registered nurse

mental health technician

house supervisor

nursing supervisor

nurse manager

Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital

Loved the job and my coworkers but administration could use a lot of work!! This hospital has lost a lot of great nurses and floor staff and until they start to care they won’t do anything about it. In Oct 2019 they had a turnover rate of 100% I believe. 

Scheduling; good luck getting off when it’s needed especially on weekends. The scheduler makes accommodations for some people so hopefully your one of them. Also be prepared to have caseload of 12+ for nurses and will stay past the shift to chart. You will also get called off when not needed but then asked to cover another day. If you cover another day they will call you off another day that pay period if they can. 

Safety; if you want to work on a unit with 2 staff 2 nurse go for it since that is UHS ratios. I’ve personally been at a physical intervention with 11 females before and if there is only 2 staff on a unit that might mean 3 people can run to the codes, if your lucky. This was my main concern working there as it seems they were accepting patients with any acuity level and putting them on inappropriate units. It’s pretty sad when inclusion rooms have to be used in a trauma informed hospital; (it is not trauma informed) 

Until someone seriously gets hurt, this will not change. That was even pretty much said at a staff meeting. 

Also as a floor staff it really stunk when nonfloor staff came onto the unit and caused unnecessary physical interventions or escalated the patients . Your expected to run groups and chart with two staff so if you have a patient escalating there is no one to help. 

Not to mention the belongings that we really never had time to do during the day because of everything going on. 

(Also staff have told me that the hospital is now revoking pto. Your are given off but they may call you while on vacation to go in without any notice) 

Again I loved what I did, but management comes onto the floor for 5 minutes and try to take over; or they just watch video for hours behind their desk and assign us more tasks. 

There is nothing that this hospital is doing well. This is not a healthy practice environment for nurses. There are explicit displays of incivility, abuse of power, and top-down bullying by senior leaders who possess the minimum necessary education for entry to practice. The focus is gaining power and control over staff due to the complete absence of skill, knowledge, education and experience in creating a positive work environment. Feedback from staff is dismissed or has negative consequences. Direct care nurses are not involved in any decision-making. There are no committees and no opportunities for professional development. There is no down-time for education. Fluctuations in patient acuity and transitions of care are ignored which increased episodes of violence and injuries. And if that is not enough, you can not  rely on getting your paycheck on time. Several times, pay has been days late and often mistakes resulted checks being hundreds of dollars under what was earned. Scheduling is messy. You can not rely on getting days off approved, schedules are changed without notice or staff input. There is no true recognition, only shallow displays to "check off the box" for recognition. Working here was the worst experience of my career. My advice: shop around. There are behavioral health employers that are paying far more and have so much more to offer. 

I was excited to grow in my profession as an RN, so I chose to work at LBHH because it was a new facility and the salary offer I received was decent.  When I began everything was great! I loved all the staff and even the supervisors and managers were helpful and inspiring. Shortly thereafter, a new upper management came in and changed everything, There were many many things that changed, however, cutting staffing was the biggest issue for me, my already long 12 hour day became 14-16 hours due to added responsibilities that prevented me from nursing charting responsibilities, that I then needed to complete after my shift, I found that it was not manageable, especially when you need to be back in for your next shift in a few hours. Staffing issues also led to many safety concerns for staff and patients, so I decided to look elsewhere, and I am so glad I did!!  I found that LBHH staffing levels or pay is not up to standards.  I ended up getting offered $6 more an hour, better benefits and am enjoying feeling safe and secure at my new job with security guards on site, proper staffing, many educational opportunities, and outstanding experienced upper management support. It means so much to me to be able to leave at the end of my shift on time, feeling accomplished, feeling like I made a difference, and NOT feeling burned out, or defeated. My best advice is: look around all psych RN jobs and behavioral health facilities are not equal, do not settle here.   

When I worked at LBHH, there was no seniority, no fairness between females to males. No communication  between management n nursing staff who basically do the most important part of working with patients the most. Get fired for helping a patient by minor actions but keep people who fall asleep and take longer lunches n then take another lunch. Always under staff. Calling staff off on scheduled days to work and having to be forced to use PTO to make the hours. Then are asking for staff to come in after calling people off. Having to buy at least 5 meal tickets, each $5 if you want to eat at work. You never see management, nurse managers; director or assistant on the floor. When trying to help on any circumstances you get talked down to from the very people who are to defend and stand for you. Hours you put in are overlooked and doing your job for those who are friends with supervisors, family and in thier "inner circle". People fired for hearsay then to have actual proof of things. No disciplinary action first before fired OR a write up. People I worked with (coworkers) were great as far as nursing staff. Other departments did not respect the nursing department. When being told things will be followed up on, they never were. Opened a new unit because UHS actually has a law suit against them and need to make up extra money that they don't have or even have for thier current employees. Turn over rate in employees is very bad. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The coworkers and patients that recognize your efforts and show appreciation. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Working in an unsafe environment (no security) with high acuity patients & not enough staff (1 nurse assigned to 9-16 patients with one Behavioral Assistant)

