registered nurse

senior medical assistant

licensed practical nurse

nursing assistant

medical assistant

The University of Iowa

Students who work for UIHC are required to work a minimum of 12 hours/week, but only a maximum of 20 hours/week to instill in students that their studies at the University come first and to ensure that students have enough free time to cater to their coursework.
IWhile working for UIHC in the summer months, there is no minimum, and students can work up to 40 hours/week. 

A typical day at work for me varied depending on whether I was at the campus building of patient financial services (PSF) or in the hospital's department. Over the summer, I worked at the hospital - but when classes started I moved back to the campus building.

At the hospital, I dealt with all incoming/outgoing mail to the PFS unit, was in charge of making the unit's weekly order for supplies, and prepared DOSA (day of surgery admittance) and ASC (ambulatory surgery center) paperwork for all surgeries in those units the following day. Upon finishing these tasks, I would do various tasks for my supervisor (i.e. maintaining weekly logs of how many hours employees were spending in hospital towers, organizing all payment documentation for patients of state institutes like prisons/mental health centers, etc.), QA and scan Medicare documents, scan authorization documents, etc.

At the main campus building, I spent a lot of time preparing electronic fund transfers of patient bills to be further processed. I also had the daily task of being responsible for adding the appropriate bill area and coding modifier into all progress/consult notes written by doctors in the vast Department of Internal Medicine.

I worked with Epic healthcare systems software every day. 

At the hospital, I was surrounded by all full-time staff (people aged 25-72), and at the campus building I worked around full-time staff, but was seated next to fellow students from the University. The students are supervised by Student Supervisors and also 1-2 full-time staff members that work in the department of the student's daily task.

I really enjoyed working closely with medical records and hospital scenarios, and even just working inside of the hospital - with UIHC being such a large and sophisticated medical building. 

The most difficult part of my job was sometimes not having close interaction with other people, since a lot of the time fellow coworkers would work with their headphones on at their computers. It was also hard sometimes if there was not enough work for me to do during my shift, since I prefer to stay busy. 

This job taught me a lot about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into healthcare and how complex the process of billing is for both patients and insurance companies alike.

University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics is a world class academic medical center in the midwest, serving the entire state of Iowa and midwest region. It is a place focused on research, teaching, and the clinical practice of medicine. The Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation has allowed me to grow with tremendous autonomy and respect for my contributions, while supporting my professional development. I work in a very challenging and highly remunerative sector of healthcare, and am responsible for all aspects of the Orthopedic Workers' Compensation clinic operations, financial management and budgeting, human resources responsibilities, marketing, physician outreach, and clinical research duties, in addition to leadership teams throughout the Ortho Department as well as UIHC. My typical workday includes such varied activities as operational management in the clinic with regular patient interaction, drafting of complex medical-legal opinions, developing and monitoring budgets and fee schedules, monitoring and analyzing financial performance, regular reporting to senior leadership, managing staff in 2 separate clinic locations 110 miles apart, continuing to work with senior hospital administration on strategic development, marketing, meeting with non-UIHC attorneys, insurers, employers, and physicians.  I work in a highly scrutinized and regulated public healthcare system, ultimately responsible to the Board of Regents, state legislature, and people of the State of Iowa. This environment can be careful and slow moving, and can pose challenges that result in a sometimes frustrating bureaucracy. This is, at times, the most challenging part of my job. My staff and co-workers are excellent, hard-working, and reliable people. I am proud to have only lost 1 staff member in over 5 years of operations (and she left us to return to school full-time) and greatly respect the people who work for me. My job is always interesting and each day is different, which I love, and I have had the opportunity to develop a specialty clinic with near complete autonomy, which I have also valued and has taught me a great deal about healthcare management and business development.

If you simply need a job to pay the bills..you're somewhat in the right place. (For what you're required to do daily...you should be getting paid a LOT more. Don't let them lowball you if you're offered a job.) If you're looking for a career or potential for advancement; you need to run in the opposite direction. If you have any level of self respect, you should continue looking elsewhere.

Management will treat and speak to you as an expendable cog in the machine. Your insight(s) while on the job will be ignored and certainly not respected. Anything that does not go according to management's plan will find a way to be your fault.

Your co-workers will be pre-dominantly students, temps and part time employees due to management's inability to address the high turnover rate of the staff. Burnout, malaise & frustration is real here. It permeates all facades of the facility and will manifest everywhere...making your responsibilities ten times more difficult.

