registered nurse

health screener

food runner

patient transporter

temperature screener

Texas Childrens Hospital

YOUR DUTIES:
Get ready to walk a lot and assist all radiology . This includes X-ray, Ultrasound, Mri, IR..etc. You wont just transport patients, you will also do additional duties like turning over/setting up rooms, holding down difficult patients, answering phones,..etc. Think of it as an actual assistant and not just a transporter.

THE PAY: 
The pay  and position for a tech assistant is "ok" for someone who has no job experience or someone that just wants to have a job and not looking for a career.  I don't think the pay reflects for everything a tech assistant does. It reflects more as just a transport but you are more than that here. The pay should be a few dollars more considering you have other duties.  This position will not pay all your bills. You would need a second job or a second working household member. You can in fact get paid more at a fast food place but you have to outweigh the good, the bad and your reasoning for applying to this position. You wont be able to transfer quickly to other departments until after a year, so keep that in mind. Even though they say within 6 months you can--its more likely that you wont be able to because many of the positions require a year of working here, certain credentials or other skills that you wont gain in this position. So while you are working here for a year start making connections with other departments if your plan is to transfer. 

WARNINGS: 
 Keep your issues at home and don't trust peers with your problems because within minutes everyone will know what you said. If someone is gossiping or complaining  don't nod, agree or give advice. Even a nod will gesture you agreed with whatever they said. If you don't listen you are rude.. Just don't get wrapped up in the drama because there is always some drama here. One person dislikes you everyone else will too. Be friendly, keep gossip to yourself, stay positive. Get up and help because if you don't get up people will say you are lazy or other things. Even if you don't think they need help, or if there are already other techs there, get up as it shows initiative. 
Some techs take advantage-- They will wait for tech assistant to come back from returning a patient when they could have just gotten up and grabbed them. They will stop you in the hallways while you are taking a patient back so you can grab a patient when they could have just done it themselves and not wait for a tech assistant. They will even wait till your back from lunch. There are times where you are in the bathroom, even after announcing you will be in the bathroom and will keep a patient in the room waiting so you can take them back or wont go upstairs to grab a patient. Again, many incidents where the techs could have taken the patients back themselves and claim to be short staff but when you return there are 3 or 4 other techs in the room sitting down doing absolutely nothing. There is no reason why a tech is unable to grab/take a patient if there is no tech assistant physically in the room at that time. 

Some techs will say they are going to send a "transport" or departments call about getting a "transporter" but thats not your tittle and its very annoying when they do that. They really need to start calling us by our tittles "technical assistant" or even "tech assistant" because in the er when you are getting a patient the nurses either think you are transporter or a tech. 

The good thing about this position is that you are not being micromanaged by management but some techs feel the power to do so. They constantly ask where you are at to other techs when they can easily message you personally, just wait till you get back to the room or simply not ask because its common sense you are busy. This causes other techs to gossip or think you are "hiding" when you could be on your lunch, in the bathroom or assisting another tech. It doesn't matter if you announce that you are going to the bathroom or that you are taking your break, it never fails that someone will end up asking about your whereabouts.
 
CONCLUSION:
Overall, I don't believe this position itself or radiology department is that bad compared to other companies/jobs. The job itself is okay, coworkers are okay if you are a person that can get along with everyone, benefits are ok. If you can handle these small annoyances and not let things bother you, you will be okay here. 

When I was first hired here, all I would hear is how great the culture is at Texas Children's but that we were the lowest paying hospital in the med center. Now it may be different on other units, but my experience overall was poor-especially when I was working on nights. 


First of all,  it is not a flex to have a great culture , but poor compensation and recognition for the work we do in order to keep our patients safe, to maintain the flow of work, and for all other responsibilities we bear. 


Secondly, my experience on night shift was drastically different in terms of patient safety and management than it was on days. I started off on night shift as a new grad where  my concerns for the patient's safety were continuously dismissed either by my charge nurses and or the house supervisors which later resulted in infants being transferred to the NICU shortly thereafter. I can recall too many times times when I raised concerns to my charge nurses and they told me things like " don't be so negative, they'll be fine," or " I'm not concerned, you will still be admitting this patient bc x,y, z," or "let's give them a chance,"  where 2 hours into admitting them or right before shift change, I had to transfer them to a critical care unit. In all of these instances, the patient(s) should not have been admitted to our floor because they were not stable enough. Now, not all the charge nurses were like this, in some cases they did raise the concern up to the house supervisor, but in most cases the house supervisor overrode the concern and allowed these patients to come onto the floor. I do believe that part of the problem is systematic. Nobody wants to step on someone else's toes, save the hospital money, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes you need to speak up because at the end of the day, we have people's lives in our care and in our hands. Now, not all the charge nurses were like this, but those who were, I always felt anxious going into that shift. Not to mention, it's frustrating when you are drowning in work and you see your charge nurse and other coworkers laughing loudly at the nurse's station then they bring up in huddle to not be afraid to ask for help and then when you do ask for help, they give you an attitude. 


