registered nurse

patient care technician

health screener

licensed practical nurse

nursing assistant

Ascension

Ascension is a large company and run like a corporate business. Upper management is always tinkering and changing things with no concept of how it affects everyone below them, usually to their own benefit. Decisions are applied across the board for everyone, which makes no sense since not all departments serve the same function. Upper management is basically more interested in lining their pockets than helping regular staff.

Most recently, a lot of IT functions have been outsourced and moved offshore in order to save costs. This not only allows Ascension to lay off large parts of their workforce, but it hurts the primary purpose of this company which is to provide healthcare. Management then uses a lot of catchy buzzwords and meaningless corporate speak to say this makes us more efficient and able to focus on what's important, but it's blatantly obvious that you can pay far less to offshore workers (15k a year vs. 50k). Upper management then claims they saved tons of money and are able to get raises AND keep their annual $75k bonuses. They don't care that the quality of service provided suffers drastically. This has absolutely demoralized the IT department and caused many teams to lose their focus on providing support as it makes them feel unappreciated and disposable. Many people on my team have left for far better pay.

While I did initially like my job and have learned quite a bit, it's turned into something amorphous and undefined. Management pushes us to get "training", but with no real definition of what kind of training would actually help us to grow, especially with the threat of outsourcing and layoffs looming over us all. Any attempt at transparency has gone out the window.

I don't recommend getting a job with Ascension until upper management stops being greedy and removes their reliance on 'trendy' practices, outsourcing, and using corporate terminology to obfuscate what their true purpose is, which is to drastically cut costs at the expense of human beings, just to line their own pockets. With all this push to bring in offshore companies to provide IT support, I can't imagine being a doctor or nurse in the hospitals trying to use the computer systems. It's a sinking ship.

Benefits were far better when I started, but they have been pruned back quite a bit. I find I often have to recheck my medical bills to make that I'm either not being over-charged or if medicals services are even being covered, despite using Tier 1 facilities and doctors. I shouldn't have to feel like I'm taking on a second job just to keep track of my medical expenses. You pretty much have to pay premiums into everything, and the benefits that you don't pay into have been scaled back to offer less coverage.

Lastly, the pay for IT support with Ascension is about 30% lower than the national average, unless you've been grandfathered in from another position within the company. The only people getting raises or promotions are those in higher positions. My current top-level manager hasn't bothered trying to fight for more money for our team, despite us all hearing about raises being given to other groups.

I worked at ABMC a few years ago and wow, best decision i ever made was to leave. 

I was in security (aka the red headed step child). We got next to no respect from visitors and staff expect the ED. Management in our own department was very disrespectful. We were short handed. That cant happen when you work hospital security because we were always in the thick of it. To save money, the department wouldn't pay OT and were very slow at hiring to replace people. I remember working shifts with just two officers, which one had to be in the ED... smh. 

ED... Most of the staff was great to us like anywhere you go. Some of the nurses were mad because they couldn't chose their patients so they would be a jerk to them. Once the patient gets made and begins to talk back, the RN would call us. We would have to spend hours talking to people because the ED RN couldn't be nice. Such a waste of money and resources. 

I spent many days and nights with them. Believe it or not, the ED does see some crazy things where security has to help out with. However, patient watches are a joke. We would have to post a guard because some homeless person wanted a nice warm place to stay. The hospital refuses to hire sitters for the ED so security was always stuck to it. I would be on several watches throughout the whole ED. If a patient acted out, you were expected to be there right away to stop it, but sometimes you cant because you're on the other side of the ED. Then complaints would come in on you and management always took the side of the ED. You could spend a whole shift babysitting a suicidal person who's sleeping, but don't you think about looking at your cell phone. The nurses would always be on theirs texting and laughing but as soon as they saw yours, complaint! 

There were doors there which were broken. So you couldn't lock them but if someone came in there after hours, you'd get in trouble... We would also have to do weird things like, go down to Walgreens and buy this or that with our own money and get reimbursed. 

The pay is a joke. You could make more money and not get hurt on the job mowing lawns. Our raises were all of .20-.25 cents a year.... wow. Administration thinks of you though because every year they will give you a free dinner here and there on holidays and what not. They would only pay for 6 holidays, which if you worked was 1.5 the pay. The time off was good because its a PTO system. That way if you don't call out sick, you could use that time for vacation or what ever. They would allow you to sell some of your PTO back which was nice during Christmas time.

However, if we were short staffed, you were expected to take a day off in the middle of your work week to help make ends meet. In my time there, the company did hire some people who couldn't and wouldn't fight. Its gotten better but shocking when we were restraining a patient and one of your fellow security officers is there guarding the door.

Best advice for anyone reading this is to get some experience like 6-12 months and move to a better healthcare organization who pays a respectable wage.

I've been suffering in silence for many months, feeling like I was alone. However, I recently found out a co-worker also has PTSD from being tormented by the same leadership. Almost as if a domino effect I then learned a 3rd colleague had been dealing with Workplace PTSD. I feel it would be irresponsible of me to not post online to warn potential candidates about the environment here. (If you don’t know much about PTSD, it will significantly impact both your mental and physical health, hurt your personal relationships and/or have severe consequences to your home life.) 

The culture at Ascension Seton is TOXIC. After multiple rounds of layoffs, we are on a skeleton crew, and most of the remaining employees have insurmountable workloads and are struggling to tread water creating a CYA environment. Leaders show strong bias in their management style, with “favorite” employees who wander around 8-5 rubbing shoulders and brown-nosing; some of whom literally do ZERO WORK as they delegate to other poor souls who don’t even report to them and then claim their work as their own. Those who are less fortunate have OVERWHELMING workloads. No, not like “every other company” who is doing more with less. Seton is doing more with less because you must account for the leadership’s “favorites” redistributing their workloads into other people’s buckets. 

And don’t ever upset your leader, the Seton culture tolerates retribution. If you get on their bad side, or if they just don’t like you, it is apparent in the management of daily activities, in how they treat you, in how they speak to you, and when you receive your annual performance evaluations. I’ve seen examples of retaliatory behavior from managers through C-suite level. 

If you are a NARCISSIST or a lemming you might do well here. Everyone else in between with career aspirations should beware of big toothy smiles…and remember the children’s book The Little Red Riding Hood.

Advice to Management:

LEADERS: You manage a healthcare company, how is it possible you don’t care about WORK-LIFE BALANCE or the WELL-BEING of your employees? Shame on you that employees are being diagnosed and suffering from PTSD right under your noses (have you noticed? do you care?). Evenly distribute workloads. Get rid of dead weight. 

HR: Seton’s leaders need more leadership development. They should be promoted with emotional intelligence, not based on intelligence alone. They need to lead by example, not lead by berating, belittling, or humiliating. They should not manage with FEAR, show obvious DISTRUST to employees, MICROMANAGE, assign BLAME, or play FAVORITES. Many of us are seasoned professionals, yet we walk around with our tails between our legs afraid of our next reprimand. You have a lot of work to do before this feels like a “safe” environment.

Healthcare has turned into a business that is only focused on money, not patient care, not patient safety, and definitely not staff satisfaction. We are over worked, short staffed, underpaid, and yet we have to keep smiling and take great care of our patients and their families so they don't know that we haven't been able to go to the bathroom all shift and can't even get a 10 minute lunch break. 

There is no room for advancement. The hospital claims to want you to further your education but the tuition reimbursement is a joke and taking any kind of educational classes/seminars- you will not be reimbursed for them even if they will help your skills and knowledge as a nurse. They hire inexperienced nurses so they can pay them less and don't even give them the proper training so they start their nursing careers with poor training that they will base all of their care from. This is a danger to the patients as well as their fellow staff members. My patient's and coworkers are the reason I go back every day. They are the ones that actually show appreciation. 

The hospital wide committees are supposed to have nurses on them but they don't allow staff nurses on them, only nurses in management/administration. How are you going to make positive changes that benefit the staff if you don't allow the staff to be part of these committees or meetings? Management has no clue what it's like on the floor. They all know the main problem is lack of staff but instead of hiring more nurses, techs, phlebotomists, etc they pocket the money and give it as a bonus to the manager of the unit. Forcing us all to do our jobs and the jobs of 3+ other people......for the same pay. 