You will be expected to answer and respond to an unending barrage of vague phone calls from nurses in the various operating rooms who need supplies & instruments yesterday but will not tell you the required details to procure and fulfill the request. Supplies are split between the operating room floor, the lower level and two offsite facilities. It will be your responsibility to retrieve what's asked of you regardless of how long it will take, if its sterile, if its even in stock or even if the item has been discontinued. You will receive little to no training and knowledge gained on the job is purely from failing while on the clock.

I've used this job as my own personal crucible and have learned a lot about myself and how much I can personally take emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. It says a fair amount that not one person is happy here. Granted this is a hospital operating during a global pandemic...but at least an employee should find value, satisfaction and perhaps recognition in their work. You will find none of these here.

You can do better and deserve better than this.

Tons of overtime available! This is because the Behavioral Health Services department is very understaffed to the point that it can be dangerous for the few staff that are working. Staff (including myself) would often get assaulted by patients on the psychiatric units and the higher-ups in the department would brush it under the rug, telling us to "stop wasting incident reports" or complain about seclusion and restraint numbers. Many of these problems could have been solved or prevented if the units had been staffed adequately. Usually whenever we actually had enough staff someone got floated to sit with a 1:1 patient on a medical unit. The staffing department, who are not medically trained and know nothing about the acuity of the unit would often tell us to "take patients off of a 1:1" instead of finding floats for us or calling management in. This culture creates a lot of resentment in the employees, understandably, and so the workplace environment was toxic most of the time I worked there. Management, though they may have the unit's best interest at heart, often has their hands tied because of the higher-ups that rarely do more than a 10-minute walk-through of the unit once a month, clutching their pearls if a patient flinches or looks at them funny. These higher-ups in the Psychiatry department make decisions that impact the safety of the units without knowing what is actually going on in said units.

The benefits are great, and it's so rewarding to watch the patients improve and find placement, but the pay is not nearly enough for the risk, and people that never want to even step foot on the unit make decisions that impact your day-to-day without any concern for your safety. I gain a lot of experience working with psych patients, left with some fun memories, and made some amazing lifelong friends while working at UIHC, and without them, I wouldn't have made it there as long as I did.

Responsible for analysis of Red Alarms and to call nurses and doctors about important details and Rhythm changes on the ECG tracings as well as to answer questions related with the mentioned ECG’s. Activate Rapid Response Units when necessary. Keep all patients on line for constant monitoring and admit or discharge patients when indicated. Keep track of telemeters (Tele Packs) in use as well as  maintain and test them before reuse.

I learned to be multitasking and precise in my observations and interpretations, The work load stimulated me to deep more into the Electrophysiology and that way be able to have a more profound and fast  understanding of all the events happening in the heart of the patient.

Management, in my environment came as a consequence of multitasking with dynamic priories depending on the relative level of importance of a particular demand and the particular frame of circumstances at this particular moment.

About my co-workers,in general well behaved and perceptive of suggestions that might translate in a better management and therefore better results.

The hardest part of the job is to cope with the loud music which is not of my taste, however I managed with ear plugs that attenuate the music and casual conversations allowing me to listen very clearly all the alarms in my station, At that time would come the best and most enjoyable part of my job by being precise, fast and accurate in converting all and each of the ECG tracings into the most clear and useful description that would help the nurses and doctors to make the proper decisions in benefit of the patients, I really love that part!

I currently work as a Facility Supervisor at the newest recreation building on campus, which is also the busiest building on campus. On a typical day at work, I walk around the building to ensure that everything is running smoothly, check that patrons are following our rules and practicing safe techniques, and check-in with facility attendants and membership services to see that they are getting their jobs done and ask if they need any assistance. I have learned excellent management skills during my role as Facility Supervisor, including enforcing the rules to the patrons which are laid out by Recreational Services and managing five or more other staff members. The professional staff members in this department are very friendly and easy to talk to when I have a question or concern. My immediate superior is always available by cell phone or email, no matter what time it is, which has been extremely helpful when I am not sure of how to handle a situation at the building. The hardest part of the job is trying to accommodate patrons who are not familiar with or do not agree with our rules and policies. It is sometimes a challenge to explain the rules and why they are implemented; but it is rewarding when a patron understands where I am coming from and work with me to create a solution that everyone is content with. The most enjoyable part of working for Recreational Services is creating and maintaining work relationships with fellow supervisors and other staff members that are not only relevant in the work place, but also outside of work. Overall, the past two years that I have spent working for the Recreational Services department has been extremely rewarding and allowed me to apply the management skills I have learned in my business classes.

