registered nurse

medical assistant

patient care technician

nurse practitioner

surgical technologist

Baystate Health

The Baystate Medical Center is located on the north end of Springfield, MA, a few minutes from the center of Chicopee and just off the highway.

It has two campuses and has open parking on weekends. It is a 24/7 facility as it is one of two major healthcare facilities in the city, and one of the largest in the New England region--boasting hundreds of beds as well as one of the best cardiac departments anyone can ask for. It has its share of awards as well as decent benefits for the Nurse.

---The meat of this review---

The Emergency department is its own monster. Ex-military, adrenaline junkies, EMT vets alike will enjoy working in these environments, because the improvisation and the quick thinking are just part of its nature. 

My personal issue comes from the disconnect between over night staff and management. Management is present and oversees much of day and evening operations, but tend to overlook overnights. Overnights are generally self-managed and the best environment for independent employees.

The disconnect comes from the meetings, the assignments and time slots, the lack of knowledge when it comes to different roles and "staying in your lane" when it comes to codes in progress. Nurses are always frustrated with little to no forward movement due to lack of training or some dismissive view management holds. Cohesion is feigned at first, but clearly becomes more of a culture clash as the department loses grips on what is actually uplifting and what is actually distracting to staff. Not to mention training to move forward is usually barred by the length of your supervisor's memory. Even then, you would do well to pay and provide yourself that training instead. Despite their protests.

One on one confrontations actually leave staff more stressful, food and other patient comforts have been withdrawn for sake of budget. Recently, about 200 administrative staff were laid-off due to money constraints, and the environmental staff is left to re-apply to their own jobs for a contracted agency--effectively making a large portion of the staff "rentals" rather than in-house employment. The work meetings are a hard compromise for overnights as they tend to cut in right your most important REM cycles, and the layout of the workplace alone leads to a lot of lost and confused souls.

I think I have learned more about general professionalism than actual medicine. However, the staff--whether traveler or resident--are always knowledgeable whenever given the chance. Unfortunately, if you never get the chance, be prepared to sit in the middle of their Psych Ward your entire shift. Nurse, Orderly, or Tech. Food isn't free, it's discounted and the overnight Cafe is meh at best.

Be wary, your mileage may vary.

Working as a charge nurse and with an assignment of 6-7 patients requires a lot than nursing skill, i have to remind myself to stay calm and rely on coworkers to keep patients safe, emotionally and physically.Ms. N.Z. was one of them. She was readmitted for heart failure. In the past she had numerous hospital stays on our floor. But this time she was even weaker, More importantly, she was emotionally distraught and depressed. The minute N.Z. arrived on our floor, seeing the familiar setting and staff, she immediately began to cry. I took one look at her and could sense her despair. I put my arm around her and quickly brought her to the room. I did an assessment and I could see that her emotional, psycho-social and spiritual needs were much greater than her physical ones at the moment. Based on her overall needs, I re-evaluated starting her regimen in a timely manner and adjusted my care-giving schedule. I knelt down beside her and asked her to tell me everything she was feeling. An outpouring of tears came as she described her devastation over being given grim chances of surviving. She felt cheated that her life was being cut short when she had so many dreams and plans for the future. She was full of questions,
ranging from: ‘How do I hang on to hope when I have been given so little?”and “Where is God and why has He abandoned me?” to “Is there another young patient I can talk with to learn how to cope?” These questions are tough for even a seasoned nurse, I felt broken-hearted and I felt her sadness with her in her grief. I encouraged her not to give up hope. I told her God loves her more than she could ever comprehend. When she asked me to stay with her when she was praying, I did. The patient and her family expressed deep gratitude for the extra time we spent with them. The patient said she felt a huge weight had been lifted from her. That was the last day I spent with this patient. She died just one month later. Yet, the short amount of time we spent together was so emotional and powerful I will never forget the interaction. I have learned, after 7 years of being a nurse, that I can’t control the final outcome of my patients and we don’t have all the answers here on Earth. My purpose is to understand my patients’ needs in their stages of life, to administer the appropriate type of necessary care with as much love and compassion as I can and to try and make a difference. That, to me, is the essence of nursing.

