state tested nursing assistant

registered nurse

licensed practical nurse

medication aide

respiratory therapist

Arbors

I've worked in elder care and skilled nursing facilities for most of my adult life and while I have worked at some awful facilities, this place was the absolute worst. 

I mean, Arbors West made h*** look like Disneyland. It was such a miserable place to work and it was full of miserable people. Nurses treated the aides like dirt underneath their shoe. Management was of no help and often sided with the nurses. Management was of the idea that they were ALWAYS right and they were never to be questioned, EVER. Question them and you will find yourself being walked out.

Nurses were even worse. Very overbearing, extremely demanding and completely condescending. See, in SNFs, nurses are considered supervisors, but this is very misguided because it puts those in a position of leadership for which they are not qualified. These nurses would talk to the aides in such nasty ways, it would make them cry. 

There was no training. You just got thrown into a job and told to do it, with no training at all. This is dangerous, especially if a resident is on a specific diet or is a fall risk or something. I was told to help in the dining room to help serve and feed a bunch of residents and I didn't know anyone in there. Not their names, their diets, nothing. Nurse yelled at me because I gave a piece of chocolate cake to a diabetic, like I was supposed to know that on my third day. Nurse yelled at me for not doing two showers; again, I didn't know that on my second day. 

You couldn't sit at the nurses station at all. You couldn't even sit at all. Period. I got yelled at by nurses, who I ignored. I got yelled at by managers, who I blew off. Because of the low census, they always sent someone home. Since this wasn't my real job, I was cool with leaving early because the others needed their hours and I wanted to help them out; I had a real job elsewhere and didn't care.

They never had supplies, which meant we couldn't get our work done. So many aides just walked out the door because they got tired of being yelled at for not doing their work. You can't do anything without supplies, so some of the aides started buying and bringing in hygiene supplies so they could get showers done. I refused to do this and, you guessed it, I got yelled at. 

You never knew where you were assigned until you got there. Then you get yelled at for not being on the correct unit. I mean, I spent most of my time at this job getting yelled at and then one night, after being yelled at for not getting my work done due to there not being any supplies and refusing to take supplies from other residents, I just left. Walked right out the door. Called off the next day and just never went back. 

That job was literally making me sick. Several of the aides I worked with have since left that gulag. State has already shut down Arbors East and I can't wait until they shut down this place. 

Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit. This is a miserable place to work.

Here we go……
If  you’re a part of the “main group” (the staff who have worked together for a long time) it’s probably not so bad. Best advice for everyone else, be cautious and trust no one. Rumors and lies spread like wildfire.  
If you smoke cigarettes or vape, this is the place for you!  Seems like you can smoke as often as you’d like, without informing any fellow staff of your whereabouts or that you will be “off the floor”. Vaping inside….why not here and there when no one is looking?? No consequences, it’s just accepted.
Staff can continually show up for scheduled shifts late ( sometimes 2-4 hours) and get nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Staff can “no call no show” for a shift  up to 3 times before anything will be done about it. The inconvenience to fellow staff and co-workers doesn’t seem to matter. No accountability! 
It doesn’t matter how many hours certain employees have already worked in a day or in a week…..instead, if the building is short staffed and no other employee will agree to come in and work, prepare to be told to suck it up. Mandated to stay until another shift arrives with enough coverage for  the shift. Upper management doesn’t step in and help out! 
Many of the staff are lazy, entitled, and rude with little to no respect for management and fellow co-workers! The staff that routinely do what they are asked and go above and beyond to help out with staffing shortages are tired and it becomes “expected” of them because they are dependable. Get rid of the employees that “don’t care” and take care of the ones who do!
If foul language and the f*** word are a part of your vocabulary, you will fit right in! It is frowned upon but it’s the “norm” and nothing gets done to correct the problem.
If you have any “on-call” responsibility, be prepared to work alot of hours due to all the call-offs and no shows! Very small “on-call” staff so the demand is high. Every other day with a high probability of covering some shifts, and sometimes, more than once per day.
No one is allowed to use wipes to assist with incontinence clean up (because staff throw them in the toilet). Staff are to use washcloths for care but they are difficult to find. Not enough to go around.
No free meals are offered during your shift. No real incentive for staff.
Lots of BURNOUT!!  Drama, drama, drama!

