registered nurse

carpenter

nurse technician

plasterer

patient care technician

Harborview Medical Center

Harborview was my first nursing job and I loved it!  I worked in the Regional Epilepsy Center where patients who were on multiple epilepsy medications would come into the Center to be placed on EEG machines for at least a week to determine the focal point of their seizures and then be determined if they were candidates for brain resection surgery to eliminate that focal point.  We took care of healthy patients but when they had seizures they became very critical patients who, at times, required life-saving assistance and care.  I learned a great deal in this job and if there was any additional training I was interested in all I had to do was to discuss it with my boss and I was sent to that training.  

Harborview had a great Charge Nurse training program which I attended and enjoyed thoroughly as it increased my base knowledge and I could be additionally useful to the hospital and department.  

Management was great and the workplace culture was that everyone was treated with kindness, consideration, politeness, great respect for all positions within the hospital.  

The team effort was evident in all aspects of my department as well as throughout the hospital.  

The hardest part was seeing patients and their families suffer but it was also one of the best parts of the job because I learned great compassion, empathy, support, and kindness to everyone.

Another part of my responsibilities as a Charge Nurse was to assist the hospital in freeing up space for more patients.  Our ER was constantly full of patients waiting for beds within the hospital and I was one of those folks within my department who, along with the physicians and management, had to decide if it was appropriate for someone to go home to free up a bed for someone in greater need at the time.

The Spine Center surgical end of the clinic has three different departments combined. Spine Ortho Surgical, Neurosurgery, and Stroke Clinic. A normal patient count for one workday is + patients. Each clinic consists of a lead doctor/surgeon, fellows, residents, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants seeing patients. Our registered nurses were primarily in charge of pre and post op teachings, as well as patient triage and phone calls. As a medical assistant we would mainly greet patients, bring them and their friends/family back to be roomed for the doctor. Taking the patient's vital signs and updating medications was the beginning of the process. Our tasks also included requesting outside medical records, uploading images (CT scan, MRI, and X-rays), obtaining blood work, wound care, assisting with spinal injections, and suture removal.
I learned a lot about spinal conditions, neuro conditions, trauma to spine or brain, and stroke conditions. 
The workplace culture was definitely putting patient's first as our highest priority. Respecting confidentiality, and privacy. Working and behaving in a professional manner. Treating others with courtesy, honesty, and respect. Empathetic to the needs of others. Diversity was huge, as we respected and acknowledged differing values, opinions, and viewpoints.
The hardest part of the job was the patient flow and not having enough people on the floor. It was constantly busy, but with the need to see more patient's the patient care coordinators were advised to fit in more patient's into the doctor's schedules. 
The best part of the job was the patient's. They saw and appreciated all we put into caring for them, and giving them the best possible experience. I loved how everyone we worked with had the same love for wanting to give patient's the best.

This is a county Hospital and it serves several very vulnerable populations in the King County area, mostly with some success and visible effect.  (e.g: An extended-stay homeless shelter was put up.  Jefferson Plaza house for helping homeless people continue with their medication treatments, etc )
Also, there was always much to learn about Medicine because of the life-circumstances this population group finds itself in and diseases that Harborview treats.
That was the good.

The bad part is that the job I had in the allied-health field here led me to complete burnout in 2 years.  
The pay is low for the cost of living around the hospital.  The work is both stressful and monotonous.   And in terms of management, it felt both unstable and removed.  
Policy changes, or safety tools were developed only after major safety events that leaked into the news.  
But on a day-to-day basis, any move towards safer or more pleasant work conditions, policy or processes seemed to be bogged down with bureaucracy and would rarely move forward.
And another unpleasant thing: break rooms are small, dingy and overcrowded.  The cafeteria is shared between everyone.  Because of the homeless+addiction problems that this hospital tries to solve, I have been harangued for money in the cafeteria by patients and visitors.  
And when I leave work, I need to wade through the groups of people always hanging around.  Some are respectful. Some are out of it.  Some are patients. Some are drug dealers. Some are inebriated and ready to harass anyone.  
Basically there is no turning 'off' even when I leave the hospital.

Harborview Medical Center is the only designated Level 1 adult and pediatric trauma and burn center in the state of Washington and serves as the regional trauma and burn referral center for Alaska, Montana and Idaho. UW Medicine physicians and staff based at Harborview provide highly specialized services for vascular, orthopedics, neurosciences, ophthalmology, behavioral health, HIV/AIDS and complex critical care. 

Harborview received the 2007 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service in recognition of the important role Harborview plays in delivering high quality health care throughout the community. In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked Harborview in the top 10 hospitals in the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area.

A typical day at Harborview Medical Center is meeting the high level of service our patients have grown to expect.  You learn how to adapt, change, modify, and appreciate the changing patient population.  Management does a great job supporting employees that my have challenges accommodating patients.  At the end of the day we know our patients leave knowing we've done all could do to help them.  At times the most challenging part of the my position is when all is done to satisfy the patients and they leave unsatisfied,  The most rewarding part is when patients goes out of there way to let someone else in the community know that Neurosurgery at Harborview Medical Center is the best.