Thirdly, I'm sure people have heard about the layoffs that occurred earlier in the year. It is disappointing to say the least how incompetent the financial division is in deciding where to allocate funds to. When I started, we had 1 translator machine for a 20+ rooms. Considering the diversity of Houston, you'd think that perhaps we'd need at least 2 more- taking into consideration people with disabilities such as being deaf, in addition to language barriers. During the the tropical storm Beryl, there was no ride out team initiated. It was only AFTER the storm had passed, did they email employees stating whoever came in would receive critical pay. The unit suffered from short staffing for a few days, but it was the fact that Texas Children's Hospital did not initiate the teams ahead of time (in order to save them $$) that was deceiving. It was the fact that IF they had initiated the emergency response teams, they most likely WOULD have had adequate staffing, but they chose not to because it would save them money. Profit over people everyday. 


Now for the pros, they offer either straight days or straight night shifts, self-scheduling, Doctors were and residents were for the most part friendly, and most of coworkers were chill.  


Working at one of the clinics for Texas Children's was a great learning opportunity. It was a new experience working in a children's clinic, and not having children made it a little more of a challenge. However, there are many tools provided to assist you with learning. The culture for the most part was changing due to new management. The clientele consisted of a mixture of lower to upper middle class with some of Houston's more recognizable socialites including celebrities. This array of customers made for interesting encounters at times. Of course the more affluent customers were very demanding and sometimes impatient and condescending. They were pretty vocal about not wanting to complete the necessary forms the clinic needed to remain compliant with the state and the necessary guidelines. Some of them were on first name basis with a few of the physicians as they resided in the same neighborhoods with them. This sometimes made the environment stressful in that they would demand to be seen without appointments and would often miss the appointments they scheduled. There was little to no cohesiveness among the staff, and this may have been because of past leadership; but it was severely divided. From the nurses, the medical assistants, to the doctors, and the front office staff. The new management was desperately trying to change this. If you made a mistake you were shamed and the mistake magnified  before the learning opportunity approach was taken. Again, the new management was really trying to reverse these behaviors. I think there were just a few unhappy people working at the facility and allowed that to spill over into their work. Outside of the unhappy co workers, management was always understanding and extremely supportive; and there were some physicians, medical assistants, and nurses that enjoyed their job and were very nice to work with. I always had the tools I needed to succeed.

They have a very thorough training program where you shadow the trainer for a day or 2, then they shadow you for the rest of the week. You then solo for a week and they check you off so you are free to do it yourself. As it was my first phlebotomy job, I liked this, it helped me to be more comfortable when I went on my own. However, I could see how it may be a bit overboard for an already experienced phlebotomist.

They have great compensation, with a clinic for employees open weekdays. It's only a $10 copay if you partake in the health coverage offered by TCH. If you don't have health insurance through them it's  $75 fee. 

They pay for either: parking, bus, park and ride, vanpool, or if you choose not to take any of those they'll just give you money (I think $20 per check) They also have "select bucks" which is them literally giving you money toward your insurance to help offset the amount. 

Paid every 2 weeks on Thursday, they only offer direct deposit. If you want a printed version of your check you just need to go online and print it yourself. 

There is an initial drug test, background check and blood work. They do 2 TB titers, and if it comes back positive they will send for a chest xray. The blood work may be checking for varicella, hepatitis and HIV. As one who actually does the bloodwork for all new employees, I can say they do not do blood drug testing. While they CAN do random testing, I've been told that they only do it when they receive at least 2 reports of suspicious behavior. I haven't heard of anyone having to do a random.

They have "stars" that employees can give to any other employees, just email them and CC their boss. These are to thank other people for being nice, going out of their way to help, etc etc... whatever you think is worthy of a star, honestly. They have an effect on your reviews, and I assume raises as well.

There is a bonus at Christmas time. 

Hope this helps!

Almost 9 years with this organization. I believe they have a great mission and provide a great service with heart to the patients they serve. Patients won’t have a better experience at any other Children’s hospital in my opinion. That being said, working here is an entirely different story. They’re constantly promoting “work life balance”, however there really is not work life balance here in the department I’m in, especially if you’re a top performer. You will keep getting assigned more work while the bottom performers watch you do the work and enjoy their free time that you no longer have. You work very hard to support departments and very few show any appreciation for your effort and will be quite condescending rather than treat you as their equal/peer.  If organizational leadership listened to their top performers, who understand their job and situations better than anyone else and truly listened to our recommendations, things would run more smoothly, but instead there is no conversation/discussion at all with the people doing the actual work. You’re told “we’re doing xxx” and there’s no option to have your voice heard when you want to provide a “voice of reason” and a better solution to a problem/ request.  You will watch under-performers continue to underperform without repercussions while new assignments and issues are  assigned  to the staff who constantly deliver results because the under-performer can’t be trusted to do it correctly. These same under-performers make the entire department look bad, and everyone including leadership knows it, but they’re rarely coached on how to handle things better or proper communication and will never be let go. 

