registered nurse

social worker

psychiatric nurse

behavior technician

mental health technician

Rockford-Center

Typical work day includes coming in to a schedule that is not posted for you shift, and when you find the schedule, finding out that you are working short because "call outs". Which happens. Frequently. 
You will learn quickly if acute care, inpatient psych is for you or not, and will be expected to work both as an individual, and as a team. You will learn some great things for life, like verbal deescalation techniques and time management. 
The culture of the facility is not great-staff morale is very low (mostly due to short staffing/overwhelmed employees) and it certainly, at times, feels that management/supervisors do not care on little bit for you. Most of the employees are great to work with, do their jobs well and are generally knowledgeable about what they are doing. The ones that are not any of these things seem to be the ones getting recognition and pay raises, though, so that makes wanting to put extra effort into the job very difficult. 
The pay is not the best, but certainly not the worst, and the job itself is fairly straightforward and easy once you are used to it. 
The patients can range from pretty mild anxiety to full blown delusional, and everywhere (and everything) in between, and while there are "dedicated units" it does not seem to matter much when there is so much "mixing" of the unit milieu (on a unit of 20 you may have 5 detox, 8 acute psychotics, and the rest varying degrees of anxiety/depression/bipolar/co-occurring). 
Honestly, overall, it is a good place to be if you like being the front-line mental health care provider, and enjoy working solo (with some back-up) with regimented structure built it to fall back on.

Rockford needs to hire managers who are trained to be managers and not just nurses promoted to managers. People are leaving because of poor management. There are only two good managers in the entire company. Understaffing is intentional because managers are told about budgets for staffing. Patient and staff safety was at risk due to this several times. Several nurses felt like they weren't able to do their jobs properly and their license was at risk as well. They have an electronic system but a disconnect from the paper charting and computer charting which sometimes results in twice the work. For as many amazing RS there are at rockford there are just as many unprofessional untheraputic RS. They will trigger the patients, go missing from the unit and not tell anyone where they are going, get confrontation and mouthy over little things, not listen to the nurse, disregard company policy. Say every patient is faking their mental illness. Some shifts you have to over see your patients as much as your co-workers. The police were never called when patients were violent even in severe cases. I felt there were so many suicidal or depressed patients who didn't get the treatment they needed because of one or two bad apples on the unit who disrupted the unit all the time. There should be a contract on admission stating if they attack someone they will be discharged immediately. Violence was more accepted at Rockford than it would ever be in the real world or in prison and it's unacceptable.

Worked at Rockford Center for one year and enjoyed my job. I encountered many very friendly coworkers who were easy to interact with throughout the workday. Because Rockford is so small, there is very little room for advancement. Also, pay is not competitive with other institutions. My biggest issue with Rockford is that management is not in charge of employee production. There are so many employees at Rockford who are expert at never meeting productivity levels but somehow remain on the job and receive the same yearly raise as everyone else. This is infuriating to anyone who works hard to meet daily productivity quotas and was cause for me to seek employment elsewhere. Another big problem is with employees who have worked at Rockford for several years running the show whenever a new manager is appointed. Unfortunately, the new manager always rely on these entrenched poor performers to show them the ropes, thus allowing the poor performer to be incorrectly viewed as too valuable to discipline or terminate. Overall, Rockford Center was a positive work experience; however, the entrenched poor performers wear down the good workers!

When I first graduated with my master's degree I had no idea what to expect from a hospital like Rockford. I have learned so much since I've started, and I have felt supported by all levels of management. They support professional development and I have been to numerous trainings over the years. It's not without its challenges of course, because individuals with mental health issues can be extremely difficult to work with and the state system is often difficult to find supports in. That said, I leave at the end of the day more often than not, feeling as though I have made a difference in a person's life or their families, or even the community. Knowing the work is hard, the leadership at Rockford make an effort to reward and recognize employees in various ways. We also get things like food trucks and mister softee and pizza days to help combat the stress. When our group was feeling down, the CEO and DCS took the time to listen to our feedback and make changes which is not something you would see other places.  I feel the skills I have gained here will get me to wherever I want in my career and I highly recommend working here.

In this current climate, there is a shortage of workers and this facility was not an exception. They do provide orientation and training — I give them a B for their attempt to get specialists mentally and physically prepared before working in the units. There was favoritism and senior staff who chose which staff should work in certain units. In all, whenever there was coding, the building got pretty chaotic which the patients (esp frequent flyers) took advantage of the moments. The shift is what you make it due to your ability to take control of the patients and ensuring all staff in the unit are working WITH each other.  The pay wasn’t bad nor great (I left during the time they were increasing the hourly rate), and OT was always available. I definitely recommend if you’re starting out in the mental health field.

Since I have been at Rockford center I have learned so much about mental health and treatment of patients during their time of need. My supervisor has been caring and understanding. She is willing to have me take courses to further my education in my field. My co-workers make coming to work a pleasure. They are always kind and caring and willing to assist with tasks and questions I have. This by far has been one of the best places I have worked overall. There are many activities that ar organized to help alleviate stress outside of work and although we may be short staffed there are tokens of gratitude provided to those working under more stressful situations.

If you’re considering working at Rockford Center, I would recommend proceeding with caution. In my experience, it’s not the safest environment for nurses or RS staff. Safety protocols are often inconsistent, and the facility tends to accept all admissions without thorough consideration for staff safety or patient mix.

Patient autonomy is very limited, and the overall approach often feels more financially driven than patient centered. It can be frustrating to work in an environment where meaningful care sometimes takes a backseat to numbers. While there are some good people working hard here, the systemic issues make it a very challenging place to grow professionally or feel supported as a healthcare provider.


I enjoy working at Rockford for the many opportunities it provides within mental health. You have the opportunity to work with populations from children to geriatrics. You also have a variety of schedule options that make it easy to manage work/life balance. Although the environment can be stressful and there may be patients who are difficult, it should be expected working in a fast-paced, large acute care psych hospital. Overall Rockford is a great place to gain hands on experience with a range of mental health and substance abuse patients!

At first I loved working at Rockford.  It was a great experience and my co workers were absolutely amazing!  Soon, I began to realize how much of a toll it took on me as a person.  My unit was regularly short staffed, as were most, but I was often given over 30 patients with 2 nurses, neither of whom was equipped to assist me in my duties.  It became a dangerous situation.  Again, my co workers were the highlight of my time at Rockford.  It was like working with family.  I often miss that camaraderie that came along with being in the trenches everyday, but in the end, it wasn't worth the price paid or the salary offered.

typical day consisted of montioring patients and evaluating safety as well as conducting beneficial therapeutic groups. I learned the value of being understanding of adolescents and adults suffering from suicidal ideation as well as dual diagnosis. My coworkers were essential in getting the job done sucessfully being as though it is definitely a team job. The hardest part of the job was keeping the adolescents as well as the adult treatment focused. The most enjoyable part of the job is to see how effective the groups and talks are with the patients. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 11 salaries reported	$58.13 per hour
Social worker 9 salaries reported	$65,278 per year
Psychiatric nurse 2 salaries reported	$50.00 per hour
Behavior technician 9 salaries reported	$22.15 per hour
Mental health technician 10 salaries reported	$19.05 per hour

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