licensed practical nurse

nursing assistant

housekeeper

cook

caregiver

Brookdale Senior Living

I worked as a RN for this company for about 6 weeks. I was lied to about my job duties/workplace culture, from the moment I got hired. Nothing about this position is safe for the RN's nursing license. Many issues staff will direct toward the nurse, when I find that staff can be lazy and do not take delegating tasks well or correctly perform tasks, so the nurse ends up doing that. I worked the 3-11pm shift. I was told assisted living should be a bit less tasks to do than skilled nursing. Wrong! One nurse managing issues of an entire building (AL) of people that depend on the nurse when issues arise, is not practical. Especially, because of the size of the building, sometimes they will run with just one nurse for the entire building-memory care and assisted living, which is even more demanding.  Management would come down on me for not punching out for my breaks-you can not take a break if you are literally running around the building and busy your entire shift. Too many tasks for the RN in a given shift-wellness director told me it was mainly narcotic administration and insulin administration, and a few other tasks here and there based on resident need. I could write a book on the short comings of this place. Not enough staffing, frequent call-outs, where the facility did not replace staff so you constantly have to work short, lack of support and communication from other departments/managers, thrown to the wolves my first day off of orientation-asked for another nurse and called the on-call manager and she said she couldn't come in, toxic workplace culture-very negative from staff-several verbal altercations between certain staff members, not a smoke-free place to work-have to walk through clouds of smoke in order to enter the staff-only entrance. Family members calling to complain to the nurse on a regular basis. Not enough cleaning done at this facility, especially because I left during a norovirus outbreak and lack of cleaning crews on 3-11 shift. Also, management likes to not tell the whole story of something until you get to the facility to work. I asked them if they had a GI outbreak, after I was coming back from medical leave, and no one responded to me until I arrived back to work. Also, I was constantly asking them for additional staffing-they still want the RN to pass the first floor meds-tell me what is the purpose of a med tech, if I still have to pass meds. Always during 3-11pm, emergencies would arise and one nurse cannot be in two places at one time. I would be constantly called on the radio and residents/care staff would get upset if I told them they have to wait. It was not a winning job-I never got ahead of the amount of work required of the nurse-even with no meal break. They would have me punch out then continue to work and then punch back in, against the law! I could go on and on, but very unprofessional workplace. They do not follow the law in regards to narcotic counts-apparently certain nurses were caught mixing liquid morphine bottles? which one knows you never do. They had incorrect count and syringe for this person, then a med tech misplaced a residents eye drop and the day nurse said that they were lying to the resident, by putting artifical tears in their eye, instead of the correct medication, that a worker lost. Then on the 3-11pm shift, the eye drop was still missing and they left that for me to figure out and so I had to get the correct eye drop ordered from the pharmacy. Did they want me to just non-admin the drop and forget about it? That would have been a med error. What a joke. Then at the end of the day, they are still going to blame the nurse for anything that happens during the shift because, the nurse is at the top and ideally should be able to delegate tasks to her "team." No "team" is present at the brookdale in coventry, RI. Sign on bonus = desperation. I will not step foot in that building again and I value myself, my nursing license, the people that I am caring for, and no job was worth the level of stress that I went through while working there. Do yourself a favor and find a better place to work, they are out there. Because you will be used and abused and apparently I was expected to come in on my day off to assist the day nurse because of short-staffing. This was the last straw for me-why should I be penalized by my manager, because I want my scheduled day off? She said well she helped you by coming in the day before. Nonsense-I have a life outside of this job!  When I would bring my very valid concerns to management, my manager told me that, "it is like this everywhere in healthcare." I disagree. If you care about what you do and like to follow the rules then this place will not be for you. If they want to treat assisted living and memory care like a skilled facility-than you need a nurse to resident ratio and you need additional nurses present!  I am not a new grad-I have been a nurse almost 3 years in multiple care settings and I have never experienced such unprofessionalism in a workplace and to give a small background, I have been an agency nurse for the majority of my career and I am used to be getting the bad assignment/bad facility, but I found this job to be much worse then that.

