nursing assistant

licensed practical nurse

registered nurse

nurse's aide

dietary aide

The Peplinski Group

I had to stop and debate whether or not to do this review. Yes, I quit months ago. Sure, I've since got the last paycheck from them. And okay, I realize that possibly driving away potential applicants from this place might hurt this struggling place.

But all of which has been taken to moot with these two facts-
1.) People are still applying, despite bad reviews
2.) This place is still pretty bad.

So, without further ado-

Do you consider dignity being only a thing for public lavatory cleaners? Is your ideal work day breaking your neck in doing the work of three people in half the time it takes your to do one? Do you like a corporate aid giving your department suggestions that you can't possibly follow through with, due to said aid never actually working in your department. (But that's okay, because said aid has "seen the inside of hundreds of kitchens.")

Then yes, apply here.

If you're sane like the rest of us, don't.

Back when this place was Jordan's, it wasn't paradise. But after these people took over, Jordan's SEEMS like paradise. At least back then, we were treated like people instead of cattle. At least we were hardly ever talked down to. And for all that is good and holy, at least our bosses knew their stuff and the staff cared.

But no, come the Peplinski regime, most of those people either quit or were sacked. What's more, the hard-working/nice people that remain here (yes, they were a thing at this place by the time I left) are often exploited or forced to pick up the slack for people who refuse to do their share. If you're a newbie, you get a million things thrown at you (hence why many people quit within a month or so of signing on); and no, new supervisors aren't even safe from this. And I could get into the particularly-sharky nature of the corporate overlords that visited our humble circle of *ahem*, but I think I'll let connotations of the phrase itself do the talking.

And if the grapevine is to be trusted, this place is still the Department of Labor investigation waiting to happen I remember it as. Unless this place gets a make-over or a miracle, I wouldn't recommend working here.

Scratch that. If every single place in the world rejected you, THEN apply here.

I worked two years here, I put in my two weeks notice with no kind of acknowledgement from any department I turned my letter into, my last day they called me after I left from my shift and asked if I would work again that day. I am just another body waiting to be replaced. They have a new administrator, once again, who just looks lost. A bunch of other new management, which seems to be a pattern here. If you call them, DO NOT expect a call back, they don't do that, it's extremely frustrating. New administration doesn't care about the staffing at all, he has even said to me "they will just be S.O.L", they leave on time, not calling anyone to pick up, leaving 1 aide for the whole building for the night. Aides have to call fellow aides to beg them to come in. They're so understaffed, worse I have ever seen from any other place I have worked. No kind of fair division either, the new person will definitely end up with the most difficult group of residents, and have to figure it out themselves because no one wants to deal with that group.
There is no rhyme or reason to anything around here. They make rules that are just hearsay, then don't even enforce the rule. We had so many new rules with covid, and hardly any of it was followed. The PPE was extremely scarce. We would wear the same mask for days because they rarely provided you with new ones.
There is only 1 housekeeper, who complains about how gross the place is, even though it is literally her job to clean the place. It definitely shows, this place is a nasty, hot mess. The building is super old and has not been kept up. There are multiple trash cans throughout the hallways for the leaking roof they will never fix. It's always SO hot, only window air conditioners, which residents rarely have on, and in the winter the heat is BLARING, it is so dry. 
I finally decided it was time for a new job when I couldn't sleep at night, and would stay up crying the night before going back the next day. The people I worked with who have been there a long time have big hearts and lots of patience, I have made some great friends here. The aides really are a strong team in the end and keep this place and residents, afloat.

