registered nurse

speech language pathologist

licensed vocational nurse

licensed practical nurse

home care nurse

MGA Homecare

This review is for Austin, TX office of MGA.

The process of getting hired was pretty easy. Interview with your recruiter and then hard interview with the Nurse Educator/Nurse Recruiter.  She will ask you very hard clinical questions, there is no fooling her. This company is mainly looking for nurses willing to take care of medically fragile children in their homes with ventilators and trachs.  If you do not like kids and their very protective families, do not apply.  The application process was pretty easy. Keep in mind they have you in MIND for a certain kid.  You do not have a done deal.

I tried twice to get with families. Both times it fell through. I was willing to be a fill in nurse but they were unwilling to go ahead and train me. I needed full time hours but didn't want to work every weekend. I offered 2-3 days of fill in. 

All this work to start and nothing. I liked my recruiter but felt they didn't know whole story of families intentions of needs of their clients. Kind of wasted my time.  If a family is moving please know exact location of move and what type of nursing shifts they are wanting long-term. I'm thankful I kept hustling elsewhere looking for a full time position.

"Oh I didn't know." Please know what your clients need, and please check with them prior to sending a nurse out to meet and greet. We don't get paid mileage or paid time to meet and greet. After all the misunderstandings, I didn't even get a permanent family to work with from Austin Texas MGA branch. I was offered FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY shifts as a constellation. Once you're on a case it's extremely hard to get moved. They have to find someone to work your spot. 

The pay rate is way lower than hospital work, but I think working with fragile kids would be rewarding. In Austin, the pay is low anyway, so just know this is lower because of reimbursement. Training is barely paid for, $10/hour. They require in office day, full day. Also one day with trainer in home, full day. Meet and greet time is not paid and their is no mileage paid for any job you may take.  Remember, this is your license so protect it.

I would be willing to try this again in my future. I liked the office staff.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I love working for MGA Home Care, I currently help my client at her school. It's fun because I get to know other children and teachers while providing skilled nursing services.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Sometimes rarely when there is a last minute shift cancellation, just make sure check messages before driving to shift. I normally don't check my messages before leaving home and it that would save me time and gas.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The environment is very nice, respectful, my supervisors are always there to help me with any questions I have. At school it is a lot of fun, the children are so sweet it's nice to see them learning and keeping themselves happily occupied, while maintaining their safety.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day for me is arriving at the school,  getting report from mom via text, meeting and greeting my client, clocking in at the laptop, checking the vitals of my client, make sure she is safe and has seatbelt on, orthopedic bilateral braces on, observations on chewing and swallowing her breakfast, check her diaper every 2 hours and also emptying her ostomy bag, check the skin around it. For that fall risk precautions are in place while patient stands up with support usually 2 person assistance. Take her to classes, back to classroom, at lunch chewing and swallowing observations to prevent aspiration. Another check of vital signs, charting on Kantime and give report to mom via text or sometimes personally to family if meeting client at her house after school is needed and helping out of the school bus drop off. If needed. Clocking out and then getting their signature, from mom, dad, or the teacher, save and submit.

Flexibility is the cornerstone at MGA Homecare I make my own schedule. Think contract nursing. You can work as little or as much as you want. Haggle for your pay though because whatever you start at is where you stay. 

PTO is new here but it accrues so quickly. I get almost 2 hours a week at 36 hours worked.

There is health insurance dental and vision. Its just me and I don't have any health problems. Just need my preventative care. I have all three and I pay around $50 a pay period.

We get paid every week on Friday. They use and app called paycor for benefits and paychecks and its super easy to use and on you phone. No going into the office.

The office staff at the Austin location is excellent. I'm 5 months in and life has happened. They have supported me every step of the way. I feel really valued here!

The first assignment I had was not a good fit. I was afraid they would tell me to try harder or make it work. NO! They gave me options and asked me what I'D like to do.

Basically a nurse can expect to help families help themselves. Special needs children need their Families to be supported; so they can be refreshed to take over the job when we leave.  There is a perfect fit for each of these kids.

So if your a new nurse looking to grow your skill set, a seasoned nurse who is burnt out or just looking for a great place to work with kids in their home, schools and daycares; then this is the place for you.

Have worked with this company for almost 3 years now as a nurse. Initially it was tough to get going. The hours are there however it can be difficult to find a family that is a good fit. My first few cases were a bit of a mess and my hours were inconsistent. My recruiter at the time worked hard to get me my hours, I always had something but not necessarily what I wanted. Honestly, no place is perfect there are times you've got to suck it up, we work in health care and essentially sign up for crazy schedules when we choose this career. 
All in all I've had good experiences and bad experiences working here. Over the last 14 months of working here I've found a great family to work with. I have the schedule I want as well as competitive pay. The family and I have a fantastic professional relationship, my time with them has been super rewarding. The benefits are decent. They are slowly working on getting a plan in place for PTO and vacation time. It's a relatively newer company so these things can take time. 
there aren't many opportunities for advancement unless you start out doing direct care and decide to shoot for case manager. However, they do offer more pay for cases with more than one patient, so that is a bonus.