BEWARE of working here in any research position. The human resources department at the University does not manage people as resources or help people with advancement in their careers.

They restructured their job classifications and now have outrageously overspecific experience requirements as well as degree requirements for positions. It used to be simple to move between jobs at the University, but now it is impossible. Once employed there, you are tracked into one job and have no opportunity to cross train (regardless of what they claim on the website, they have no cross training for research employees).

The HR department's job classifications also overlap in function so much so that there are no more jobs for people who have 20 years of experience but no PhD. After 20 years of working here, I was classified into a dead end position and told I cannot move upwards without a PhD. The position directly above mine is the exact same job description and the exact same pay scale as the position I hold. The "higher" job position description only differs from mine with the inclusion of the statement "mentors graduate students". I teach and advise graduate students, but because I do not have a PhD (but 20 years of experience), I cannot apply for these jobs. I was told "experience does not subsitute for the degree". Because of this job function overlap, there are only jobs advertised above mine or below mine.

I was told quite literally "it's too bad that now you can't advance in your career; you should change job families". I can't change job families because almost every single job requires specific experience (at least 1-3 years for most jobs). Nor do I wish to start over after 20 years of service. Here's some advice: join a company that manages their humans as resources and not as disposables.

The mgt at the ui is very poor. They make people mgrs that should never be in mgt to begin with! The work environment is very hostile.  They foster favoritism, nepotism and scrutinize everything employees say and do. The mgt investigates staff for frivolous issues.  It also nourishes a "do as I say not as I do"  attitude.  I was a 15 year plus employee so I seen a lot. Staff that had back or other issues were intentionally assigned tasks that would aggravate their conditions. The benefits are good but wages need to increase for the amount of work expected. Getting promoted is a whole another matter as well. If you didn't  buddy up to mgt or do their bidding, you don't get promoted.  Even you were more qualified,  you would be passed over for a promotion.  The job would go to someone that is either related to someone in mgt by blood or the person was a "yes man".  Also workloads were very disproportionate among staff. Mgt denied this, but it was clear to see what was going on. Some staff was allowed to stand around and watch other people work,or they would hang out in the mgrs office most of the time. The Hr team is pretty much useless and stand by mgt . They are not on the side of employees.  I had to file numerous grievances  to make points such as safety issues and best practice issues. I had to fight just to get the proper respirators and  new safety boots. The ui overall  treats staff like a number. It was stated to me that people are waiting in line for these jobs.

This place is as-is. Many are on salary so improvements in patient care, metrics, administrative operations, and modernization are painful. Rumor is that compensation is good, but 30% (minimum option) of my gross income to benefits is a bit steep. Sure, I was reimbursed with the HSA, but a few things asked for more info, or were declined because of some detailed rule, and if I forgot to submit any- my loss. As-is also means that communication, development, and concerns are swept under a rug or lost in the chaos that is administration. Sure, there was a lot to be grateful for while working here, and it would have been fairly easy to walk in, zone-out, and pay my bills but assembly-line culture in healthcare just doesn't sit right with me. Many here have managed to cope with the circus act, but neglecting a patient's health by not utilizing your full knowledge and resources and/or harming a patient's chances at good health with your pride and bias- no thanks. Dental team: prophy-catch-all b/c it's easiest and fastest, "everything's good" quick and dirty exams, lack of consults/treatment, serious burnout or cashed out.

My current job as a Student Systems Administrator at the University of Iowa has not only allowed me to experience the corporate world for the first time. The first few months on the job i was strictly working within our department to create/reset passwords and accounts to our users. This work has given me great experience communicating with our customers to resolve their technical problems. In the later months of my job i started working less with the active directory and more with application development. Application development has broadened my knowledge of the technology world by giving me experience working within a team to complete a project within a given deadline. Languages that i have been exposed to in this process include HTML, CSS, PHP, and SQL (PG Admin). 
Over the last year and half my co-workers have been extremely supportive with my initial lack of real work experience allowing me to learn and grow as not only a student but a professional as well. 
The hardest part of my job was learning how the office systems ran. What i mean by that is getting used to unfamiliar software such as PG Admin, Eclipse and git. 
The most enjoyable part of my job was know that what i was programming was going to help make a difference in a research study which could help strengthen our medial community here at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 83 salaries reported	$60,133 per year
Senior medical assistant 13 salaries reported	$24.38 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 21 salaries reported	$53,517 per year
Nursing assistant 13 salaries reported	$16.29 per hour
Medical assistant 9 salaries reported	$25.03 per hour

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