certified medical assistant

registered nurse

medical assistant

social worker

physician

Temple-University-Health-System

I held a position here as a professional Spanish Staff Medical Interpreter in 2012. I have eleven years of experience as a professional interpreter in healthcare. Even so, as somebody else mentioned here, experience is not valued by your superiors. The two managers of this particular department, one male, one female, are bullies who will spend their days tearing you down and exhausting you with complaints and invented "issues of concern". Truly, they are the two worst individuals I have ever had to endure, while still doing my job at a very high skill level. I found that the great majority of providers I worked alongside with valued me highly, while my superiors seemed only interested in nitpicking and breaking me down so that they could get an ego high, and they work together to accomplish this. As a teaching hospital, you deal with a lot of ego by the some of the younger, lesser experienced providers (students) as well. Perhaps the straw that broke the camels back was when I was explicitly ordered by a female physician to edit and censor my interpretation of what she was in reality saying regarding a particular patient's medical condition, while speaking with the medical team at the very bedside of this very patient. I refused, citing the medical interpreter's code of ethics, and filed a formal complaint with HR. My two managers in Language Services sided with the physician once they were notified of my filing of the formal service quality complaint with HR and I was basically fired as a result of it.  

Temple has been a beautiful experience of professional and personal growth. I would prefer to stay here where I have been vested for the past 27 1/2 years. We have a close knit team where we pull together to master the daily challenges.

A typical day in the ED is filled with joy when you provide the needs of a patient and/or their family member during their stay. There was a patient all alone and cold on a strectcher. I secured him two warm blankets and gave gentle kind words seeing if he needed anything else and his response of appreciation warmed me inside. He was shivering; but, did not ask for anything and he appreciated me noticing his need and making him warm. He was an older gentlemen and I learned just how important it is to pay attention to detail. Most often, than not, it is the little things that SOMETIMES makes the greatest difference.

The hardest part of the job is to handle so many responsibilities in so few hours. Eight hours is not enough to help so many people; but, we do the best we can for the time was are here.

The most enjoyable part of my job is taking care of the RNs, PCAs and UCs who are on the front line taking care of our patients.

I am grateful, to God, to have a job and to be in a position to be a benefit to another human being.

A typical day at work

scheduled patients for OR operations and pre-admission testing daily
scheduled clinic appointments in IDX for patients daily
answered and screened calls daily
opened mail on a day to day basis
check emails daily
complete and submit travel reimbursement per request
organized and managed physician calendars daily
managed all office machines and office supplies daily
type letters/correspondence per request
create PDF correspondence for physicians per request
scanned medical documents in EPIC daily
faxed correspondence to appropriate places per request
Retrieve and correct op notes for physician per request
Provided administrative support to staff/physicians

I learned that you can get more accomplished by working as a team in any company. I believe in each one teach one. We all can gain from someone else's experience. You are never too old to learn something new.

Management is about working together and getting the job done in a pleasant and happy atmosphere.

Your co-workers should be treated with respect, the same way that you would want to be treated.

The hardest part of the job for me is to tell someone else that I am not available to help them at this time.

The most enjoyable part of the job for me is when I can help others with a problem that they cannot solve or fix.  I enjoy putting smiles on other people faces.  Keeping people happy make my job a lot easier.

A typical day at work would be making sure everything was in place for all the Resident and Physician, to be able to perform there duties as a physician for there daily schedule of patient care, I was responsible for pulling and preping the patient charts on a daily bases, and providing front and back office coverage, including billing assistant when needed, I was responsible for scheduling Medical records and insurance Audits, and handling incoming and out going Insurance, Disablity and Attorney request, and updated and scanning patient information in our Electronic Record System (Epic) assistanting in retrieving and sending referral, Assistanting with problem solving. My co workers that i work with on a day to day bases, they are like family, anytime that you needed something or needed help with a problem, you can always count on my coworker to come threw with no problem, no matter what it was, job related or not, they where there for you. The hardest part of the job was leaving at the end of the day. and the most enjoyable part of the job is knowing that at the end of the day when i went home, i went home happy and satified, knowing that i was able to help someone out that day. no matter if it was sending records out to an other Physician, or just listening to a patient who was having a bad day. when you know that you was able to make a different, it like being in love, it feel good.

