registered nurse

temperature screener

order picker

packer

hospital assistant

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

What is the best part of working at the company?
.Fostering collaboration with staff to explore innovative strategies that enhance productivity and boost employee satisfaction. Proactively addressing staffing challenges and implementing solutions to ensure efficiency, all while maintaining high productivity standards.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Ensuring comprehensive coverage at all times, including weekends and holidays, critical for operational success.   implementing disciplinary measures when necessary and effectively addressing challenges presented by difficult employees while simultaneously fostering an environment that motivates and engages them.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
My experience had both positive and challenging aspects. While my direct report tended to micromanage and often solicited feedback from the staff regarding my performance, this sometimes created discomfort for me in fulfilling my responsibilities. In situations of disagreement, there were instances where my direct report aligned with the staff's perspective, which affected my confidence in their judgment. However, I found that the majority of the staff were dedicated and supportive. Although some team members varied in their productivity levels, most responded well to guidance and coaching, demonstrating their potential for growth and improvement.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Although I am now retired, during my typical workday, I focused on meeting productivity standards and ensuring adequate coverage for the team. I made it a priority to listen to staff concerns and address any issues that arose. Additionally, I actively assisted with scanning and other tasks as needed, fostering a collaborative and efficient work environment.

Typical day: Morning meeting with manager, prioritizing my day. Some days would be spent conducting safety and patient care rounds, monitoring compliance with the outside regulatory agencies. Writing many plans of corrections for the deficiencies that were found by the agencies during a survey.

What I learned: I learned how to manage my day while juggling many tasks at once. I was not aware of the processes with government agencies. I took many classes in performance improvement. I learned how to facilitate a project from the beginning to implementation.

Management: My opinion of the management is that they were a bit disconnected, not understanding at times of the entire team that it takes to be a successful department. My immediate managers were great, they helped out in all areas and used the position to help get what ever was needed to complete a project or task. Very approachable.

Co-workers: I loved working with them all. We got along and made sure that we were working as a team no matter what. Had monthly pot luck lunches, went to each others homes for dinners as a team. When a survey would happen we all would join together to collect the information that was requested without hesitation or questions.
Hardest part: Getting through the red tape working for a government agency. Plans of correction could prove to be a challenge at times.

Enjoyable part of my job: Seeing a project finished and knowing that I helped facilitate the process. Working with a great team and a wonderful boss. I enjoyed working for her and learned so much from her. The satisfaction of seeing the patients taken care of.

This is the first job i have had since graduating back in 2008. I feel i have utilized many skills and then some at this hospital. I have knowledge of imaging related to level 1 trauma, special needs, out patient and inpatient, pediatric, geriatric, bariatric, rhumatology, cardiology, neuro and cancer patients. I have been exposed to many senarios that have provided me with skills for just about any situation. I will carry these with me for the rest of my career.
This is a large department with many differing personalities which i feel i have navagated very well. I pride myself in my ability to work well with others. Much of the patient popluation here is low or no income. I truly feel i am helping provide a service that contributes to the well being of the community i live in. 
This job entails that i work alone at out patient clinics often. This has increased my skills  of improving work flow and cost saving measures as well. I do not mind going beyond my job description at times. 
Currently, I spend most of my time in Mammography where I perform regular, diagnostic, stereotactic biopsy, needle localization, special needs, and specimen imaging. I feel Itruly shine in this intimate setting.

A typical day involved trying to staff nursing personnel for a 400 bed Level One Trauma Center in  a stressful, very fluid, ever changing environment. Because nurses are always in high demand and are in short supply, there was lots of lucrative overtime for the persons being staffed. This created the opportunity for corruption and side deal making between the staff and the staffing specialists. Upper management was fine, but had little information about what was happening at the line level. Middle management were mostly horrible, lazy, turned a blind eye to problems and was rarely supportive of the staffing specialists. 

Work place culture can only be described as Hobbesian: i.e. nasty and brutish. The hardest part of the job was the sheer quantity of work that one needed to accomplish in order to get the job done in the allotted amount of time. That and that almost everyone was mean and hyper-aggressive. The (only) enjoyble part of the job: I like a dynamic, fast pace, and time flew by very quickly. Eight hours went by as if it was two.