During the polar vortex administration was able to stay home but if a regular staff member called off they were penalized. Why not come in and show support to your staff? Why are you at home hiding under your covers when we braved the bitter cold to come in and do our jobs? Maybe buy us some hot chocolate or good coffee or even pizza for lunch during those days to show some appreciation. Do you see why we feel like we aren't valued and respected? Do you see why the staff turnover rate is so high? If you actually cared then you would be willing to have an open dialogue with your staff members and would listen instead of the last town hall meeting when a member of administration famously told a staff member, "If you don't like it then leave!"

I really think AMITA can be a great place to work. In order to make it happen many of the nurses at each hospital are organizing to form unions. So if AMITA won't do the right thing on their own, the unions will force them to do it. You can't fire all of us. The unions are coming.

I inventory the operating room at Lourdes Hospital.  I start around 430 am.  I like to stock sutures on suture trees and in surgical rooms when I can.  Going in early gives me a chance to re-stock non-used inventory.  I am also responsible for stocking the slider carts in the core where non-inventory items are kept like gowns, gloves, an prep solution.  Inventory like gowns, gloves, and prep solution are stored in our warehouse.  I need to do all that and inventory the operating room before surgery starts at 745 am.  I inventory sutures, trocars, and endomechanicals on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays which need to be received by our distributor (Owens and Minor) before 9 am.  Today, (Monday, December 21, 2015) we received our shipment from Owens.  I sorted out my product then restocked shelves in sterile processing.  After that, I picked the slider cart order and restocked the slider carts by 8 am.  We get three major deliveries every day which are FedEx Ground, UPS, and FedEx Express.  I help sort and receive all product which comes in.  Depending on when the order was placed, I will pick the anesthesia order from the warehouse and bring that to the operating room so that inventory can be replenished.  Around 153 pm, I will do a spot check inventory of all high velocity sutures, trocars, and endomechanicals.  Everyday, I constantly check the status of open purchase orders (p.o.'s) so I know when the product is coming in and it gives me enough time to determine if I need a substitute or not.  What I learned is how to prioritize one situation over another and knowing what is a more critical need than something else.  Based upon what I have seen so far, my manager is still learning how to be a manager.  This person has their good points, then again, they also have their challenges and things which they can improve upon.  Determining what product a physician wants can be a challenge because every nurse and surgical technician has their own pet names for a particular item.  Since I am not usually in a room, knowing those pet names can be a real challenge.  In that situation, I will ask to see the physical product or ask for the manufacturer's reference number.  I have trained a lot of the staff to do that.  The most enjoyable part of my job is I work with very colorful people.  A quirky personality or sense of humor definitely helps to lighten the mood in an environment which is very stressful.

Benefits were good. Pay was fair.  The most enjoyable part of the job was caring for the residents/patients and getting to know their families. Working with activities, most peers, MDS, Social worker and PT/OT was wonderful as well- There are some really great people employed there. Was really sad to see how they were treated.  The hardest part of the job was combating burn out/moral injury and navigating an incredibly toxic work environment.  Schedule was x3 12 hour shifts. Which is nice. Poor work life balance though. You are able to earn PTO- which is fair- but would never disclose if the PTO requests were approved/denied ahead of time. Wouldn't know if you had your requests off until calendar was posted and that was only done 2 weeks in advance- if you were lucky. Required you to take a 12 hour vacation day for a 1 hour Dr appointment requested off months in advance.  Non supportive management. Encouraged LPN's to go to school to get RN, but once in a program, told they wouldn't honor a set school schedule (School schedule was the same 2 days a week for 16 weeks) This was done to several staff nurses. When seeking help or assistance from management team/Admin, they ignored or belittled you. They were unprofessional and behaved like bullies. Management verbally assault staff in common areas and in meetings regularly.  Told staff to "figure it out" or "you aren't the nurse I thought I hired" or "whats wrong with you, didn't you go to nursing school" On numerous occasions overheard bad mouthing floor nurses to their peers. Disclosing the personal medical and private information about other staff to their peers. Poor staffing ratios. Sometimes unsafe. Played favorites- hired friends and would allow them to mistreat patients. Numerous complaints made about rude, aggressive and combative staff were never addressed because they hung out with management. When many staff members made attempts to go up the chain of command to file complaints, nothing was done and the complaint/who filed it was disclosed. Incredibly toxic work environment. So toxic that several of the nurses that left the company left nursing altogether. Unless the entire nurse management team (Admin, DON, ADON/wound nurse, Scheduler and Restorative Nurse Manager) was completely overhauled and removed from the building- I wouldn't recommend working there- no amount of money is worth the turmoil, mental and emotional abuse.  

