registered nurse

mental health technician

nursing supervisor

licensed vocational nurse

front desk receptionist

Brynn Marr Hospital

The nature of this job makes it an incredibly difficult place to work. I worked here for years and intervened in hundreds of violent codes. I have never been injured and I can only think of 1 or 2 times when I ever felt unsafe. I LOVED my coworkers and I took pride in the work I was doing. I found the work environment to be pretty positive considering that all hospitals are inherently toxic and short staffed. I find that the people who don’t like the job maybe just didn’t know how difficult this type of work actually is. You pretty much have to be energetic, very able bodied, and confident enough to handle anything because it’s extremely unpredictable but that’s what I always liked about it! You have to be able to work under INCREDIBLE stress but the team work was stellar and I always felt supported. It is one of the best paying jobs in this town for people without continued education and experience- but that does NOT mean everyone can (or should) work here. Most managers are nothing special but I never had issues with any of them either. You have to be able to take direction and criticism without taking anything personally. Also you will probably be asked to work units you don’t like. Bosses wanted things done a certain way and you have to have a desire to do the job correctly and well. Patients are sometimes mean, disrespectful, and violent but there’s no reason to be afraid of them if you take your training seriously. Most people I have seen get hurt were not being safe or were not using their training properly. Anyways I hope this helps you make a decision about working here. It is not for the weak and there were times when the stress was a lot for me. But I chose to try harder the next shift, persevere, and learn. This is a VERY humbling job but if you take it seriously, are always asking questions and trying to learn, and have a passion for it, you can find a sense of belonging here too. I genuinely liked this job. I only really had bad days when I was working with people who didn’t have the same passion I did or were careless, making it unsafe. This is NOT a job for the weak or lazy. If you come in cocky thinking you know everything you might be bullied by senior staff members or make mistakes that get you (or others) hurt. If you think this is the place for you be ready to learn and work extremely hard. The turnover rate is high because the pay is attractive but only a special kind of person can handle working on psych floors in direct care with psych patients. It is understandably not meant to be for everyone and it weeds people out. So proceed with caution but proceed with optimism. The pay is awesome with full benefits for full time employees. When we were VERY short staffed, they offered incentives as high as $300 for every 12 hour shift you picked up. I made so much money I didn’t even care about the work stress. The hospital provides three meals a day and has coffee machines available. I wouldn’t have left if I hadn’t moved away. I would recommend this place to my friends- if I thought my friends could handle it. If you thrive under pressure and need an adrenaline rush this might be for you! Must have a desire to facilitate groups with patients and try to teach them something. 

I enjoyed my time working for BMH but like with any job there are pros and cons. 

CONS:

Poor management and too much pressure from the CEO. They are changing their programs around at this time and that leaves Mental Health Techs in limbo with no support or structure to do their jobs. 

Older employees who have worked there for years feel that they know how things should run and you must follow their directions. Sometimes they are correct but other times they are stuck in their way, refusing to accept change. 

MHT are supervised by nurses which is troubling because more often then not, they don't know what MHT should be doing or what policy is for situations. There needs to be better support and training to maintain consistency. 

The safety of MHT are put at risk because of a demand from higher ups that seclusion/restraint numbers are kept low which allows them to collect a better bonus at the end of the quarter. This forced MHT to resolve situations primarily through de-escalation techniques, in sometimes dangerous situations. 

There is ZERO consistency from unit to unit on how things are run. For newer employees you have to defer to the senior MHT or TA on how things will run that shift. 

Pay is low and often varies depending on their need at the time. Some are hired at $11.50 with no experience and yet a person with a degree and experience is hired on for the same amount. Newer employees were being hired on at $14-$16 dollars with or without experience or education. They had promised MHT a raise to make their rates more competitive with other hospitals but that promise was a lie and instead only applicable to those who had been there over a year. Even then the bonus was cents, not dollars! 

MHT are required to do 15 minute checks on patients 24/7 and you face termination if you are late on a check. Often this is difficult to complete with 22+ patients and 2 MHTs on the floor. Especially if you have a Q5, which requires you to check on the patient every 5 minutes. They like to use nurses in the patient to tech ratio but nurses rarely, if ever, help techs on the floor. 

It can be dangerous if fights break out but despite what they tell you in training to scare you, most of the time the fighting is with other patients and not directed at you. Working with the littles is where you can become injured. I actually enjoyed jumping into a fight and breaking up a code. 

PROS: 
Working night shift is easier than days, as you are able to get more done while the patients are asleep. 