As a nurse you feel a warm blanket of protection at all times because of a strong union where people have your back. In my experience, this makes all the difference. I have worked for hospitals where if you make a mistake, as humans are prone to do, they will readily betray you and do so without emotion or loyalty. Not when you have a union. 
The flip-side of that coin is that many clearly incompetent or lazy staff will take advantage of the union. So attitudes tend to run rampant and your colleagues will disappear for long periods. I, however, found that a small price to pay for my own security as a "good nurse" who also happens to be an imperfect human being. 
Now the location of this place is not ideal. Its smack in the middle of the hood. That fact quickly becomes obvious when you interact with any of the ancillary staff who they appear to have simply just snatched up off the streets. I have had numerous occasions as a patient or a client of the system (let alone as a nurse) where the person I am dealing with is completely oblivious to the fundamental duties of their job and/or have ZERO people-skills. Temple is bursting with people like this. 
I will say, however, that I have never had a more personally fulfilling relationship with my own colleagues then with Temple. They are a unique and diverse group. Definitely a (rather comical and dysfunctional) family-type atmosphere!

A typical day is on average a 12 hour work day comprised of elective and non-elective surgical cases, adult and pediatric emergency room coverage and general podiatric care for inpatients and clinic patients.
Over the past 4 years I have learned leadership skills, have become refined in podiatric surgical skills. I have worked closely with and gained a general knowledge base of all the surgical specialties at a level one trauma center, including Vascular Surgery, General Surgery & Burn Trauma, Plastic Surgery and Trauma Surgery
My coworkers are from very diverse backgrounds from all across the world and everyday is a wonderful and unique opportunity.  I work closely with all levels of hospital employees from, case managers and social workers, nurse assistants and nurse practioners, operating room nurses and scrub techs, residents, attendings and department heads of other medical and surgical services. 
The hardest part of my job is the constant changing of roles and the ever increasing responsibility. This year specifically poses a new set of challenges as I assume the role of leader and begin to make that transition from note taker to decision maker.
I love my job and there are new challenges daily. The days are never slow, with a steady influx of patients, to organizing and facilitating academic events.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Temple taked extra measures to provide high quality care to the patient population served. In addition, in the department that I worked in it has always been a family like atmosphere where we celebrated and helped one another. Lastly, Temple embraces nursing input in the day to day operations within the health system. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
There patient population can be challenging with high acuity. In addition, we service quite a number of patients with mental health and substance use issues.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Supportive and interdisciplinary teamwork oriented.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Nurse to nurse reporting followed by an  interdisciplinary team meeting to decide care options which are collaborated on by nursing, physician group, social work, and administrative staff. Bedside care throughout the rest of the day inclusive of assessments, medication administration, patient education, admissions, and discharges. We may also be involved in family meetings as needed. In addition, responding to emergencies as they arise.

A typical day as a Bed Coordinator can be very hectic or smoothe sailing. I've learned how to interact with people of all capacities, management, doctors, nursing, residents, etc. The hardest part I would say is "the not knowing" in a new position. I have never worked in a hospital before this position. I have been at TUH for a year and am still learning and have questions. The most enjoyable part is knowing that when you enter the patient's demographics in the system, they will be placed and given their treatment. It's a more hands on approach than my primary employment, medical billing. As a patient interviewer, you deal with a patient in a more direct approach as well. As with all jobs dealing with the public, some people are friendly and others are not so happy. What I strive to do when I am working in that job function is to get them to their destination as quick as possible in order for them to receive their treatment asap. When I visit patients on the floors for consents, I try my best to gain the patient's trust in order to complete my task.

Run away! The management and administration is very antiquated. There are too many chiefs and not enough bedside nurses. For a big teaching university hospital they function as hospitals did 20 yrs ago. They are always in the hole when it comes to finances. The departments are poorly run and the nursing managers are EXTREMELY PUNITIVE! You will get fired union or not if you even go to the bathroom too many times. They fire great people that are smart and hard workers and leave the lazy no skilled workers to fend. The nurse managers that are hired or in place have no clinical skills or experience in their area, so when you need a clinical resource it is never the manager. They have meetings about meetings and never accomplish a thing. The equipment is old and never repaired. The clinical areas are filthy and in need of repair.  You will never have support from any management or director as they are unskilled and lack the care and compassion for the patients or staff.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Honestly, I cannot think of any positives which led me to ultimately quitting. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
1) PI did not train me at all and left the responsibility to other labmates who were not instructed on what to teach me
2) Simple lab questions were never answered 
3) I never gained access to my work building despite asking multiple times
4) PI started off completely hands off and suddenly started to micromanage once she let another labmate go
5) Was continuously given experiments to complete which became an unrealistic list/did not have time to organize data because other tasks were given priority (yet still criticized)
6) Passive aggressive comments started becoming a daily occurrence no matter how polite or professional I was 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Labmates were wonderful. PI and the next door PI (often collaborated) were highly disliked for being rude, unorganized, demanding, and unhelpful.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Certified medical assistant 4 salaries reported	$23.03 per hour
Registered nurse 10 salaries reported	$53.50 per hour
Medical assistant 4 salaries reported	$21.88 per hour
Social worker 2 salaries reported	$81,750 per year
Physician 5 salaries reported	$200,422 per year

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