Typically I would work on a unit with 25-26 residents to myself, while the other halls had 12-13 max. I had many nights where I was unable to leave my shift on time due to being unable to chart during the shift, having to catch up. I often was unable to take breaks because I was providing patient care. 
It really is a sink or swim kind of place, and the nurses (who are supposed to be  the floor supervisors) and management hide in their offices and provide no assistance on the floor whatsoever. 
The culture is an "us versus them" mentality, and the belief in continuity of care is clearly not held. This resulted in many unpleasant shift changes, where staff would clock out and walk out of the building before the next group of staff arrived, for example, or when you come in to staff accusing you of being abusive, neglectful, lazy, etc.. 
From my perspective, I quickly lost interest in working at this facility. It was hard to find anything I enjoyed, especially when it was the harder working staff that were being bullied, isolated, and targeted by not just other staff but nursing and management. 
The hardest part is going into work blind, not knowing if you have a new admit in a room until you see them in a previously empty spot, nursing doesn't know anything, even when they are the one getting report from their previous facility/hospital. 
The maintenance team was very nice and did what they could with what was available to them, but the building itself is falling apart. The windows can't open as the cranks and such have been removed. Multiple doors have holes in them, won't close, or are beat up because the rooms are so small that you can't fit a wheelchair into some of the restrooms between the bed and the door. The air conditioning and heat in the hallways and staff areas were non-functioning, and if you brought water or coffee to drink, the Director of Nursing would throw it in the trash. So staff were expected to suffer in silence over being unable to eat/drink or properly care for themselves. 

I am beyond shocked that this place is still open!! Not because the facility itself is literally 50 years old and has never been updated, but because of the care that the residents receive or lack there of. There are residents with mats the size of your hand in the back of their head. There is pressure wounds that are not being treated that are the size of your fist. Management also will promise pay for coming in on an extra shift and if something happens or you quit before that payday, they will refuse to pay you out that bonus for the time that you legitimately worked Upon the agreement. I have never been in a place that has so little compassion.
The supplies that are given to the aids to properly care for our residence are next to none. They still wash with wash rags and soap, no wipes no perineal spray or cleanser. and they still use bath blankets underneath of the residence because they have no chucks. The food that is provided to the residence is absolutely horrid!
Workplace environment, is extremely toxic and inappropriate. Aides and nurses the same with management will openly be inappropriate to one another and when you say something about it, they just shrug and say this is how it is here. Any concerns that you to management or your supervisor is met with a shrug and that’s it. This place is absolutely horrible.
The hardest part about this job is not calling state immediately.

Med pass is main priority to this company. Resident care comes second.  You have to be ontime with your med pass (which some residents have over 15 medications you give) with over 20+ residents to care for.  They also want you to be able to provide resident care with little or no help from management.  They only have 4 nurses for 4 halls during the day and 3 for night shift. Sometimes you will have 3 nurses during the day if you have a call off and 1 hall is split, then you have over 30 residents to care for.  Management refuses to see the need for help and will stay in their office with the door closed instead of trying to help the nurses or STNA's.  I had to introduce myself to the administrator. He didn't even know who I was.  All he does is stay in his office all day.  If you are short an STNA you are expected to do STNA work on top of caring for 20+ residents as a nurse.  You also have tons of charting, pharmacy, labs, UDA's, etc., that all have to be done in your 12 hour shift.  If you forget anything you get written up.  I love my residents and feel they should be getting better quality of care.  Management doesn't care if you are in the hospital or are sick with doctor's notes you get written up anyway.  You are allowed paid sick time but get written up if you use it.  The most enjoyable part of my job are my residents.   I hate to see them not being cared for properly.

I worked here for a while and have no idea how. The benefits were insanely priced I spent almost $500 a month just for insurance. They don’t do pay raises yearly it’s based off of an “experience” scale. So if you have been doing your job shorter time than some but work harder it doesn’t matter you’re not getting more money.  The working conditions are less than ideal. Short staffing to the point of misery because of lack of pay increases. Giving employees more work and responsibility without any sort of compensation. Corporate dominates management and management cannot help the floor staff without consequences (if they even want to help because most didn’t) most management would be in their offices all day then complain about what wasn’t done. Education there was poor and no consistency for staff. Most times staff would be contacted on their personal phones on days off with “required education” and harassed to “confirm you received this education”  Management always changing. When I quit I was told remaining PTO would be paid out leaving on good terms. I cannot get ahold of anyone who has jurisdiction in this. This company also has done people dirty as well making false accusations and doing what they need to do to save themeselves even if it’s at the cost of the employees. 