 Prepare requisition check requests and process payments of related fees
 Create and manage budget excel spreadsheets and reports for community events/ communication team
 Reconcile 4 Bank of America ProCards
 Summit reimbursements for the communications team
 Manage/create donor relations gifts and keep inventory
 Schedule and Coordinate filming for TCH video’s/TCH commercials/direct mail video’s(consent forms, speaking with the patients, physicians, charge nurses, security for clearance in the building and department before filming)
 Handle all Community events (process the event for approval, process checks, tax letters, W-9’s, filling tables, communicating with the other organization)
 Responsible for checking out/returning of developments 2 laptops and 3 projectors
 Order all supplies for Graphics Design manager
 Input all appeals for donors who have donated $250 dollars or more in to raiser’s edge
 Order all holiday cards/gifts for donors
 Manage all details of developments monthly staff meetings
 Maintains imputing request for writers assistants/distributing to the writers
 Order patient art for all TCH locations/donors who have events/unveiling at TCH
 Support all writers, researchers, raiser’s edge team, emerging donors and donor relations
 Send out child activities through all TCH locations (stickers, coloring pages, holiday cards, etc.)
 Answer phones/ take messages
 Help with TCH events (registration, name tags, binders, rsvp list, follow up list)
 Schedule and coordinate appointments
 Distribute Daily Mail

•	Establish project governance and facilitate team meetings
•	Update/track project implementation plan
•	Develop, schedule and facilitate test plans for software, network, integration, user acceptance and parallel usage
•	Prepare and implement procedures for downtime, end-users, production
•	Develop training programs and materials/documents for all types of users
•	Obtain user acceptance/sign off based on functional and performance requirements
•	Prepares accurate and timely status reports for management
•	Prior to first productive use, identify the impacts and dependencies of the new system
•	Demonstrate efficiencies of the new system and provide feedback to teams 
•	At completion of project, ensure smooth transition of system responsibilities to support staff
•	Facilitates design analysis with users to determine configuration for the user interface
•	Specifies the design decision in an accurate and testable manner for developers and database analyst
•	Identifies and documents the data sources, recipients and interfaces that need to be developed to support data collection and maintenance
•	Analyzes system procedures and modifications
•	Translates users’ needs into detail requirement specifications
•	Coordinates implementation and upgrades of complex systems
•	Managing relationships with software vendors and maintaining technical strategic partners within those vendors

What is the best part of working at the company?
Excellent benefits — insurance, flexible spending account, pension, 401(k), and PTO that starts with 40 hours upfront and accumulates quickly. They also offer tuition reimbursement, just to name a few of the benefits they provide. The company really takes care of you for sure!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part was navigating inconsistent management and communication my time here, which made the work environment more challenging than the actual job itself. Clear communication and stronger leadership would greatly improve both employee morale and retention.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?

The company itself offers a lot of room for growth and opportunity. However, depending on your location and department, the work culture can shift significantly based on the manager you have. Management consistency is a major factor. I met some amazing people during my time here, but I repeatedly experienced challenges at the direct manager level. Senior leadership was professional and supportive, but direct management was not always the same. I would encourage stronger accountability and consistency in leadership across departments to ensure the culture has a positive effect.

Texas Children's overall is a good place to work. The benefits are great and for the most part they care about their employees.
 
Unfortunately Texas Children's is divided into different entities such as Texas Children's Health Plan, Texas Children's Pediatrics and Texas Children;s Hospital. 

I work for Texas Children's Pediatric central business office. 
A typical day for me is following up on claim collection for the Government department with the Medicaid insurance carriers which include Medicare and Tricare and CHIP.

Co-workers are the greatest. We are truly a team and we all help each other to resolves issues etc. We are all each others customers and value that relationship.

Management has evolved from being quality oriented to quantity oriented. This has caused a strained and tense environment to work in. The hardest part now is not feeling valued but instead just another body to fill a position,

The enjoyable are the extra things that are done to break some of the tension such as three to four times a year we have "fun" in the office such as holiday celebrations, line dancing, exercise as a group and health coaches to help us with both our mental and physical well being.

I really loved working here at TCH.  Upper level Administration doesn't really get involved with the working staff and we never saw them except for some were present at Town Hall meetings. In fact,  I only knew a few of them, most I never saw or ever met. They were very impersonal and distant.  :-)
Our manager was very hands on,  somewhat of a micro manager, and she was good and fair to us all. 
Working with other departments and units was really nice,  everyone comes together as 1 team and it was nice to work with them.  Most doctors in the OR are nice,  a few Orthos had bad reputations for being rude, pushy, and vulgar, but they eventually left and the 1 or 2 remaining ones were tolerable most of the time.  Other than that,  everyone was nice to workv with. 



Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 25 salaries reported	$45.76 per hour
Health screener 20 salaries reported	$35.20 per hour
Food runner 69 salaries reported	$37.35 per hour
Patient transporter 27 salaries reported	$28.13 per hour
Temperature screener 33 salaries reported	$32.27 per hour

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