Benefits are decent but not amazing. 

You can make some friends working for BMH but watch out for those gossips or the ones that will stab you in the back the minute you turn around. 

Patients are great! I really enjoyed my time working with patients on all units. 


Overall, the company is a good place for you to get some experience before moving on to a real career job. There is no where for you to move up to when you start as a MHT. For some, they will thrive in this job but for others they will quickly leave. It requires you to work and it seems many aren't interested in working, which leaves patients suffering.

CONS: 
• This job is supposed to be 12 hour shifts. On a typical day I would work 13-14 hours because of the massive amounts of paperwork you are required to complete while also watching patients and deescalating fights, or because shift report between shifts takes so long since staff use it as story telling time. 
• Management plays favorites to staff members and the hospital environment among techs and nurses is very clique like. 
• You have PTO, but it is not guaranteed you will actually be able to use it. 
• After your training/orientation weeks, you will RARELY have a break, and this is a common joke among older employees. After orientation, my coworkers and myself were not able to go on lunch breaks (despite 12-14 hour shifts) and it was even more difficult to be relieved to use the restroom because the hospital is so short staffed. There is one wing there referred to as the “UTI wing” because of the lack of bathroom breaks. You are told to eat meals with the patients because you are not guaranteed a break. 
• Patient hygiene does not seem to be a priority so you will be working in a gross environment at times. Handfuls of patients refuse to shower or do basic hygiene. 
• You are REQUIRED to do groups** HOWEVER, you are not properly trained on how to run a group. When you bring this concern up to management their only response is “refer to the handbooks in the nurses station.” These handbooks are from 2008 and are targeted for young children/adolescents. But these books are used for every unit, even the teenagers and adults. A common complaint among patients is that the groups are boring and repetitive, and they aren’t very therapeutic so then it is harder to keep your patients in the group. You are not allowed to use your own group ideas or you will be written up. The group materials they give you are broken, worn out, or missing too many pieces to use. You have to run 8 groups in a day, do paperwork for each group and each patient, while also watching every single one of your patients and keeping paperwork on them every 15 minutes. Sometimes you will have 12 or more patients to yourself for an entire 12 hours and it can be overwhelming. 
• Patients are rarely held accountable for their actions, which results in repeat offenders who are violent towards staff and other patients. 

PROS: 
• You are only scheduled 3 days per week with optional overtime, so you have a lot of free time. 
• If you don’t pack lunches, staff can eat with patients in the cafeteria for free and the food tastes pretty decent (**NOTE: by the time patients get their food and drinks you will only have about 10 minutes to eat your meal. The food is also heavily smothered in gravy/sauce/butter or always fried and high carb) 
• Satisfaction you receive from helping some patients 

Pros:
-You get your schedule and it is set for your entire time at BMH.
-MHT/RN work 3 days a week. 36 hours. 7a-7p / 7p-7a
-As an MHT or RN you are able to do switches to make it easy for yourself to get days off without using PTO
-Rewarding job if you are interested in mental health and are willing to see the most vulnerable sides of it.
-Management can really be helpful BUT there are always conditions
-Overtime is usually available
-Every other weekend off
-MHT/RN eat for free (food is pretty good too.... 9/10)
-Diverse and forever moving... not much stays the same and your days will always have something interesting happen.

Cons:
-Sometimes overtime gets pressured onto people... this will only be a problem if you have an issue saying now. you ARE allowed to say no.
-MHT staff are given very little but expected to do very much.
-RNs are easily overwhelmed with way too many patients and tasks to do at the same time (it does not matter how long you have been a nurse, it is challenging).
-If you get on any managements bad side, you will likely be black balled.
-Staff morale is low. Many have been there for a while and have felt unappreciated for just too long or new people that are super enthusiastic  until they get burnt out too.
-Terrible communication between management and all departments. Too many 'in charge' and involved in all the same things. The main people in management that work with MHT/RN contradict each other often.

Working with mental health patients can be stressful and difficult, but that is part of why is is so rewarding. Helping a patient learn how to better cope with their stressors and their particular diagnosis can be tedious. It forces you to be creative. It is an honor to be involved in creating habits that will help them for the rest of their lives. The biggest con is the violence towards staff and patients. Some of these patients come from such horrible backgrounds and have had so much trauma in their lives and they lash out. It can take a long time and a lot of work to build report with these patients so they understand that we are truly trying to help them and it is unacceptable to harm us or their peers. Sometimes we don't reach them and they have to be placed in other facilities for more intense therapies over a longer period of time. Most of our patients do not want to be there and it makes me happy to try to make their stay as enjoyable as possible while I can. Staff to patient ratios are based strictly on number of patients on the units while we all know they should be based on acuity of the unit. Overall I enjoy my work here. No healthcare facility is perfect, and mental health is a difficult specialty. 

