registered nurse

chief nursing officer

Lakeside Behavioral Health System

Lakeside works you to death and then some! Always short staffed, overworked and unnapreciated. Their brand new geriatric building is poorly designed and dysfunctional. Nothing makes sense in it. The brand new bathrooms flood because they were built in a way that doesn't work or make sense. They say the showers don't drain because of the shower curtains! That doesn't even make sense!! Your lucky to have enough hot water to give maybe two or three patients a shower. Housekeeping hardly cleans....they clock in and hide. The floors are sticky from dried urine and who knows what else...the bathrooms smell like old urine and dirty butt. Upper Management does not care about complaints or their staff. Administration for the getiatric unit makes me sick, they are so fake and they live in an alternate reality in which they don't have a single clue about how to run a well organized unit. A non-degreed person could run that unit better than the "professionals" in there now( very loose usage of the word professional)  They burn you out very quickly. You are just a body to them. The DON is great though! Upper management however is horrible. Find somewhere else to work if you want to keep your sanity.

I am a Community Counselor. I enjoy the opportunity to work overtime in which results in a moderate paycheck. I have read all of the previous reviews, sadly I must admit they are very true. We are extremely short staffed and my coworkers are very rude to the patients. I would not recommend my job position to someone who can't deal with stress and a heavy workload. I shed tears daily for the patients due to Lakesides lack of given care from the nursing staff. I eye- witness staff neglecting patients everyday. I feel that the nurses want to be empathetic yet the stress extremely interferes thus their attitudes are very negative. When a medical emergency occurs, it takes too long for the patients to receive help.  Management is very unorganized. They poorly train you and they show favoritism to their employees with seniority. If our joint commission and corporate office (UHS) knew the details about the situations that occur daily, they would close our facility. These are very sad and unethical practices, but I have kept my job only because I need the money. I plan on quitting as soon as I find a new job.

As a former employee,I was there for almost 4 years.Recently I was fired do to a patient escape.Anyway,there are some people working there that are decent and really care about the patients..The Admin however actually care about profits and bonuses..I know,this is typical of a fired employee but As far as patient safety and comfort,,they would ratther spend multi thousands on floors paint and remodell,,The HVAC,,the most important thing greatly lacked...The staff are stretched much to thin as they are only needed when cencus is high,,,I was in maintenance and got to see ALL DEPARTMENTS and the inner workings.....My imediate boss is a decent man,,He really cares about His staff and patients,,His boss however will thow ANYONE under the bus to save his own hide....For the most part,the regular staff does the best they can with what they've got,,,...The management however lacks greatly..So there ya go,,if the management only cares about profits,you  can make your own dtermination as to how your treatment will be...

A typical workday consisted of being a liason between the residents of Lakeside and the medical staff.  I assisted with security checks and the admission of residents to an inpatient facility.  I performed routine checks and assisted the patient population with basic needs.  Throughout the duration of my employment, I was able to learn about various treatment methods and how different populations responded to them.  I also learned about data entry in a medical setting.

Management for the most part was supportive, however there were constant staffing issues that were not addressed, most likely due to budgeting problems.  I enjoyed the time that i spent with various co-workers as the lack of staffing support helped everyone develop a team mentality.  

The most difficult part of this job was attempting to ensure that all patients had their needs adequately met, despite the previously mentioned lack of staffing support.  The most enjoyable part of the position was being in a direct care setting and having the opportunity to positively impact people.

I worked at Lakeside for three months as a community counselor. The job was mentally draining. I by myself would have 35+ patients and I was responsible for all of them including doing 15 minute checks on each patient. I was required to do vital signs file paperwork and various other activites which would take time away from my patients. I would ask for help and none was given. I have seen patients have medical emergencies and the nursing staff was not adequately staffed enough to help the patient. If you have a loved one do not send them here it is not safe. I would suggest private care Lakeside is all about profits not patients. They even keep patients with certain insurances longer just for the money and patients who have Medicare or Medicaid have their charts especially marked so they will know to keep them longer. Also they don't inform patients of their rights to leave instead they use scare tactics about having them involuntarily committed. This place was unethical and I'm ashamed to say I was employed here.

Extremely toxic work environment. Employees are expected to be available at all times, day or night. Management  expects work to take priority over all things in your life. Sick kid? Doesn't matter! Death in the family?  Doesn't matter! The hospital always comes first. Makes it very difficult to have life outside of work. Working at the hospital can easily become your life and then you'll feel like you should be a patient. No worries there, this money grubbing organization provides psychiatric services to employees- which is a nice touch. In order to be successful in this setting, one should be willing to sacrifice their dignity, integrity, healthy relationships, and sanity. Negotiate your pay. Every week there's a "budget crisis" this hospital generates the largest revenue for UHS- insist they pay you your worth.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Scheduling flexibility, they have self scheduling for nurses. Opportunities for overtime,  bonuses at time if you pick up shifts with little we to no notice. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The patients are difficult and there are more often than not, shortages of staff. It is a behavior health place and the patients can be violent, lack of staff perpetuates problems
 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Staff do work as a cohesive team on some of the units, not so much on others. The floor level staff and therapists are for the most part, amazing. Management, not so much. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy from clock in to clock out. Little down time. Lots of admissions, lots of patient conflict. Constant de-escalation of the patients.

Lakeside is a for-profit psychiatrist hospital that controls most of the entry points for inpatient mental health services in Memphis. There are some really good clinicians that work there,  but have to do so in high-stress conditions with little affirmation or recognition, inadequate resources, and management that measures success by average daily census and positive JCAHO scores. They hire fairly new therapists, burn them out after a couple of years, and the therapists leave and go elsewhere, disgruntled with the company, never wanting to refer back to them. There is not adequate supervision for licensure. The caseloads are unrealistically high. They manage with write-ups and micromanagement instead of training and reward for positive effort. They do not have a good reputation among clinicians in town that really know about the place.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Lunch break was the best part of this job.. if you got one.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Not enough people. Not enough support. Feeling overwhelmed all the time. Too many patients and not enough nurses. I felt that my license was in jeopardy at all times.


What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Not very organized. My direct supervisor was awesome but they ran her to the ground.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Come and get report. Run like crazy trying to get people admitted while you’re trying to do discharges and going to do assessments and following the aids and doing every other thing they want you to do and then they keep adding more things to you and more paperwork and you just feel like you’re running around like a chicken with your head cut off all day.

Employees love to complain, but we have good leadership and good compensation. Some complain about safety, but you have to come here with the right mindset. You are working with the mentally disturbed. There is some level of risk and unpredictability involved that you have to accept as part of your job. My only complaint is that management will sometimes fire or reprimand good employees for the most nitpicky things then let the most egregious workplace offenses slide in people who should have been fired long ago for their horrible offenses toward coworkers. But I would not send my family member anywhere else in the city for mental health treatment. It's not for everyone, but if it's for you, it's the best facility in the city to work with psychiatric patients.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 3 salaries reported	$35.33 per hour
Chief nursing officer 1 salary reported	$175,000 per year

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