Each spring Baystate hires Gallup to review "employee engagement." Essentially this review measures the effectiveness of management through how the employees feel toward their own managers and Baystate Health in general.

The 2012 results were just published (Sept. 2012) and management is angry (!) that they fell. Falling survey scores are an unshakable fact so keep this in mind when you may read some of the other gushing reviews for this institution.

Management simply does not want to listen to ideas or opinions of their employees. Walk the halls or search the Baystate intranet and you are not going to find any "suggestion box". Actually offering an idea or a suggestion at the team meeting can be met with a response that is less than cordial.

That summarizes the attitude that Baystate is adopting: if employees don't feel management is performing well, management gets angry at the employees. Some departments that have performed particularly poorly are now being reorganized - - save for department management. I can't help but be reminded of a line from a cheesy-movie I once saw: I can't make you love me, but I can make you wish you had.

Patient satisfaction is likewise falling, unlike the (new) competitors in the region.

Understand that I can only relate to my own experience here. I know there are still plenty of good managers here at Baystate, some are brilliant. However Baystate refuses to take action with known bad ones and woe to you if you draw the short straw.

I came here nearly eight years ago and there were many good years here, but financial pressures (all hospitals are feeling it) and competition (something Baystate is only learning about) has seriously darkened the hallways in my area.

It is no longer a pleasant place to be.

I've worked in Access Services for a little over a year now, and I am almost willing to cut off a limb to get out. Everyone that works there is miserable. I've had panic attacks at work and been sick, because it's like any other call center: you're devalued, you're "the idiot on the phone" (even/especially to clinical staff), and management is, in my experience, inept at best. I would quit, but we all need to make a living. I'm biding my time until another opportunity comes along. There are different lines there, and I've heard pretty much the same from other lines. It's not fun being talked at and being in forced conversations all day with people. No one is happy there. There aren't enough providers to help everyone. People are mad at you because the clinical staff refuses to speak with them and/or call them back for DAYS. It's bad patient care and although it's not your fault, you get the blame (from your manager, supervisor, and the patient). Lots of turnover and for good reason. Oh, and if you aren't the manager or supervisors' favorite, forget transferring departments after you hit your first year of service. They'll stonewall you so quick, especially since they're understaffed, because no one wants to work there. Oh, and they're going to ask you to work through lunch and stay longer or come in early and punish you for using the bathroom, because humans should be "chained to their desks." I was literally told that in my first week.

My usual day in medsurg/tele included a minimum of 6 patients and a maximum of 8.  3 or 4 discharges with immediate admissions. 
2-3 PCTs for 36 patients, which didn't allow me to delegate as they were overwhelmed. There is no charge "out of count;" the charge always carries an assignment and thus couldn't help if anything happened on the unit. I rarely got lunch breaks and 15 min breaks, due to the breakneck pace and lack of staff to oversee patients on my assignment if I wasn't there.
Infighting/gossip amongst the young, seemingly stressed workforce was common and led to a very tense atmosphere that inhibited trust and destroyed my morale. I believe the core staff is exhausted and take it out on each other. I initially wondered why the employees were all so young; now I feel it's because experienced nurses don't want to endure this workplace culture and instead move on quickly (as I did.)  Great opportunities to learn med surg skills and great pay, but overall I felt exhausted and stressed. I was excited that I had a union, but the union was weak and had no effect. Best for travel nurses as they have an end date from the start and likely won't become a target during a 13 week contract. I kept my head low, nose to the grindstone, and got in and out as fast as possible in order not to antagonize any of the stressed out staff.

Typical workday included all Lawson job and tech support plus development of custom application programs and interfaces.  Learned certain Health Care organization requirements.  Management was fair.  The workplace culture was excellent.  There were many long term employees as well as newer employees and a lot of older technology as well as new technology was used.  Mainframe and Client Server including Lawson ERP which I supported and developed applications and unix interfaces for.  Supported all job issues as well as interface issues inbound and outbound to Lawson ERP.

I am unable to identify a hardest part of the job because I loved what I did and was appreciated by both my team and our User Community.