No respect for one another in management, it’s no wonder the CNAs and other staff members cannot work together as a team. They do not listen to you if you are a newer employee, or if you are not from the nursing staff. Change is not welcome. An example is that even if you are instructed to conduct such change by administration, if your staff fights back, the administration will make sure you are the one to get into trouble. However, if you had not done what was told, you would be in trouble anyways. Young managers are not trusted, they made this very clear. You get very little for PTO. Work life balance sucks. Lack of communication will wreck your time management if you don’t know who to ask the right questions. Once the question is asked to the right person you will probably be made to feel like it was dumb to ask.  Otherwise kitchen staff is great. Few odd eggs, but that’s just some TLC. For an example of lack of respect throughout facility the administration will not care to get to know the kitchen staff, doesn’t even know half of their names currently.  When you try to fire someone the administration will stop the process, and make staff blame you for poor work environment with those employees still there.   So if you like being micro managed to the point where you can’t be your own manager, you might like this job. 
Administration will gaslight employees.  
Personal example to provide an idea of this work culture: They allowed a nurse supervisor (LPN) to toilet paper my car over night with freezing rain without much repercussion. Any other employee would have been terminated for vandalism on private property, use of facility material, and they did this on company time.... she still works there. 
Finally, at Ely,  remember you are always wrong, and you have to always prove why/how you are correct. If you like this type of environment, this job is for you. If not, don’t bother. 
They were “surprised” when I gave my two weeks. 
One bright note, it gave me all the reason to start a new path in life. So I can thank them for that.

West Woods used to be a caring compassionate family owned business (Jordan's Life Care Center). The parent company of West Woods purchased the facility in the beginning of the year and it became West Woods of Bridgman on April 1st 2014. 

It is understandable there will be "growing pains" as people acclimate to new ownership. However these pains are ACUTE, ongoing and/or getting worse.  When certain management from the home office comes to visit you know somebody will get fired. The management is ALL "stick and no carrot". It astounds me there are still business run in 2014 with such a pre-historic management style.

Working short is the norm. Would you like it to be mandatory you MUST come in half a shift early or MUST stay half a shift late? If you must pick the kids up from the sitter and you are "red dotted" you are screwed! If somebody calls in you MUST stay over. And if you don't you are in trouble more than the person who called in.

How would you like to take care of 20+ residents all by yourself? If people call off and nobody stays it might just happen to you. And is this quality patient care? A resident sitting in their own mess for over an hour simply because you are too short staffed to clean them. Bad for the resident and if you are truly a caring person STRESSFUL for you.

If you are a nurse and another nurse calls off the facility will run with three nurses (rather than four) so they don't have to pay overtime. How would you like to pass meds (on time) to residents off of your floor all the while being ultimately responsible for the health and safety of people you can not see or have access to their call light? It is your professional license on the line!

West Woods would be a great place to work if your only other option was prison time.

The DON was absolutely horrible to work for. She was nasty, short tempered, threw temper tantrums in front of staff and residents alike. If you had an issue, there was no going to her for help. Disgusting behavior. Reported to state. Admin did little to reassure/handle the behavior. 

They would census people for the following day, then force people to stay over when everyone didn’t show up. Instead of calling the people they censused, they didn’t care how many times you had to stay. Or if you had children or another job to get to. 

When Covid first hit, they were firing people for wearing masks. Saved the little PPE they did have for management to use while testing staff and residents, not for the cnas that were working 16 hour shifts in residents personal space. We were expected to use the same goggles as others, you can’t sanitize the elastic bands well enough. We were made to use cloth hospital gowns, with short Sleeves, and told to wash up in the residents rooms (up to our armpits). That wasn't just for residents under precautions for Covid, but for everything. 

Over all, the pay was nice (probably to make up for their ridiculous policies) and some of the people you worked with were nice. The residents were absolute gems, it’s just a shame they had to have overworked and under appreciated CNAs/nurses taking care of them. Went into healthcare to make a difference, and sadly working there made it feel impossible. 

When I first started working at grand oaks it was a hard place to get in to work staff stayed. Now people come and leave no one happy. We all feel bullied from management by rules changing at least 20 times a day. Wondering how we don’t know the rules.. They make it hard now to get or use your pto as are managers not doing there jobs by updating care plans or changing are plan of care charting to match the book so some people not getting there showers. Aides and nurses forgetting to check pts oxygen it’s a mess right now I don’t want to leave been there for over 6 years but I’m not happy there at all I feel way over worked and under appreciated for a while now. We have to work a 16 to get free food or they rather throw it away then give to us .It’s time for me to see what else is out there as a cna cause I love what I do. I pray this all is confidential cause I still work here and still want to stay at least prn to check on my pts if I find a different place to hopefully retire at

