social worker

occupational therapist

food service worker

director of technology

chief nursing officer

Oregon State Hospital

The best advise I received working here was this: "Don't invest in your coworkers. Don't invest in your unit. Don't invest in your patients."  Terrible, right?  Unfortunately, this advise is more that pragmatic, it's essential. Early in orientation, the instructors begin cautioning orienting staff about how much drama and backstabbing goes on, especially in the Harbors units, but still, my experience was not typical. Most people squeak by their 6 month trial period without incident, but there are hospital  "horror stories" .. Under your 6 month trial period, you can be terminated for, literally, anything.  If a coworker secretly dislikes you... If your boss is angry that you are transferring to a different unit... Worse, there is no oversight at all prior to 6 months.You cannot be formally represented by the union.  Supervision doesn't investigate claims. Under the right circumstances, say, when upper management is away, HR can be bullied into firing an employee who has never been verbally counselled, never been written up, never been given any indication at all that anything was wrong. Staff make wild accusations about each  other,and regardless of the absurdity or frequency or even recycling of the complaints about other staff, the common denominator is never considered...

The best advise I have to offer: Don't make any big life plans short of 6 months of being here. Don't move. Don't make long term plans. It's unlikely that you will have issues, but you might...

Typical work day consist of nurses report at shift change identifying a roster of every patient on the unit and any changes or notes indicating information for the staff to acknowledge. A sharps count is conducted before staff are relieved, followed by a printed form of responsibilities for each staff member to perform specific duties on an hourly sheet. Patients are monitored and engaged with through out the work day. Staff are to assist and engaged with meals, recreational activities, and other duties and document accordingly before leaving shift. I Learned how a well staffed team can have a positive effect of the milieu. Management did not communicate very well and spoke in ambiguous terms to frequently. Workplace culture was difficult to gage because you are not necessary working with the same group of people the day before, you may be requested to work with unfamiliar staff in another location though I very much appreciated the majority of my consistent colleagues and the rapport I had with them. Hardest part of the job was having poor communication in an unfamiliar work environment. Most enjoyable was having great coworkers be on the same page as you making the day run smoothly.

The CART director is wonderful. She truly appreciates the team and is a strong advocate for creative arts therapy. The executive team is grossly disconnected with what is happening on the unit floors, and make decisions without getting opinions from floor staff. Nursing is often understaffed, which then pulls treatment therapists into working out of scope of practice. The staffing issue is leading to more serious staff injuries and unsafe conditions in general. Patients are being admitted that shouldn't be, and there are minimal consequences for patients that injure others. The exec team is reactive instead of proactive, and changes to policy and programming happen so often that staff are frustrated by the exec team's lack of direction. The lack of proactive leadership has left staff having to figure out how to best support the hospital's move to become a forensic hospital. There has been a hige outbreak of Covid at the hospital Dec 2020.

Either escorting contractors through the facility to a work location or working with other maintenance workers. I learned how to efficiently work with plumbers, electricians, concrete pourers and all other contractors either hands on with the state employees or while performing security for also learning from contractors. When a job needed to be done management would contact me to get it done quickly and efficiently and if I ever had questions they made themselves available. The other members of the facility services team were very fun to work with and they all helped me learn new skills in each of their trades. The hardest part of the job were the occasional winter days that I'd still have to be outside while escorting contractors. However the amount that I learned and while working there was fun, also constantly hearing from other workers "Stop working so hard JD, you're making the rest of us look bad" was a very encouraging thing to hear day after day.

What is the best part of working at the company?
My colleagues in the medical clinic were true professionals 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Poor, dictatorial and ignorant leadership resulting in patient injuries and deaths and placing medical providers in jeopardy.
Chronic( years long) understaffing of medical providers and constantly being reassigned to different units 
Absolutely no regard for care continuity.
When the Chief of Medicine instructs you to “ just do less for them (patients)”, you know there is a huge problem.
OSH has been in a death spiral with repeated and concurrent immediate jeopardy findings by CMS

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Dictatorial 
Punitive 
Disorganized


What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Can be assigned from 4-12 wards (. 100 to 300+) patients on any day 
Responsible for all primary care including on demand urgent care visits, chronic care management at medical surgical acute hospital acuity

This was a job I dreamed of having for a very long time. The float position was during a state of staffing emergency, so I was excited for the opportunity. I was told very early on to starting there that there can be a clique type environment on certain units and if you upset certain senior staff you could find yourself being let go randomly. Which is indeed what happened to me. I loved a lot of the staff, they helped me learn during training as well as out on the units. They made me feel safe and secure, and answered any questions I had no matter how small or silly they may have been. I rarely felt left in the dark or afraid working here, I knee I was safe and had support and loved it very very much. I would even happily return if ever given a chance. My only qualm is with the senior staff having the ability to disrupt new staff out of upset or anger. I did not think I could safely tell most any of the senior staff if I had a problem or was being victimized because of fear of repercussions.

There was a lot of patient time at OHS and many times we were required to work back to back shifts up to 16 hours to cover for those employees that called out of work. I learned a great deal about human nature when mental illness was a part of a person's life. Staff were usually pretty good when I worked in Max or Min security but when I promoted to working with the truly mentally ill patients, there were often times that a lot of back stabbing and setting other workers up. It was shameful and needed to be looked at by an outside agency. Working with the patients could be very rewarding most of the time. In Max and Min security the patients were just as they presented. Would be guilty of a crime except for mental illness. Interacting with these patients was an eye opener. This was my most enjoyable part of the job. The employees in this area were there for each other and looked out for each others welfair.

When I first started working at OSH, the work expectations were reasonable. Fast forward three years and management has continued to pile on unreasonable expectations without any thought to how those expectations would be reasonably met. So burnout happens quickly. 

They (management) also hold these anonymous meetings once a year about how they can better the morale, we all say the same things about what we need to feel more satisfaction in our jobs, and nothing ever comes of it and they just pile on more unreasonable mandates. So instead of improving morale and satisfaction, they continue to drive away good, talented providers. 

That being said, the patients are incredible to work with and you can build some really solid working relationships with your unit team. Just don’t expect management to be helpful or supportive.

Any huge organization, particularly in the public sector, is run by a system of management that may or may not understand what happens in the "real" job. This is true of Oregon State Hospital. A system of procedures, protocols and even unwritten directives guides decision-making and culture. This is not necessarily bad, but any potential employee should understand this going in. Oregon State Hospital is NOT your "Mom and Pop" small company where everybody knows each other and situations are worked out together "on the fly".
Overall, my experience has generally been positive there for the past ten-plus years and if one does not mind working in an environment similar to the military (from an organizational standpoint) they are good to work for.
NOTE: Pay raises/freezes/furlough days are part of the culture due to state and federal funding.

Busy, well-educated and compassionate service providers throughout the hospital.  You have to be good at self-care as the work load is often very stressful.  Bring a healthy and team attitude and look for the overall good in other's intentions.  The hardest parts of the job: a lot of paperwork and important documentation needs to be done daily/weekly with often little time to do it thoroughly, politics and some personality clashes due to diverse perspectives on how to accomplish goals, and the sense that as a state employee you are always under the microscope.  Most enjoyable: seeing healing and recovery in the lives of those we serve, finding amazing team members to work with, and doing something to help others and earn a paycheck.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Social worker 1 salary reported	$8,418 per month
Occupational therapist 1 salary reported	$9,098 per month
Food service worker 1 salary reported	$3,265 per month
Director of technology 1 salary reported	$129,912 per year
Chief nursing officer 1 salary reported	$13,138 per month

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