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The facility is nice (only 4 or 5 years old). Management provides no feedback (good or bad) and does not support staff, upper management/admin. Is rude and unsupported. The company and CEO claim safety is of utmost importance,  but staffing ratios show the opposite. This is a "for-profit" company making millions each quarter and unwilling to staff appropriately or pay accordingly for staffing to want to stay. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy, stressful. You get report and try to assess the patients in a timely manner while talking with those that need the extra support and keeping everyone safe. The majority of each shift is spent charting.

While the hospital is beautiful, the directors and administration inside are anything but that. From my experience you have to be on their good side to have a chance at staying employed. One wrong move puts a target in your back, and they follow you on cameras to watch for one small mistake you make that they can “justify” firing you over. As a manger I had to sit in meetings and listen to not just nursing directors, but the director of HR make nasty and degrading comments about staff they didn’t like. If you take a supervisor/manager role you can’t actually manage your staff in the way you would like, you are at the liberty of how the ADON/CNO/HR director/CEO feel about your staff. Managers were told to fire people when they didn’t feel it was reasonable, but directors would say it was a “team decision.” Nurse managers often work 60+ hours weeks due to filling holes from short staffing, but get no extra pay or compensated time off the following week. If you enjoy autonomy, work-life balance, approved PTO, and staff appreciation then this is NOT the place for you. 

Came to work for this company hoping to make a difference in the area seeing how I love working in Psych and have for many years. Sadly this hospital(If you can call it that) is a disorganized mess. The management claims to have all worked in this field for 10+ years yet the place barley functions properly. Most times there are not adequate staffing to run the 3 open 24 patient units, no security and a lot of the time we do not have proper supplies to accommodate or treat our patients.(No clean linens, toiletries or medical supplies) They do not have a fully functional house keeping team and most times patients are put into dirty rooms and dirty beds. Patients are discharged whether they are mentally stable or not depending on their Insurance limits. Upper management does not take concerns or advice well. Staff are not paid fairly and are told to leave if they do not like how the place is run. Very disappointing.

The turnover rate is high. They fire employees easily. They do not have consideration for individuals personal lives. They lack compassion for employees. Pay wage is dependent on person, wide ranges. Raises do not occur often. Short staffed every shift. Unsafe ratios. Upper management does not show staff they care and only willing to help when forced. Hard to care for patients because of the demand on charting and amount of patients. RNs have a 12:1, they make LPNs be techs when we need med nurses and then do not pay them the incentive the techs are getting paid. It’s a disaster. It is going downhill fast especially with the new management. We also have NO security and are not allowed to use seclusion. Work place injuries happen almost every day. You get written up for not taking breaks but no one can relive you to take them. Nurses leave 4 hours after the shift to complete documentation. The only reason I don’t leave is related to schedule issue in my personal life. 

The daily clinical staff are absolutely wonderful. Some of the kindest and most personable people I've met. They truly function as a team. Unfortunately, "leadership" could not care less about staff working on the suites. Directors will lie to manipulate staff. By far, the worst organization I've worked for. For a psychiatric hospital, it's concerning how little they care about the well-being and safety of staff. They will continue to ask you to do more with less. Be prepared to work in a stressful, unsafe, understaffed environment where you and your team will be pushed to your limit, without feeling any semblance of appreciation from "leadership". They will have food trucks and other events for staff throughout the year. But like parents, just because you buy stuff doesn't make you a parent. Nothing in the hospital is preventative, something bad has to happen over and over for anything to be changed.

The biggest pro of working here is the caring coworkers, both nurses and techs. The biggest con is less than ideal staffing, especially at night, which leads to potentially dangerous situations since we do not have security. It's great when we have unit coordinators and mid-shift techs that can help out until the patients go to sleep, but sometimes we have no help, occasionally not even a lead tech. Thankfully, we now have an admissions nurse that works evenings but only during the week. Nurse-to-patient ratios are overall terrible. On most units there are 2 RNs for up to 24 patients. On "verge" units (during times of low census) there is only 1 RN for up to 16 patients. There is often only 1 tech per unit at night, although some units are lucky to get 2. Another con is low pay for full-time nurses. It can be very disheartening to be working your butt off next to a temp nurse who makes almost triple your hourly rate.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 52 salaries reported	$48.29 per hour
Mental health technician 16 salaries reported	$21.50 per hour
House supervisor 9 salaries reported	$52.48 per hour
Nursing supervisor 3 salaries reported	$88,000 per year
Nurse manager 6 salaries reported	$127,320 per year

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