senior clinical nurse

registered nurse - medical / surgical

clinical nurse

registered nurse

licensed practical nurse

Albany Medical Center

Albany Med has a lot of great people, a lot of hard workers, and a lot of people dedicated to making a difference in the lives of patients and customers.  I am honored to have a spent a number of years across many departments within the hospital with such dedicated people.  And make no mistake, if I was in dire need of medical care I would choose nowhere else to go than AMC.

With that being said, Albany Med is a lumbering beast in culture.  This problem is endemic across many departments in the hospital, where how things have been for years sets up a culture very resistant to change.  This is exacerbated by the fact that upper management has spent so much of the past decade focusing on growing out Albany Med that they didn't even hear the complaints of employees which culminated in the nurses voting to unionize.  I make no joke about it that it is known board members mentioning how shocked they were about the vote going so strongly to the union.  This keys in how strongly, in one sense, that many levels of management are disconnected from front line employees.  This separation is made worse by the lack of desire to settle interdepartmental conflicts, or rolling out process changes.  Middle managers are left to fend for themselves as broad directives are handed down with flaws left in the details.

The final big sin, and I feel it's important as a reflection on the upper level management of Albany Med, is the addiction they have to bringing in consultants.  Consultants for systems, consultants for processes, consultants for management.  It's constant, they overlap, in and out.  Recommendations or made, changes are attempted, and ultimately, going back to my first point about culture, all the lessons are dropped and completely forgotten.  That is, until the next round comes in.  It's gotten so bad, an AVP and VP position, both vacated within a year of each other, are currently occupied by consultants!  It's not the money used that bothers me, although it is significant.  It's that upper management recognizes that the operation is not perfect, fluid or efficient.  It's that they don't trust anyone they hired (or inherited, as reporting structures change regularly as well) to come up with solutions from the areas they're concerned about.  

It's a lot to deal with at times, but I go back to the fact that despite all my gripes above, Albany Med still has a lot of outstanding individuals who put in 100% every day in an industry where mistakes can be fatal.  I would be staying, but the lack of direction and hope for career advancement are they key reasons I decided to leave.

Have had a couple different roles ranging from front line admin duties to manager level. AMC is a good overall employer with adequate benefits, time off, etc. The fact that they have laid zero people off during a pandemic is telling. No matter what people assume or read, I can ensure everyone that AMC's top leaders genuinely care about staffing at all levels. People are not just numbers. The top and bottom of AMC are extremely strong. 

Middle management is where the organization is challenged. It is not easy to consistently succeed for multiple different reasons- lack of training, politics, external pressures, legacy policies, etc. In many ways, AMC has been caught sleeping while the healthcare industry has been changing. Work is designed around the Provider rather than the customer. This coupled with changes in reimbursements, state & federal budgets, etc has led to a climate where the hospital is just barely able to keep its head above water. Most recently, even prior to covid, the challenges prevailed. 

In middle management the strain of this is felt daily. Rapid change is an expectation but most managers don't have the tools or haven't been given a vision by their leadership. People are blamed before process and structure. While people sometimes are the reason, it feels like the structure, process, and culture are more to blame. Again, all are influenced by the ever changing healthcare landscape. 

At the end of the day, AMC is a good employer but not great. That gap is attributable to the quality of middle management, variable communication and unseen forces (government, industry). Ultimately I would recommend AMC to those looking for a job. 

This is an excellent job to have before moving to a career-path job, master's, PhD or medical school. I would not recommend it as a long term job due to the fact that you will be outranked by PhDs regardless of research ability. The experience you gain is helpful on applications to graduate school and you can network with others at AMC. If you do your master's or PhD in the same lab at AMC any research you do will count towards your thesis.
Typically technicians manage the mouse colony for the lab as well as experiments that the PI assigns. As a technician you will be published on any scientific journal publications that you make significant contributions to. Downtime will vary based on the experiments you do, but all labs have some downtime during incubation steps and it gives you time to study or do classwork. 
Although you learn a lot and it is low stress, pay is lower than what you can earn in industry (locally at places like regeneron and curia). The only benefits are a below average amount of paid vacation days, expensive health/dental/vision insurance and a small pension contribution that vests after 3 years. The corporate structure is bureaucratic and you will need to follow nonsensical rules, likewise making simple changes to how things are done is impossible even if those changes save time and energy. 

I was so excited to be joining the Albany Medical team I got my hopes up thinking that this was going to be a good opportunity and I would learn a lot and progress. The attitude of this establishment is completely unprofessional from the management down to the miserable nurses. 
One thing I will say is that I was Impressed with the diversity, AMC staff is extremely diverse but then you have the floors where all the staff speak the same language and it’s different from yours so you feel like you’re at the nail salon for your entire shift while your coworkers talk about you. 
Management could care less about you working out of ratio I have been the ONLY PCA on floors for entire 12 hour shifts with over 16 patients and lazy nurses who could care less that the same patient has been calling nonstop for pain evaluation. This has by far been the most stressful unprofessional job I have ever had and I am very resilient when it comes to jobs. I got hired and 1.5 months later I was walking straight off a unit to my car knowing that i was giving up because I could not take anymore. Two hours before my shift even started i would get sick to my stomach I dreaded Going to work I do not recommend PCA work at this establishment what so ever.