Most enjoyable part of the job was the opportunity to apply all my skills and share with other IT staff.  Given opportunity to train certain IT staff in the Lawson disciplines.  Worked with great people in both IT and the user community.  Was able to build great professional ad personal relationships with the IT staff and user community.  It was so exciting to have the respect and appreciation of my team and user community.  Got a chance to work with so many nice people and made friends with some who were not as easy for many to get along with.  There was no Most enjoyable part of the job because just about every aspect of my job at Bay State was enjoyable.

As a medical interpreter, you are needed at different times in different locations. Though we are schedule based, schedules change constantly. Therefore, you may be asked to interpret in another department or location entirely. Also, what is interpreted can be quite difficult if not mentally strenuous. You must be able to separate yourself from your job if you wish to maintain sanity. As for the managers of the department, I gave them a 3 due to how they address or lack of for that matter, certain situations as well as their staff. Are they completely unfair? Absolutely not, I would lie by saying they are. I have had them be quite fair in several situations, but as an overall, they would need improvement. I love my job because of the exposure I receive and the knowledge I obtain. It is a fun, energy driven environment and work flow, but one where you can learn a lot and meet incredible people, meaning, you can network if you play your cards right, do your job (and not just the bare minimum), etc. Recognition is given and obtained only if you do well and take your job seriously. Managers of the department do acknowledge hard work and determination and show gratitude for someone who strives for excellence. Example: I am a very competitive worker/co-worker and my managers took note of that, when the time came to evaluate, they wanted to skip a level in order to continue moving up the career ladder.

What is the best part of working at the company?
no support from manager/supervisor/administration.
suffer in silence or leave...not fond of ambitious articulate persons that challenge negative culture/ subgroup stereotypes.
Coworker are self absorbed; no diversity & will create fake situations to discredit others hoping to enhance themselves. "Friends" will become coworkers withholding resources that may help problem resolutions...lots of gratitude and esteem for the hospital until I worked there.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
mmm I have answered this question in my previous response.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
suppressive, hostile/not welcoming, overly competitive, judgmental, unsupportive. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I come in enthusiastic and proud to be part of the team. I leave depressed discouraged and unattached.

The patients are who they are seeking treatment etc. care, compassion treatment...the staff would benefit with psychotherapy, CEU credit courses on anti-bullying, inclusion, culture diversity & self care ( ways to better manage personal life/stress at home) to prevent throwing up projecting insecurities toward other employees.

In a typical day at work I have many different jobs and responciblites. At our office we do the computer work as well as direct patient contact. Often I will check in the patient at the front desk, register and order their blood work, draw their blood and process all of their blood work/urine etc. I also am in charge of our stock order and office supplies, making sure we have everything we need to do our job correctly.
I have learned so much working at this company, they are very good about wanting their employees to advance and promote within. They are always helping us to advance the best way that they can.
Most of our co-workers are amazing, there is a sence of team work here and we all try to help eachother out and make sure that the job is getting done correctly. Recently we have adopted a new computer system so we all work together to make sure we have learned it correctly.
The hardest part of the job is really keeping yourself in check and making sure you are up to date on all of our different policies and standards, since they are always being updated for the better.
What I enjoy most about my job is the patients, I am a people person and I love to work so closely with the public and create relationships with these people and make this a welcoming enviorment for them.

Baystate Medical Center was indeed a great place to work. Always on the cutting edge of technology and finding ways to enhance and improve the quality of the lives served in the community.

Opportunities for continued education and advancement were plentiful.

A typical 12.5 hour day could be stressful at times, but always manageable. Resources were always available for support and the hospital fostered employee interaction, for example feedback via Survey Monkey, email, Employee Engagement Committees and more.

The hardest part of the job were sometimes staffing issues as staff was often reduced as a means of financial conservation. However, the team of co-workers that I had known for 15 years always rallied to get the jobs done.

I most enjoyed my interactions with patients and family members, and having the ability to be the best service oriented employee I could be to support our team of nursing staff, physicians, case managers, liaisons, interdepartmental staff and more.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 57 salaries reported	$50.96 per hour
Medical assistant 39 salaries reported	$22.38 per hour
Patient care technician 4 salaries reported	$19.43 per hour
Nurse practitioner 15 salaries reported	$150,873 per year
Surgical technologist 4 salaries reported	$40.28 per hour

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