if the nurses and management likes them. They are set up for failure by not being shown how to perform skills, provided with poor resources, and being withheld information. Basically, throwing them to wolves. Then management blames them, not their preceptor who is supposed to train them. Making nurses with less than one year of experience are precepting new nurses. There was a nurse who had eight months of experience precepting a new grad nurse! The blind leading the blind. The Patient Care Coordinators (PCCs)/management who assign people for preceptorship are clueless as to why this poses an issue! Toxic unit culture. Lateral violence is rampant on the unit. The charge nurses, nurse managers, and PCCs do nothing to stop it. In fact, they are a part of it. They retaliate against the person who voices a concern. Especially new nurses. I witnessed several nurses that were either bullied relentlessly or managed out of the unit. Nurses will make up incidents to get another nurse or staff member fired. Then brag or laugh about it. There is a lot of backstabbing. Brown nose, and you will stay on the unit. That and being friends with management. No promotions unless you are brown noser. No Just Culture- Management and Charge nurses are very punitive (unless you are favorite). They will issue write-ups or terminate for mistakes that should have been an incident report or a discussion. The night shift PCC is notorious for this. Amoral and unethical - Nurses openly discussing falsifying their charting. Or encourage other nurses to do the same. Talking negatively about patients within earshot of a patient’s room. Nurses blatantly breaking HIPAA.