The organization as a whole was an amazing place to work. All of the people were friendly and really cared for the patients.  The health insurance has a $250 deductible FOR THEIR OWN PLAN. So, everything up to $250 is out of pocket, then the copays kick in.  It was actually kind of ridiculous since it's a major healthcare provider.

Then...

There was the department I worked in, Case Management. There wasn't a lot of training. I received a "crash course" and was "thrown to the wolves."  The person that trained me was the person they were replacing because, they too, weren't doing the job well. So, I was somehow expected to immediately know that. Not to mention, EVERYTHING is on paper there and it ALL has to go through the hierarchy before anything gets done. I'm surprised the departments actually function.

After multiple write-ups for "not knowing the job" (even though you are only as good as the person that trains you), I decided enough was enough. I transferred to work on the floors with the Case Managers and Social Workers and help with discharges. BEST THING EVER! 

I ended up leaving because of a family emergency... but everyday, I am told someone else has left.

Don't you think it's a problem with management when the employees come and go frequently?

Pros: 
- high acuity
- wide variety of types of surgery covered
- academic hospital
- opportunities for growth for entry-level and non-ASATT certified technicians

Cons:
- poor management that isn't receptive to feedback
- little to no support from management outside of business hours
- high staff turnover

Worked weekends and holidays. No two days were the same. I really felt challenged to be proficient different types of cases. 

Orientation overall is about 6 weeks, which I feel is far too short for anyone wanting to progress beyond an entry-level anesthesia technician without pursuing ASATT certification. Anesthesia covers both the adult and children's hospital, and staffing at the inpatient OR offers a wider variety of cases than you might find at a smaller community hospital. 

My biggest gripe about the team was my immediate manager. They didn't seem all that invested growing the staff's skills nor taking the time to get to know them. Most of the per-diem and part time staff are students wanting pursue work in healthcare, and most of them leave after about a year or two of experience for a better paying job.  Giving feedback and asking for support from management was beyond frustrating because nothing got done, and I often wondered if management even heard my requests for help or suggestions for process improvement. 

I have never worked in a place where I was disrespected and mistreated like I was here. The managers I worked for treated me terribly and I think they received satisfaction in my misery. I was even bullied by a couple of my bosses. I was promised bonuses and reimbursement for licensure/certifications that I never saw. I saw more patients than the MD's did. The MD's were drinking coffee, critiquing my dictations as I saw all of their patients. The MD's would hand pick their patients and send the less desireable ones to me. I had zero training in my speciality and was expected to study on my own. However I was so exhausted from working such long hours that I had no time to educate myself on this speciality. There was no dictation time built into my schedule so I had to dictate into the evenings/and early mornings at home. My coworkers were just as miserable which made for a long day and a lot of back stabbing behavior. The patient population was difficult to work with. The job taught me a lot about what I will not settle for in a work place. It was by far the worst place I have ever worked. Once I left for a great job, I realized just how bad the working conditions were there.

A normal day at work consists of greeting patients and supporting them through the healing process within the bureaucracy that exists at Albany Medical Center. Down to the nitty gritty you have to take patient vitals every 4 or 8 hours as directed. Help patients with their ADL's (activities of daily living). Assist with patient discharges or admissions.  Record and track patient Intake and Output.  Perform fingerstick testing for patients with diabetes and collect urine/fecal samples as ordered.   You also may be put on a safety protocol sit along with assisting the patient with eating and or drinking.  Keeping up with all of these duties can keep you very busy and will have you exhausted by the end of the work day.  It can be hard to maintain the overall work capacity to cover all of these tasks.  It is a very rewarding job though because you can see the direct impact you have on patient outcomes.  Overall I would say its a good job for someone just out of school to round out their experience if they are looking to get into the medical field. 

A typical day was stressful and inconsistent with unclear expectations and frequent micromanagement. I learned a lot about patience, professionalism, and advocating for myself in difficult work environments. Management often appeared to value diversity and inclusion, but their actions told a different story. The culture was very cliquey, and it was challenging to feel supported or heard, especially for non-white employees. The hardest part of the job was dealing with favoritism and the lack of accountability when concerns were raised. Bringing issues to HR was unproductive, as they often dismissed or minimized concerns rather than investigating them fairly. There were noticeable pay disparities, with some non-white employees earning significantly less than white counterparts with less education and experience. The most enjoyable part was the hands-on experience and connecting with clients who genuinely needed help. Those moments reminded me why I wanted to work in this field.

What is the best part of working at the company?
For me it's the location I literally work 10 minute car ride from the hospital and being that it's a trauma one you get to have that trauma experience working in a fast pace always on the go so to speak type of environment

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Basically as with any place that you go nine times out of 10 the most stressful part is the work politics that can be a little bit stressful you know especially when you're like the new person

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Albany med is extremely diverse culturally they pretty much try to show respect for other for other cultures and they allow other cultures to practice their religion whatever that may be and I think that's really cool

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day for me would be come in I work in the sterile processing department and we are the ones who basically sterilize all the instruments for the operating room we stock the various operating rooms that we have about 32 of them and we keep inventory for basically the hospital every department from Ortho to peds to OBGYN etc

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Senior clinical nurse 3937 salaries reported	$94,505 per year
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Clinical nurse 164 salaries reported	$106,123 per year
Registered nurse 50 salaries reported	$106,080 per year
Licensed practical nurse 95 salaries reported	$56,028 per year

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