I was an Acute Clinician at Brynn Marr Hospital. I would never recommend anyone to work here. While it’s good clinical experience, it’s not worth the stress and overwhelming amount of work that comes with it. Unfortunately this hospital cares more about getting paid than patient care. The expectations are incredibly unrealistic and clinicians are not valued. As an acute clinician or clinical liaison in the clinical department you will likely work over a 40 hour work week and will not be compensated. There has been many times myself and other clinicians stay past 5:00pm, working 9 or 10 hours in a day. The clinical department does not get any holidays off, you will need to put in a PTO request in and there is no overtime for extra hours worked. The pay also is not as competitive as other agencies in the area, especially for what this job is the pay is extremely low. This hospital will take advantage of you and you won’t be able to truly provide quality work and patient care. Unless you are desperate for a job I would strongly recommend to not work here. 

Not a desirable place of employment for any professional
Everything is handwritten and manually filed. There is not enough time to finish work like documentation and incident reports. In two months working there I may have gotten off before 9pm a handful of times. Stayed as late at 11pm on several occasions. Sometimes you are required to write as many as 20 notes on patients during the day while on your patients moods, behaviors and medical issues. The only assistance you will receive is when there is a fight on your units. Which happens daily. Restraints are frowned upon by management, out of control adolescents are allowed to run out of control making it impossible to program and implement care plans. There is also no support from administration or human resources if there are issues. Middle management is allowed to walk all over staff and they do. Sometimes by yelling at you. I am the last RN hired in July to leave. Turnover is awful. I could go on. For anyone that decides to work here. Do yourself a favor and ask for nights. Good Luck!!


This job is a liability for any clinician or new graduate. There is ZERO supervision or support. The focus will and is on the patient bed count. Caseloads are so overwhelming, and they will attempt to blame it on low staffing. However, staff cannot be retained. There is no clinical focus, and strictly the medical model. The treatment team meetings are a joke, and your time/efforts on treatment plans are wasted. The primary sources of treatment are medication management and NOT therapeutic because it is short-term. Nursing leadership crosses into clinical (mental health/therapeutic)  practice too frequently, which impacts patient care TREMENDOUSLY. There is NO TEAM collaboration, and you will be thrown under the bus. The organization does not care for its employees and neglects their safety due to "low staff" but continues to fill the beds.  An individual with a voice will not last in this environment, as you will be the first to go if you advocate and push against the toxic culture. If you choose to become an employee and a person of faith...STAY PRAYED UP...it's a DARK environment. 

Many people have many bad things to say about BMH but I don’t. I was hired fresh out of graduate school and trained in my profession at BMH. They took a chance on me. They didn’t have to and I appreciate that they did. MH is a challenging field no matter where you work but what I learned was well worth every hour I ever spent there. I’ve had countless opportunities to work alongside some very intelligent doctors, clinicians, and nurses. It was because of them, I learned to provide great clinical care. It has been those experiences that have grown me to make good, solid, clinical decisions. Although I don’t always feel that management is listening to us, to me, it’s minuscule in comparison to the differences I get to make in patient’s lives. If you’re a Clinician considering working at BMH, only come on board if your willing to do hard work and be open to new experiences. If you are, it’s a great place to grow and learn!

Management at Brynn Marr is concerned about 2 things: keeping patients in for as long as possible and finding mindless subordinates to do exactly what they’re told. The minute you start to think for yourself, you become “problematic”.
Patients are not helped here, just medicated. Your child who is in there for depression, suicidal thoughts, anger issues etc. will have their problems exacerbated as they absolutely  will be assaulted by other children to no consequence. Speak up about this and you’re going against the hospital model.

House and nurse supervisors will demean staff, play favorites, and change rules accordingly. If you complain about them (one in particular) you will be told, “that’s just the Way she is.” Look forward to nonstop texts from the staffing coordinator and other staff on your days off. You’ll be harassed multiple times a day and guilt tripped into working.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 4 salaries reported	$45.25 per hour
Mental health technician 3 salaries reported	$18.17 per hour
Nursing supervisor 2 salaries reported	$36.50 per hour
Licensed vocational nurse 2 salaries reported	$28.00 per hour
Front desk receptionist 1 salary reported	$12.00 per hour

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