Pros
Free parking. Feather in my cap to say that I worked in one of the top 50 hospitals in the nation. (But really, how impressive is that anyway?)
Kontras
No pay raise for over 4 years. They hate to pay over-time, and any reason you give isn't good enough, even if you are taking care of a patient who collapsed! Salaried employees are enslaved. My colleagues and I worked 10-12 hour days for years, and still more was layered on us and expected to be completed on time. We were encouraged to take work home! When I approached management to formally request more help, I was told "that isn't going to happen, so do the best you can". Absolutely no empathy from management. Departmental morale was low for years, and teams were not encouraged to work cohesively. Doctors are still treated as gods, that they do no wrong, and we are expected to kowtow to their crazy demands. Most doctors I worked with are still disrespectful to nurses, with being rude, yelling, blaming, finger-pointing, getting the patients worked up and throwing it back on the nurse to fix. I caught more than one doctor lying to me, and on several occasions at that! When I informed management of what occurred, I was told that "I did the right thing by reporting it, now step back and let them handle it." Whatever they did, did not change the habits of the physicians. When I brought forth innovative ideas or constructive feedback, it fell on deaf ears. I had a few ways to streamline our work and prevent repetition of tasks - and was told by the senior staff nurse that "it wouldn't work." What irks me, is that 2 years later, she made the suggestion herself to the team, and suddenly it was a good idea! In the last year, I interviewed for several positions in the Inova system, so that I could transfer to a less stressful job, and keep my salary and benefits. I had months of poor responses from Human Resources, who cannot keep their department well-staffed, and the staff that is there is overworked and difficult to reach. It took weeks to set up interviews. I had to repeatedly call back to find out if I would be offered a position. And, to my amazement, after I had successful interviews for 2 different positions, those positions were eliminated! I eventually found out why... ... Inova is BROKE! That is why they have been having layoffs, and outsourcing multiple departments. I was displaced from one of my jobs, and given 4 weeks notice. They are building multiple buildings, even though hospital census is down across the nation. They think that they can beef up business by building more outpt centers in more areas. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that these could all be empty buildings, if there is no insurance coverage, and no elective surgeries with the economy being down. They put out a plea to all employees system wide to brainstorm for them and come up with ways to save money! This is so ridiculous, now that they have already set the wheels in motion for their decline and downfall.