Let me start by saying I love what I do, the patients I serve, and most the people I work with. There are a lot of daily learning opportunities via "trial by fire." Sadly, Ascension's "culture" stopped progressing in the 80's behind closed doors.
Cons
They boast inhumanely stagnate PTO accrual. For hourly employees this equates to roughly 14 x 8 hour sick/vacation days COMBINED. A YEAR. For comparison, fast food offers more. In a more strict side by side comparison, this is roughly half that of neighboring/rival hospitals with much higher acuity patient as a Level 1 Trauma center. In addition, hospitals "true up" employees for not working contracted time (down to quarter hours) which leaves employees with nonexistent PTO. If you're looking for standard benefits from an employer, I'd also keep looking. Insurance is expensive (approximately $70 biweekly) and limited to in network providers. For the cost, that will buy you a $1000 deductible from any provider from neighboring hospitals. To add insult to injury, 401k match is 3% with a vestment time. Competitors range from 5-6% with or without vesting. Plenty of CE opportunities do exist. But, if you plan to obtain an advance degree, you're told the hospital does not work with schools they're not affiliated with. While you could be loving a new rule within their facility, they'd rather you get that experience (and later employment) elsewhere. Possibly for the reasons above or ones that I'm not privy to, many of the units are staffed 50-80% by traveler/agency nurses. I am extremely grateful for their help, but am deeply concerned for patient safety and continuity of care when a revolving door of faces show up every 8-12 weeks. People in orientation are training travel nurses the caveats of working there. Even if you walk in daily with the most upbeat, positive attitude, and are a staff nurse, overt commentary by a select remaining staff RNs can create and/or exasperate burnout in a position you're still excited about. Education department attempts to put individuals with preceptors they've had positive feedback on, but that does not stop the passive aggressive commentary, disregard, and disrespect for both new staff employees and agency/travel nurses. If the staff RNs are not discouraging you, the surgeons definitely will comments regarding staffing retention, lack of resources, and how they dislike conducting surgery there.

I start my day with morning report and create a patient case load (usually 15 patients per nurse). The ratio is 1 to 15. We typically have about 30 patiients on unit. I am a charge nurse on 2N and overall LOVE my job!I control mileu safety, interact with doctors all day, attend staffings, monitor orders and make sure patient/family needs are met. I do admissions and discharges, and nursing groups.
The management is amazing and I love most of the peers I work with. I feel extremly grateful to have a job! The hardest part of my job is the exhausting amount of work I do for 8 hours staright. There is rarely a break (I do make sure to eat lunch though!). The minute I am done with one task, there is 5 more waiting. The best part of my job is helping my patients. I care so much about them and love watching them grow and feel better. I enjoy doing nursing groups and teaching the patients about thier diagnosis, medications, treatment plans and about the treatment team. The workplace culture is up and down on any given day. We all must make sure we take care of ourselves outside of work, in order to be functioning team everyday, we all know this. We are there for eachoher, but most importantly we work as a team! My boss and unit manager are understanding, clinically amazing and understand we have lives outside of work. They make work fun and relaxed and try to help when the unit needs it! They inspire me and believe in me (always have since I was a new grad). They encourgae me to think outside the box and are the reason why I finally went back to graduate school. I have learned that nursing is complex and managing my time with paperwork and patient care is half my battle. I have learned that the patient comes first and the paperwork will just have to wait. I became a nurse the save lives and help people. Creating space for my patient and paperwork was my biggest challenege and still can be today. I remind myself to take my time and breathe. I have 8 hours to do it all, not 4.  If you like a face-paced enviornment like I do, then this is the job for you! Overall, our perspetive and values in any job is what will get us through the day. I value my company and job. I value my patients.