Works good because of the union. Staff cares about the patients. Make sure that the staff is trained properly to care fir patients. They open door policy with manages, you can always get help because they are there fir everybody. In my departnent a typical day starts off with a report from the shift before, if something is not done it is passed to the next shift. We copied patient radiological procedures onto cds or dvds, so we had to make sure that that the cd burner had enough cds and dvds so that we would not get backed up. We had to do all of this and answer the phone and process calls.each call is diffent and could. Take up to 5 to 10 mins to process. The main tools used to do assigned task were computers, special software for some tasks. Needed to know who to call if you could not solve problems. The calls rolled over between three to four people. Our schedules overlaped so there was at lease two in the office at all times.

- Typically you would clock in and the coordinator would assign you runs.
- You perform customer service to patients and customers throughout the shift.
- Maintain a professional demeanor although not really practiced by veterans who have been working there for years.
- They provided yearly training on policy, procedure, CPR amongst other things.
- The work is EASY. You push, pull, and provide customer service. 
- It was enjoyable when I was interacting with patients and always doing something.
- Becoming a Patient Transport helps you expose yourself to a lot of departments within the hospital which helps you determine what path you would like to get into. Sometimes the county will do a lottery system on paying for your tuition (ie x-ray technician).
- The hardest part of the job is subjective, for me it was the overdue culture that has been plaguing the department for years. You can't teach new tricks to an old dog they say and that stands true there.


I have worked at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for over nine years on a part-time basis. While I learned a lot about different disease processes, trauma, and areas of my work, I was not very impressed with all the favoritism that goes around when it comes to job advancements. I was glad to have found a more stable position in another hospital, as management intentionally skips people for benefitted positions, no matter how long you work here. While the new hire programs are great for learning the ropes, I would say, leave as soon as you can if you are not hired for the long run. Other hospitals definitely pay much better for all the work you are required to do.
This hospital depends on new grad nurses and will train them, but then will make them work for low pay pretty much full time without benefits. Floating to different units will be very stressful, depending on where you will float.

I have been working happily as an L&D RN for the past eight years at Valley Medical Center but lately I have needed to add days to my schedule for the hours cut from 12hrs to 8hrs per shift. For this reason, I need to work closer to home in order to see my kids more. 
My typical day at work includes a laboring patient 1:1, or circulating in the OR, or managing a preterm, gestational diabetic, or gestational hypertensive patient. Many of our patients here at VMC are Spanish speaking and I am bilingual. 
The hardest part of my job is inducing a patient who has a fetal demise.
The most enjoyable part of my job is sharing the miracle of life with a happy couple.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Being part of one of the most important hospital in the area. Being part of a good team.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The hospital is very busy. Staffing levels can be low at times. You’re also part of a union, which means you may have extra work to do. The patient demographic is quite diverse.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment - it’s a busy hospital with lots of space and people. Some areas are quite old. You’ll probably be part of a large department.
Culture - There is a good bond among workers as you’ll be part of a union. Things don’t happen very quickly here at times.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Cleaning, running tests on patients, and, paperwork.

If you have a problem with your manager, don't count on being able to go to their manager for any kind of solution. Go straight and immediately to both HR and your union, and make sure you document everything.  

Don't count on your knowledge, skills and abilities as a means of advancing in the organization.

If you do decide to apply to any position at Santa Clara County, be aware that the HR screeners who review the applications are not trying to find or make a list of the best applicants; rather, they are trying to disqualify as many applications as possible so that they have fewer to deal with. There is no recourse for this process.
 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 3 salaries reported	$93.33 per hour
Temperature screener 10 salaries reported	$36.10 per hour
Order picker 8 salaries reported	$28.75 per hour
Packer 10 salaries reported	$24.00 per hour
Hospital assistant 3 salaries reported	$28.00 per hour

Working at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center: Company Overview and Reviews

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Ratings

Popular jobs at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected