Pay- The pay at my center was far below the area average, particularly for the nursing staff. We could never keep good nurses because they left for other jobs that paid ~3-5$ more an hour than what Good Sam was offering. I often heard from management that they knew the pay wasn't as good as other places, but the trade off was getting to work in a caring Christian environment. In the four years I worked there, I never felt "loved, valued, or at peace" which is part of their mission statement.
Training and resources- Their clinical assessment forms are absolutely terrible. Charting methods are far more tedious than they have to be. And their policy and procedure manuals are fairly worthless; basically all they say is to follow state and federal regulations, and policies often contradict each other. You are better off just reading the State Operations Manual yourself than trying to find an answer in the P&P.
Management- I found the staffing patterns at both my center and at National Campus to be very top heavy. Managers and directors are rarely seen out of their offices and the amount of meetings and conference calls are out of control. Meanwhile hours and positions for front line staff and direct caregivers are being reduced all the time. It's incredibly demoralizing for these hard working staff members when, for example, management eliminates positions for medication technicians and dietary staff while they are adding positions for admissions coordinators, administrative nurses, marketing coordinators, and wellness coordinators at the same time. Floor nurses regularly put in 60-80 hours/week while the salaried managers work a 40 hour week.
Stress- Every day you are either working short, working with someone who is new or wasn't trained, pulling a double, or trying to meet the needs of a resident without the tools needed to do the job. Although management says they care about preventing burnout, they look the other way when people work off the clock or through their lunches; they will dump 4 or 5 new admissions on one nurse right before dinner; and they continue to accept admissions with very high acuity without the staff or equipment necessary to meet their needs. They staff based on census rather than acuity and then expect the same high quality of care regardless of how much care or assistance a resident needs.
Hypocrisy- The mandatory "Good Samaritan Way" training added insult to injury. Just because you pray before meetings, and about 20 other times a day, doesn't make you a good Christian. Your organization isn't superior to your competitors, so get off your high-horse. I firmly believe the only reason Good Sam is still in existence is because of charitable donations, not because of the hard-work, dedication, or skills of upper level management. What would Jesus do? He would probably make sure his employees were fairly compensated and had the tools they needed to do their jobs. He probably would not force a long term care resident to move to another wing of the building because he wanted to use their room for part of a new post-acute skilled unit, which brings in more money than long term care. And he would probably be more concerned about doing the right thing than about potential law suits.