My day starts at 2pm, ends at 10pm, 4-5 days a week. I work full time with a rough 100 residents on the Assisted Living side of the building, and occasionally run over to the Memory Care side with the dementia residents, and I get a rough 37.5 hours each work week. I normally get to work, find my co worker(s) for the night, communicate with the AM shift to see what work needs to be done, or hear updates on our residents' conditions. I then normally see which showers I have to assist that evening so I can plan out when I will be able to do them, and what I will be able to do before and after. I help pass out the clean laundry that housekeeping has cleaned each day I work, I help change residents' depends, make sure they are clean, help them with whatever need they ask of me to help with, and make sure they are comfortable and content. I then bring residents to dinner at night, put them to bed, take out their trash and help clean their apartments when they need me to. I help lift and transfer a lot of our residents, and I help a lot of my co workers because I am pretty strong, so they rely on me to help with that. I also am able to build relationships with the residents, so when I am able to sit down for a little while, I converse and joke around with lots of the residents, because I consider them like my grandparents. I love each one dearly, and work hard to care for them individually. I have learned that no matter where you go, or what you do, if you truly care for someone and they care for you back, you will never run out of love in life! That helps me to keep going when life gets rough. 

The management at Brookdale has been pretty awesome, although, unstable. We have had lots of people quit in the past year and few months I have worked here... Mostly, upper management. Lots of new people come in, do their job for a few months, and leave because they simply tell me they cannot handle the job anymore. I have talked one on one with some of them before they leave to tell them how much I appreciated them, and they usually tell me why they leave. Some of the management are pretty unreliable when it comes to scheduling, asking for time off, coming to them for personal issues, or even work issues, and so on. They seem to not want to deal with it, and brush it off a lot. So, a lot of us RA's have to continue to contact upper management, and sometimes, the bosses higher up than them! So, that's become a problem and, it has made me feel unwelcome to work there. 

The hardest part of my job is witnessing or hearing about a resident who has gotten injured, or passed away. Since I build relationships with them, I feel like I lose a family member. And it's very hard. My job provides care for us employees who need time to grieve, and provide counseling for us if needed. Also, physically, it is hard to lift lots of residents who are larger and heavier. All of the RA's are women, and they team up to try and lift the heavier people who need help with transfers. I am pretty strong and tall, and so everyone relies on me to help lift and transfer because I am able to lift everyone on my own without help. It get's strenuous at times after lifting people constantly, so that part gets tough. But I love helping and gaining muscle! 

The easiest part of my job is the caring part. I think if I could simply care for people for the rest of my life as my career, I would be a billionaire! Also, helping visitors with their concerns and needs is easy because I love helping, and I know each resident and what they need. So, figuring out problems to meet their needs is a breeze for me.