I loved my job at PACE. I did Home care for Ascension PACE in downtown Flint. The pay and flexibility were unmatched. I appreciated my benefits. Unfortunately I was forced to abruptly resign due to mistreatment in the workplace. I was harassed, bullied, and antagonized. The scheduler would send me on new assignments but wouldn’t tell me the significance of the visit. For instance MEDICATION reminders. That’s kind of important to include. Multiple instances where I had to cover myself cause the sabotage was apparent so I reported this individual. Used the chain of command and was ignored. It was even once a discussion about firing me over my drivers license being suspended which A. is my personal business and B. I was still hired for a reason. I volunteered that information at the time of my hire and was still able to be employed. Discrimination is subtle and sneaky at this place. After 8 months of me trying to get someone to care, and trying to transfer I quit. I felt forced to quit based on how I was being allowed to be treated. There were no consequences for this individual. The day before I quit I filed a formal complaint with a 3rd party as directed by Ascension. I didn’t give them 2 weeks but I offered to work contingent & also had the opportunity to transfer within the company within a 30 day reinstatement period to where I still had the opportunity to transfer my job. I got the voicemail for the job April 16. I didn’t hear it until April 17.  I turned in my letter of resignation in on a Friday...went back Monday to offer to work out 2 weeks and Lorraine Lawson gave me attitude and blew me off. Unfortunately due to COVID no one was working and I couldn’t  get intouch with the right HR people fast enough to get my hire status changed so I would be eligible to accept my job offer. No one responded for weeks. All I asked is that my hire status be changed to “conditional” instead of a do not rehire status. 7 emails and 6 weeks later, I finally get a response from an able entity and he refuses to change it for some odd reason. I don’t deserve the way Ive been treated. I was never written up, never late, and not one grievance. My participants loved the care I give. I’ve been thinking about a lawyer. I don’t suggest working here unless you are mentally capable of completely ignoring a low moral standard in the workplace. Morality is a weakness here. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
I'm constantly learning and I have all the support I need from my preceptors and from my nurses colleagues.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Once you learn the routine it's easier to cope with stressful situations that comes along the way, we are always catching up with our tasks, for example, pass medication on time, perform assessment and chart as earlier as possible, checking the orders constantly and refreshing the screen, so when something stressful happens we are ready to help and support with our colleagues.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I absolutely love the work environment it's so collaborative and everyone helps each other. Just ask for help or a second opinion, whenever you feel like it. The fact that there are  prayers we are everyday blessed in everything we do, also it's so cute when a  lullabye tune plays it means when a baby is born, or when a veteran passes away it plays Taps it reminds us of an honorable person in an honorable moment. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I love to get at work  a little bit earlier to get my assignment and take important notes, I skim over the notes, the orders on the computer, take notes of the new orders and medication times, I clock in, after 0639/1839, go to huddle it's a 5-10 minute meeting, than we get report from the previous shift nurse , pass meds and perform assessment, start charting and perform any dressing changes needed, draw blood if needed, sent to the lab via suction tube, then go to the MDR 15 -30 minutes meeting with case manager, social worker, doctors, physical therapist, pharmacy, occupational therapist, nurses, we discuss about important topics and plans for discharge. Then pass 12 medication, go to lunch, 30 minutes, back from lunch go round in each room do another quick assessment, finish charting before the 14  or 16 medication. At 18 we do ins and outs, we measure urine, add fluid infused, if we were discharge we certainly get admission. That's why passing meds on time or an hour earlier and charting earlier is the best to be ready for new admissions. Give report and clock out.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 94 salaries reported	$39.86 per hour
Patient care technician 4 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour
Health screener 30 salaries reported	$37.95 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 7 salaries reported	$23.79 per hour
Nursing assistant 4 salaries reported	$15.95 per hour

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