Loved the nursing team I worked with! Our direct management was super attentive and kind, making it easy for me to go to school while juggling a job that took a LOT out of me. Higher-ups like chief officers and what-not were horrid. Zero to no compassion for those working "below" them and couldn't seem to understand that most of the staff was at their breaking point. Policies we didn't agree with (especially during COVID regarding safety) were put into effect and staff complaints/worries weren't addressed in a timely manner. The individual staff are great and it's easy to make friends. Patients are patients, but security is on top of things (at least on our unit). PARKING is horrible. I think for day-shift staff, it's $13 per day AND you're limited to 20 tickets per quarter. Once you run out, you have to pay $20 to park per day or find another way to get to work. I think it's same price for evening shift, but night shift is cheaper and unlimited, and weekends are $4, no limit as well. Beware, parking staff isn't the nicest to deal with. I believe most positions, if not all, are unionized so raises are kind of small, but every 2-3 years, a big contract is negotiated, and raises or extra lump sums are paid out over the course of those 2-3 years. Overall, a decent place to work, the benefits are HARD to beat. Excellent health care plans, excellent PTO accural and OT. You get paid lunch (45 min with a 15 min break).

I heard many great things about Harborview over the years, but unfortunately the management has run the staff out the door with terrible decisions regarding staffing and compensations. Harborview received a large donation that was intended to be used for staff bonuses, and the management misappropriated those funds and have been very secretive about where that money went - an absolute slap in the face to the people who sacrificed themselves to provide care during COVID. Management is also offering a 1% raise to the staff that stuck round as a thank you for their loyalty. UW has turned that place into a profit farm for the university itself with little to no improvement in harbor view hospital itself. Harborview is the county hospital - our safety net, and UW management has caused the hospital to run on a skeleton crew, keeping it's doors open by exploiting the people who try their very best to stick around for the patients. This place has lost their vision, and is doing a massive disservice to an already underserved population. To the people in management: have you no shame?!

The hiring process took about a month. The interview is conducted by a panel of 2–5 people, and they typically send an email asking if anyone wants to join in. The off-site training, which lasts about a week, was fairly enjoyable. After completing the off-site training, you may get a tour of the hospital on the last day of orientation. Then, you’ll have a few days of on-the-floor training.

If you are in the float pool, expect to be assigned anywhere in the hospital, including transportation (which sometimes involves going to the morgue) and administrative roles (which come with time). Expect your schedule to be all over the place during the first month. The hospital is huge, so you will likely get confused and possibly lost. The break room for the float pool is unpleasant. 

HMC provides scrubs for employees, which you can either take home or change out of in the locker room at the end of your shift. The pay is actually good. I suggest choosing a home floor—it’ll make your life easier. Avoid gossip, as there’s a lot of it. Managers tend to look out for their own RNs. The less people know about you, the better.

I would recomend any one to work. As the region's only Level I Trauma center, Harborview Medical Center (HMC) is well known for innovations and excellence in trauma care and its centers of emphasis:  Trauma, Burn, Neurosciences, AIDS/STD, Center for Advanced Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (CARER), and mentally-and medically- vulnerable populations. In addition to the centers of emphasis, HMC serves a mission population for King County. Harborview employees are committed to the vital role the institution plays in the immediate community, as well as the entire Northwest region. HMC is owned by King County and managed by the University of Washington (UW) and serves as a training site for UW’s School of Medicine. The UW is proud to be one of the nation’s premier educational and research institutions. Our people are the most important asset in our pursuit of achieving excellence in education, research, and community service. Our staff not only enjoys outstanding benefits and professional growth opportunities, but also an environment noted for diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

I am working at Harborview Medical Center for 29 years plus, I had learned that caring, great manner , sharing,  and supporting to patients, staffs and people around  are  very important in my role as a Medical Assistant. I always remain calm and communicate to all any situations. We are working with all different cultures and languages and needs to understand, giving space with respectful.
The hardest part;  when I had checking  fours patients in one family arrived at age of new born, 12months old, 2 years old and 4 years old who was cried out loud, running around and refused to walked in to the clinic. I had to take time to calm them down and support new mother as much as I can.  The next patient was get behind schedule for this situation. But I had to remain calm and explained really well to the provider and the  patients,
My most enjoyable part of the job, when the very busy and crazy day over, I waked home with smiling face and so proud that I had support the clinic went through for the big day like this. I love my work.

A typical day in the harborview Medical Center kitchen includes preparing the food treys that gets served to all the hospital residents, deliver the treys, return them to the kitchen, and then clean up all the different pots/pans/treys that were used to prepare the food and serve the food. Management and co-workers were all friendly, most had already been working there for years so the comradery was already built. For them to include another person was easy, they welcomed me to the family with open arms. The hardest part of the job was the clean up, dishes from all over the hospital sent to the kitchen for us to clean. My most enjoyable part of the job was delivering the food throughout the hospital, to see the faces of the hospital residents when lunch time came around was priceless. Working at the hospital I learned not to take advantage of my heath and youth, seeing all the people in hospital beds whether they are near death or ready to leave opens your eyes to the real world.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 6 salaries reported	$95,230 per year
Carpenter 8 salaries reported	$5,622 per month
Nurse technician 3 salaries reported	$23.67 per hour
Plasterer 4 salaries reported	$5,756 per month
Patient care technician 3 salaries reported	$43,333 per year

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