Work-life balance
The girl who is doing the scheduling doesn't know how to do her job in the short time I was there 2-3 other girls were fired due to the schedule as well as myself. I feel like if they got staff who knows how to do their job on the management level this place would be much better. Aslo refused to give employees hazzard pay bc no residents had the virus but staff did. Now as far as the aides and the nurses they're AMAZING its management we ARE disposable to them and that's why that place is a revolving door.

Job security and advancement
Job security is something everyone worried about out there again goes back to management.

Management
They made sure you felt like you were disposable. I loved my residents and the girls I worked with, management would rather let the good aides go due to some kind of technicality rather than work w the those of us who were doing our job and doing it well they'd much rather fire and bring in/keep those who float  off the ones who do bust their hump to.do thir job.

Overall
I've wrote it all before, the issue is at management level. More people leave that 0lace bc the person they have on schedules dosent know how to do her job. If you want to work here watch your hours and your schedule. The nurses and aides are amazing people who I loved to work with.

Very clean and nice nursing facility, but was vastly understaffed before Covid even hit. Around 80 beds, usually only filled to about 50-65. Residents are well taken care of, their rooms are all very nice, decorated, and seem like home. They have a in-house physical therapy room, hair salon, and many different activities planned every week including daily therapy pet visits. Outdoors is beautiful, with a grass courtyard and walking path around the perimeter of entire building, very very rural setting.  Their meals are cooked in-house and are always very very good, with a lot of attention given to each residents specific dietary needs. RN’s on duty are great but very high turnover. STNA’s are also good at their jobs but it’s hard to be great when one is  doing the job of 4, and it really takes away from overall patient care when 10 call lights are on and the only STNA available must prioritize those calls alone. Laundry/housekeeping was the only department that seemed able to barely keep up with their duties without lowering standards or choosing between which task is more crucial.



This place has gone down hill over the years, patient care is devastating, constantly short staffed due to staff members quitting shortly after starting due to the work environment. This facility will hire anyone just so there is enough people on the schedule so it looks good for state evaluation. Management does not care about their staff, how they are struggling and doesn’t even try to help out the floor staff. Have personal issues that you need time off work for? Too bad, you will get spoken too like you’re incompetent, you will be talked about through the entire building. Have to call off and tell them why? No matter how personal it may be, the staff that took the call off will tell everyone. Patient care at this facility is very sad. The aides will sit on their butts for the majority of their shift. This is a very sad place to work, it’s emotionally draining, you will feel like you are being spoken to as if you are a child and being scolded by the principle. There is no compassion, understanding, teamwork or empathy in this building. The pay is very good, but that is ONLY to get people to come work there, and in hopes to get staff to stay. Which is a very rare occurrence. Do not work here. 

Very stressful and unorganized place of employment. Often expected to take THREE UNITS including a vent floor and locked memory care which isn't safely secured (have had unobserved residents fall outside). Always sending someone out or opening some sort of risk management. In house dialysis that is poorly operated by all parties. Incompetent. Management never helps, but will add more frivolous work for you to do. Genuinely expects you to complete the work of 2+ nurses just because they have MedTech's. You will work like a dog for lower end compensation. With the compensation that they do offer come with many strings which usually result in loss. Promised to work around my school schedule prior to being hired, but then scheduled me on the one day a week I needed off for class. Told me they couldn't switch my days, but always run the building short staffed with 2 nurses, 3 if you're lucky. A draining, fake, and manipulative environment. But please form your own opinions as the residents and staff deserve support. Goodluck in your future endeavors!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
State tested nursing assistant 135 salaries reported	$22.32 per hour
Registered nurse 136 salaries reported	$41.34 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 144 salaries reported	$34.14 per hour
Medication aide 5 salaries reported	$24.40 per hour
Respiratory therapist 38 salaries reported	$43.70 per hour

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