Was really pumped up in orientation they made you feel proud and how you would make a difference and pushed Their so called Family values. They do not live them with you and lie to many in interview. You do not find out till months later if lucky you may get a 5 to 14 cent raise. Management hides from corp and never see then when they are suppose to work weekends but they will take every weekend from you. They give certain people every other weekend off they will tell you they are working on it for everyone, NOT.  Unfair practices when it comes to holidays where other assisted livings and nursing homes are more fair. They never keep up who worked a summer holiday to be fair and let you have at least one of the three. If your manager in uncaring they will have you work Christmas eve and Christmas where is there so called family values in that? Then you will end up the same the new years. They tell everyone they are going to work some weekends and yet they allow a few that are to be PRN get full time with no weekends. MA are lazy cannot ask them for help they do little and not trustworthy. First Shift you will be worked to death and the stress level is high. Care SEE frontline on the web about this company. We have people who do not belong in the building need to be under 24 staffing of a nurse with true CNA care. Many coworkers cut corners cover it up because they are either too tired, work too hard  esp in dinning hall. First Shift spends over half of their shift in the dinning hall.  What I see in memory care and what they present to you  is not true they sit all day get little attention and what you pay for. This company profited 1.8 billion and you can forget getting a bonus at Christmas, no party, the way they do sick leave is fishy, vacations is based on popularity on when you get it. We are bullied about doing SILVER CHAIR or else by managers and yelled at most of the time seldom management praises you. Its always what you did wrong and they stay in office all the time. Everyday one care giver on the floor each shift for an hour alone with 80 to 100 residents which is dangerous, too many pendants go off and the stress. AT night 8 to 10 will go off and your love one has to wait forever to get help for bed and some caregivers refuse to help your love one making them wait for the one that has that hall to care to your needs when they are not suppose to do that. Other companies in area give 50 cents raises pay higher for CNA CERTIFICATE PEOPLE . yeah check out frontline PSB investigation on this company the deaths, the mistakes, not federally regulated many negative things go on. they are ripping people off and esp dementia people  Accord to the special and top experts many of your loved ones are not suppose to be in a place like this for good reasons. Activities are a joke and you do not get what you need in that area on weekends. They need management until at least 8 pm each night. and oh. yeah a MA will quit and they do not offer it to another coworker that already knows the residents, they way they are their needs no outside help kids passing out narcotics to the elderly. no training!!! What about people who been CNA's for yrs??Or medical assistants who are here because they cannot find a job in that field.

The residents in the assisted living is what kept me at Brookdale as long as I did. I was employed as a third shift RCA and upon hire was told that I would not have to work in the memory care building that I was hired for assisted living. After a couple of months that was taken back and was told otherwise and that the supervisor who informed me I wouldn’t have to work in memory care was new at the time of telling me that so it didn’t stand. As an RCA you never know who your direct support is because there is hardly ever a nurse on third shift. If a problem or concern arises you must decide if it merits calling the on call or wait until the next business day to address. When waiting for the next business day, it is very hard to get ahold of any management. It seems as though management does not communicate with each other because when a corncern is brought to ones attention no one else is aware.  Another associate comes and goes as pleases, takes well over the amounted time for lunch breaks, has been caught stealing cases of food and has never been fired or reprimanded enough to stop doing neglectful behavior. Those who are there for the residents and actually care for the residents are the ones who have it the worse, any concerns or problems brought up are brushed off and nothing is ever done to fix the issues. The management team needs training when it comes to communicating with associates, yelling and defensive speaking is not the professional or appropriate way to address an associate whom has a concern. Third shift has major scheduling issues and more times than not you are left working in a building alone with the( if it is not the associate who comes and goes, steals and is never to be found) help of a float during rounds. Anytime this is brought up to management you are told there were 4 scheduled however most times there would not be. Due to short staffing, while on light duty after having a major surgery I was left to work alone and ended up pulling sutures which caused me to have an infection. After filing a report and talking with management I was asked why I put myself in that position. I said I was the only one there and didn’t have an option it was either me or a resident getting hurt and I was not going to let a resident get hurt due to their scheduling mistakes. I could seriously go on and on about the lack of correct management skills  that the Brookdale of Wooster has all of which greatly impacts the residents in their care, so much so that I have reported this facility to state. 

When I first Ed started employment at Brookdale I was very interested in having my grandparents move into the assisted living. After the first month I realized that I would never move any of my family into this facility and would not recommend anyone else. Management only sees dollar signs and filled rooms. There only a select few nurses and RCAs that take there position seriously and give the care that our elders need and deserve.

For context: I am in dining services.

I admit that I have yet to advance much through the ranks, so I haven't encountered the same circumstances as many of the other workers here.

However, at last as a dishwasher, I can say that Brookdale is the best company I've worked for so far.

The upper management actually listens to what I have to say. My input is valued. I've been acknowledged for the work I do. I am not penalized for my emotional state on a given day.