A typical day at work would be taking care of my special needs grandson, or of any other patients MGA provided me with.  I would help the children with their ADL developments, get them ready in the morning, be with them during therapy sessions and include much of what I learned during these sessions to continue working with the children throughout the rest of the day,.

The only experience I had when starting the CNA classes provided through MGA last summer was my being grandma and taking care of several of my special needs grandsons as childcare provider.  MGA gave me a new opportunity and opened doors for me to find a way back into the work place.  I have loved working here, but need full-time employment since I am a single woman.  

Due to the nature of the job, I did not have much interaction with co-workers.  Most of my interaction was with the patients and their parents, with their case managers and the patients' therapists.  

The hardest part of the job was seeing setbacks in the medically frail children when they underwent numerous challenges.  The most enjoyable part was seeing them make great comebacks and strides.

I've worked for a few pediatric home health agencies and this one is the worst. The recruiters beg you to work and promise compensation when a nurse calls in but you never receive it. If you say you can't work the weekend because you want to be with your family they try to make you feel bad and beg you to work. Overbooking at least 1 to 2 times monthly is very common. They claim to hire only case specific nurses and not just anyone but had other nurses desperate for work. When a patient threatens to leave they give nurses a raise to force them to convince the parents to stay with the company. When you don't have a regular case and call them daily for work they send you to "difficult homes" or don't call you back at all until the last day of the week so you have no choice but to work the weekends. Lies about pay rate increases and your paycheck being wrong in the first week working is a bad sign. Especially when they question you like it was your fault you didn't notice the discrepancy and you don't even know how to read their complicated check stub. Consistency is not what you're going to get here. And if you're fine with putting your nursing license on the line for others mistakes on MARS and it being swept under the rug then this is the right place.

Well, it started off great. Great training and people. However, pay was a BIG ISSUE. Also, beware the company acts great, but if you have any issues with your client- what they say goes no matter what. I will give an example- after working full time NIGHTS and flipping over to DAYS- client's family has NO REGARD for me. Said that I was not talking to them or working. LIED to me to get me to leave the house and then reported to company that I was asleep on the job and not doing my job. This was the 1st day I worked but on a shadow shift which was HALF of my pay. Also, I was blind sided with all this. I know I was not asleep. And how can you work when the client's parent doesn't show you anything? Then I was reprimanded WITH NO PROOF and told the client's parent didn't want me back and I was a total 180 from the 1st time they met me. I got 2 phone calls one from CSM and direct supervisor and then from recruiter and whomever runs office and starts in on me with me having NO KNOWLEDGE of what is going on. Told me to come in the office for re-training. HOW DO YOU RETRAIN A SLEEP SCHEDULE WITHIN A DAY??? So, I turned in my stuff and left. I would run from companies who let their clients run all over their employees.

Frustrated with this company, recruiters are ALL male and case managers-RN's all female, very SEXIST!! It's like a fraternity with the recruiters, they say they have work and will call you back and never do!!  I have worked for them but it took months for part time employment, they also cancel you at the last minute if a family wants a different nurse or if you request a shift change and you have given several weeks notice to the family. Have been double booked and sent home as another nurse was there!

The recruiters are always "at lunch" or " in a meeting" but hunt you down via phone, text and email if they want to get a hold of you! You don't know who is really telling the truth.

The inservices are quarterly and they feed you and they are usually like pep rallies, nurse appreciation party and Christmas party are usually good. But it is not enough.

Current owner had a physical fight with the guy who started the company-not good, on his facebook page he calls himself a "janitor" at MGA, great leader! Google MGA Home Health and look for a New Times article.

The ownership of this company is unlike any other. They make their employees feel like family and the opportunity to grow with them is endless. A typical day in the life of a medical records coordinator involved anything from sending, receiving, and following up on doctor's orders, and maintaining patient charts, to sending mail or doing special projects for management or the nurses. I learned a great deal while working here and will keep that with me as I progress in my education and career. The co-workers, for the most part, are united and work together as a team to get the job done. The only part of this job that I was not a fan of, was that at times it felt a bit like high school, and individual management was not the greatest. Otherwise, leaving this position was bittersweet, and I still miss it to this day!

Starting out I was told there would be several cases to choose from, but once I started reviewing cases very few were the difficulty level I wanted. Then every case I was shown was far away and I was basically expected to act as a babysitter. Which is fine if you're looking for a low key job with an extremely stable patient who may need minimal nursing care, however the company knew I was not. Upon starting, the communication was awful, the office staff did not communicate with one another or the family and several times there were issues that could have been completely avoided had MGA given me or the family more information. Furthermore, the HR department never explained or provided information regarding any benefits (401K. PTO, insurance, etc.). The home office also handled me giving my notice very unprofessionally and I did not hear from them for days and only did when I reached out again. Very friendly staff, but does not handle business professionally or efficiently.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 256 salaries reported	$44.88 per hour
Speech language pathologist 142 salaries reported	$113,006 per year
Licensed vocational nurse 51 salaries reported	$30.72 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 241 salaries reported	$41.35 per hour
Home care nurse 12 salaries reported	$33.50 per hour

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