This place NEEDS MORE diversity. I was hired in as a brand new nurse and the hr rep insisted (very rudely) on providing me with only five days of training. She literally told me "this is how we do it here". I brought up my concerns with the DON she was dismissive and loosely mentioned if I felt the needed for more training after the five days then I could get more. However, she let me know they were going to initially start me with five days. one of the nurses did inform me that when she first started working here that she trained for a MONTH....they never mentioned the five-day training to her and the reason why they were doing it to me is because they are short staffed. midnight nurses have 40 patients a piece. on a good day, you'll work along the side of two other nurses...but that is rare because it's always short staffed. expect to be mandated. I was very uncomfortable in my work environment.  a blackface incident occurred on Martin Luther King day. they held a party for the residents and a handful of the residents were photographed with dark colored clay on their faces. I was the only African American nurse at the time so everyone felt the need to report that incident to me. I reported it to administration and received a very relaxed apology. that ultimately is the reason why I left the company. not how I wanted to start out my nursing career.

I have to say Westwood's of Niles, is a great place to work. I got along well with my co-workers and management. If ever you had a problem management was more then helpful and willing to help you. I would say the most enjoyable part of my job was getting to know the residents and their life story's. Even though your not supposed to, you tend to get closer to some than others. Although, I can honestly say, every resident I helped take care of , has truly touched my heart in one way or another. I don't know why, but for some reason the residents that are ornery to every one else, seem to be the ones that liked the me most. :) I feel most of them put on a hard exterior, but really just wanted a friend. I set out to try to be a friend and listing ear to each and every one of my residents in my care. I would say the hardest part of my job, was watching your residents slowly decline and then coming to work one day only to hear they have passed away. I take pride in knowing that , I was a part of there last years or days, knowing I truly was connected with them and tried to be the highlight of their day and knowing in most cases, I was. I learned a lot about life, love, family and relationships from my residents. In turn made me realize to be thankful for your loved ones, not to sweat the small stuff and enjoy life.

Worked here for almost 3 years. Money is not everything friends... It’s all about who you know here. I found myself consistently frustrated for help and understanding here. Most nurses were too buddy- buddy with aides to actually make the aides do their jobs, and that’s assuming the nurses even did their job. They’re were a few good apples there when I left, not many! I bent over backwards to help out management coming in early, staying over and picking up, I got sick on my weekend and was punished by having to work the next weekend on third shift (I was first shift), given points and PTO taken. Management talks down to you and if you’re anything but a nurse, your word doesn’t mean a thing. I was accused of something I did not do by a nurse on a power trip and I was told by HR that I should be crying and begging for my job... insane amount of hostility and negativity in this home! From what I saw residents got minimal amount of care on 3rd shift and getting help on any other shift is few and far between unless you’re a cool kid! After covid hit place really showed it’s true colors and as a single parent they left me no choice but to lose my job. 

Very sad place to work. I was a RN on midnights and I’d come in every night to complete chaos. Workers not showing up so I’d have to call people to come into work. Treatments not getting done during the daytime so I’d be responsible for picking up the slack. 2 nurses for a 101 bed facility every night. Administrator/DON promised to have 3 nurse every night but it was very seldom. Was responsible to get 6 skin assessments done on top of day shift wanting all of the “upon rising” meds to be passed. Lots of falls. Extremely violent and physically aggressive residents where CNAs would need 4 people just to change someone’s brief. Multiple tube feeds, admissions all the time, pay isn’t that great, they always blow up your phone to pick up extra shifts, no shift premium, pay isn’t based off experience so you could be a nurse with 25 years of experience and they have you at a starting rate, there is absolutely no accountability for the attendance policy and I literally have seen people call off dozens of times and they still have a job, raise issues with the care managers and they just brush it off. If you work here just be ready to work like a dog. The administrator was put into this facility to make it more profitable and it’s going downhill everyday.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Nursing assistant 86 salaries reported	$23.58 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 107 salaries reported	$41.14 per hour
Registered nurse 49 salaries reported	$44.42 per hour
Nurse's aide 14 salaries reported	$20.89 per hour
Dietary aide 24 salaries reported	$16.76 per hour

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