My coworkers and the office staff have my back when I am in a dire strait. We tend to be positive and give each other greetings and compliments. While professionalism definitely means not devolving into the sentimental, individuals I've confided feelings to don't put me down for having opened up.

I have encountered some difficulties and opportunities for improvement as well, so I have a lower-level understanding point for where these complaints and lower-score reviews are coming from.

However, I have thought out this and I realize: The very reason I for one can worry about these things, *is because* Brookdale creates a supportive, safe atmosphere where we can safely let our minds wander to these worries, and Brookdale itself makes of itself a company that I for one *care* about the success of.

As far as cons go, the two biggest I can think of - and it is *only* these two - are:

1. The snail-like pace of rising through the ranks. Brookdale has made itself to me, a company I *want* to be a part of, including in growth of both wages and responsibilities;

and 

2. That the flexibility toward employee suggestion does not extend to out-of-the-ordinary job offers. I for one have offered - and will continue to offer - to have a dedicated day shift of focusing on cleaning our garage area. Our trash situation seems to always keep ahead of us - because we have yet to assign anyone to focus on the trash area, and *just* the trash area, for the whole of his day shift.

However, this suggestion/offer of mine has yet to be taken. I get they want to keep things organized, but I really think that one day of one guy focusing entirely on cleaning up that area could make a really great difference, and I do consider the forgoing of this when someone is offering to be a downside in an otherwise very impressive and employee-open company.

I know that was a bit of a ramble in the end, but the very fact that Brookdale is great in so many ways is exactly why I am able to think and talk that much on the relative few flaws there are.

I look forward to continuing to grow with Brookdale- preferably at compounding speed - and I hope that their interest will reflect in kind.

Management is terrible and not supportive of the staff. Sit in the office all day and tell people what to do. The fakeness  in this company is beyond me, the pay is terrible. This company is literally wolves In sheep’s clothing, I would never recommend anyone to work here unless it’s temporary and you want to make something of your career because you won’t and never will get it here. There are a few employees that been there for 10+years and are in the same position and getting paid minimum wage still. It’s almost comical that anyone would stay longer than a few months and waste time and energy. The only AMAZING THING HERE IS BEING APART OF THISE RESIDENTS LIFE EVEN IF ITS FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. You will grow a bond with them because management doesn’t care once they get them moved in it’s up to the care staff to take care of all residents. It’s very sad that people come into this career and have no empathy or sympathy for these helpless residents. All they are is nothing but dollar signs to the higher ups. I worked in AL and memory care and  all the managers are lazy. Med techs are over worked and way underpaid doing the HWD and The RCC and even the AED jobs. All they do is pass work down the line until it gets to the med techs. ESPECIALLY the morning med techs who literally do all the office work and duties. Working off the clock to finish paper work because management is too lazy to get it finished themselves. The new HWD is lazy and loud and would rather hand the med tech a stack of papers instead of going to talk to the resident themselves. All Lazy and will never support or have the employees backs. Same with HR all of them are besties and will never take action where it needs to be taken. I would do a big big pass before applying here don’t waste your time. They treat this facility like it’s a skilled facility and  it’s far from it they have the care staff do things that had absolutely no training at all it’s ridiculous. The training is horrible as well and they will throw you on the floor the next day because staff is limited and management won’t step in to help let alone answer calls on the walkie. But want to yell at the employees to answer room calls in a timely manner. The Hemet Brookdale is by far the worst company I’ve ever worked for. They need to gut out all that management and hire professional team players in there. And for the very few that lasted so many years are miserable beyond belief. No smiles of their faces and no light at all in there face that company sucks the life out of you. And especially the Hemet facility. Believe me when I tell you it’s not worth it.

I gave my heart and soul to this place for over 2 years. I never received appropriate training and asked for help for months and it all fell on deaf ears. I was on my own! The job was never ending with working 12+ hours a day and not so much as a "thank you"! AND phone calls and text message all night long until I went in the next morning. There is NO work life balance! They OWN you! 24/7/365! No matter what you do,it's never enough! I never took a lunch, eating at my desk. I even made sales! They do not care about the residents at all! All they care about is filling the building! The ED is heartless and when a resident passed away, her first statement was always "we can charge them until they get their stuff out of the room, so I'm in no hurry to have them get it out". When I started working there, the building was a complete nightmare, 2/3 full and horrible care staff! All of the caregivers were related to each other and made their own schedules! Most of them didn't speak English, so the residents, who already have dementia, had a hard time communicating with them. They didn't do their jobs even half way satisfactory. I completely revamped the staff and got good, caring, qualified caregivers in there. I was told by providers, that I completely turned  the building around and I was the reason that the POAs were so happy. We were always understaffed because they pay caregiver a lousy $12.00 per hour to take care of 14 residents. I was expected to fill in on the floor including 3rd shift, even if it meant me being up for 24 hours at a time! When I first started, there were lots of residents moving out due to poor quality of service, but when I left, everyone was happy and the building was full! But, it still wasn't enough. The day I submitted my 30 day resignation, they did not like the honesty of it and asked me to make it my last day. I was told that I would get paid my entire hours of PTO that I had EARNED and now they are telling me that per policy, they are only paying 80 hours!! They cheated me out of over 56 hours of PTO! When I started working there, they were not giving me the proper amount of PTO and when I brought it up to the ED, her response was "What do you need all that PTO for anyway?"!!! Really? Maybe because I earned it?! When you do the math and figure out that during a 60-70 hours work week, you are averaging $19.00 an hour, I would have been a fool to continue working there. They use and abuse nurses! The turn over rate for nurses is every 2 years for Brookdale.


*I would NEVER recommend this company for any nurse! Go find a job where you will be appreciated and valued for the hard work you do!*

I love Brookdale-I'm a proud company employee. 
Typical day of work:
Dishwasher:  doing  dishes that were left from the following night.
Setting up drinks in the visitor lobby and in the Dining room for self service. Dining: Making sure all tables, counters and floors are clean from previous day
Resetting dining area if tables aren't set with silverware, glasses, coffee cups, saucers and napkins. 
For Lunch, put out white cloth tablecloths, red cloth napkins and make sure all the tables are set
Stocking beverage cart to make sure all drinks are available for all three meals
Making at least 3 gallons of all drinks for bfast, lunch and dinner and placing them all in the walk in fridge
Serving beverages to all residents during all meals including unlimited refills
Serve bfast, lunch and dinner
Subsequently bussing all tables, cleaning all tables, counters and floors
doing dishes from all three meals in between each. SO, repeat all these tasks after each meal. You may have one other server helping you and you may not. Most times you will NOT have a dedicated dish washer. You will also have to dish wash all the cook and chefs pots, pans and tools. 
Sometimes care partners will help you with serving sometimes they are nowhere to be seen. After dinner is finished it is your job to bus, do the dishes, cooks/chefs pots and pans and utensils as stated above,  clean the entire dining area-tables, counters and floors, put your beverages away, pull the trash and finish all the dishes for the night if your shift runs until 6 or 7. Lastly, 
you responsible for replacing all drinks for the next day, mopping the dishpit and securing the facility kitchen. before you leave.  A lot of sweeping, cleaning, dish washing, trash, SERVING, bussing goes into this. (and serving lots and lots and lots of coffee expected between 7 am to 7 pm so I have experienced-very frustrating because you have only a certain time frame to get your work done and residents seemingly like to run you at times. Sometimes residents will have up to 20 refills) In all it is not uncommon to make 6 -8 commercial coffee containers just to get through the day. And these are not stand alone, they are served off and on during meal times, before and after. The residents can be very very demanding to get the coffee interrupting you every time they see you are busy. 

I have mainly worked at the Brookdale of Kettering Ohio formerly known as the Grand Court of Dayton.

I really enjoy working with the residents and that is probably the only reason that I am still working with the company. I have been working there for almost four years now and when I first started there the place was wonderful to work for other than the pay, it sucked really bad and still does, it takes for ever to start earning half enough to live off of. When I first started there the Executive Director really was great to work for and the Financial Director that we had it seemed like there was never a mistake in pay roll or nothing and she really looked out for the residents and engaged with them really well, she always helped out with special events and she had a wonderful attitude, once she retired it just seemed like the place started going to pits, she went by seniority in the company and employee's got promotions that they deserved and had experience in. Now there are constant pay roll mistakes and you feel very uncomfortable going to talk to the person that is the Financial Director now because they just seem to always have an attitude about anything especially if they have to do any extra work. One minute she is so nice and the next she is just mean for no reason at all. It's like now they do not care if people have the proper credentials or experience for the positions they get and they they do not even try to train them the right way they just play favortism and let them have the job because they really like them. I am very well educated and have tons of experience in my positoin and now they are hiring in people with no experience at $2 and $3 more an hour than I am making there and I have had very high ratings on my reviews and everything and then if you try to use there financial assistance program while you have to be off work recovering from surgery or something, Brookdale will say, Oh it sounds more like a financial problem so we can not help you." What's the point in having the program if you can't use it anyway and good employee's would not need assistance if they paid them better and more fair as they deserve. The only good thing I can really say about the company now is they will work with you if you get seriously ill in most cases and you need time off they will hold your job as long as they can for you. Other than it's not the same as when I started they were great and now they are going down hill very quickly.

I worked for Brookdale Senior Living the entire time I was a manager for them, however Brookdale "culture" wasn't fully in place until about three months before I turned in my resignation.

Brookdale Senior Living, rated the 5th worst place to work for, should be number 1. Starting with the treatment of residents. Brookdale "culture" is code for, profit. So, if profit isn't being made, the resident suffers so the stock holders are left flush.

Under our previous culture, residents were treated to fantastic meals and could even submit their own recipes, something that really intertwined our entire campus, staff and residents alike. I was able to hold meetings, and manage the dining room in a restaurant style manner, as this was our goal. At rates starting at $3,800 a month and constantly increasing, I think that this type of treatment was what was expected at those rates. Each staff member in the Dining Room had the ability to get to know the resident and his or her preferences. Residents were constantly complimentary on how great the food and service was. 

When Brookdale "Senior Solutions" came in, I became not only a working manager (ie, doing hourly jobs and going beyond my actual job responsibilities), but I was then made to cut 35% of my staff, offer less food choices, implement often times confusing management polices, and than constantly switching things around because our corporate leaders weren't happy with the policies they would make me put in place.

After several months of low staff morale, angered residents, and a general feeling of "we" weren't doing a good job; I turned in my resignation. There were many times where our Brookdalien (our "Brookdale Pro-Temp", someone who stays a week and changes everything and then leaves so the next person can come and change it again) would come into my office and talk about how "stupid" my staff members were. Not something I would tolerate from anyone about anyone else; I took pride on hiring bussers and cleaning people who had handicaps, so this was not something to bring to me in such a manner.

 My reputation as one the best managers on campus, was quickly being ruined by things that were out of my control. I always met my numbers and always kept a good report with my managers. 
"Brookdale Senior Solutions" was very surprised by me leaving, 6 months later I got a call to go back, as all the staff that they hired in replacement of other staff in my previous department, were terminated. You can probably guess what my answer was.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Licensed practical nurse 54 salaries reported	$30.10 per hour
Nursing assistant 14 salaries reported	$16.46 per hour
Housekeeper 5 salaries reported	$15.40 per hour
Cook 22 salaries reported	$18.25 per hour
Caregiver 20 salaries reported	$15.52 per hour

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