registered nurse

patient assistant

health screener

licensed practical nurse

respiratory therapist

UF Health

UF Health Physicians is a great organization. I have experience both sides, as a patient and employee. I received the best care but as far as the workplace environment and getting the training I needed to do the job efficiently was sub-par.  Outside of work related duties and issues, my co-workers were fun and always willing to help. My supervisor was very understanding, flexible, encouraging, and compassionate about his employees and patients. 
I love helping people, it is my passion, and in this position I consistently had that feeling of satisfaction because that was my soul focus: to help others to the best of my ability. And that was the most enjoyable part of the job. The position taught me a plethora of new skills and allowed me to hone the skill set that I already had. It was a great place to start out within the organization because I had an endless amount of possibilities for advancement. 
The hardest part of my job was having to constantly ask my co-workers for help because I did not receive the training that I needed to properly do my job with little to no help. I am appreciative to my former co-workers for all of their help, they were very supportive, and recognized that I was struggling as a result of my training that not only affected me but those who were in the same group or just after my group of "new hires." It was also difficult to ask for proper training because the answer I received was that I did receive proper training and the dissatisfaction of my co-workers made it a difficult environment to work in. I was able to adapt and make things positive however, I would be lying if I said that it was easy. 
I am very grateful to UF Health Physicians for giving me the opportunity to work for them. I learned a lot about healthcare, insurance, how to be more efficient when submitting reports, how to work a multi-line telephone system, etc. It was a great opportunity and if my husband did not obtain his current job position that required us to relocate, then I would have stayed with UF Health Physicians.

I was able to work with a multidisciplinary team taking care of critically ill patients. When I worked on the Cardiology floor, I was able to learn about heart transplants, LVADs, advanced heart failure management and so much more. In the Emergency Department, I was able to take care of a wide variety of patient conditions. It included everything from minor care to advanced emergency/trauma care. The physicians and other health care providers treated me as a valuable part of the team. 

With each unit, and the hospital as a whole, management of all levels was excellent. My nurse manager on many occasions went to bat for the staff nurses to make sure we got what we needed or to improve our work environment. They listened to the employees and showed that they cared about us as people and our work life. 

The hardest part of the job was initially learning all of the information that was needed to perform my job. They have a great training program for new employees to help them learn and fully understand the informations. They set us up for success at every level. I enjoyed the fast pace and critical thinking that was required. I enjoyed getting to know the patients and helping them and their family through difficult situations and decisions. 

My co-workers worked well together and we supported each other on a daily basis. It was not unusual for an employee to come in on their day off to help if we were short staffed. We all had the same goal; excellent patient care. There was one instance where we were short some nurses due to illnesses. My nurse manager and our unit educator worked the floor to make sure that the staff nurses were not overwhelmed. They showed that they cared about the staff and the patients.

The most enjoyable part of my experience with UF was my coworkers. I felt most of the managers were ineffective in different ways. Some were just number crunchers and didn't look at the big picture in so far as staffing. Some were apathetic and seemed that their position had beat the tar out of them and they no longer had the ability to function effectively, but due to the lack of mobility in this college town environment, they just stayed put. Others were micromanagers and made work even more stressful because they commented on every single aspect of our performance on a daily basis, and it usually wasn't good enough. Most of my coworkers were okay with their job, but really just seemed like they didn't expect much or know any difference because this is a small college town environment. Unless you experience a different culture, you have no idea what's out there and have nothing to compare to. I did not learn anything new professionally at all working for this company. There was nothing they could teach me that I was not already exposed to coming from a big city. I have been in my profession for over 30 years and moved from a big city with much more job diversity and opportunity. I was bored most of the time which led to frustration and dissatisfaction. This is a good place to work for the people that live there and in the smaller more rural areas that surround Gainesville. If you are moving from a big city and you're a nurse don't expect much. The pay was also much lower than what I was accustomed to. It wasn't horrible, but I am glad I don't work there or live in Gainesville any longer.

I’ve worked as a patient support technician at the PCICU and have worked  many times on most of the units at Shands through CSO. Overall, staff is great and you have the opportunity to learn a lot and gain exposure to many things in the medical field. Also, I have sat many times with baker act and patients on behavioral watch which has been an experience in and of itself. 

Of course, work can be stressful at times and some units are run better than others. Some units have you work the desk for the most part, others have you help out on the floors w/ patients more. The PCICU offers a good balance of both and the management and staff are a pleasure to work with. You wear a lot of different hats depending on the need and circumstance at hand: desk work (managing unit phone/nurse’s call system, breaking down/making charts, overseeing visitation, managing equipment orders), floor work (holding/calming babies, mobility, restocking,  feeding patients, acting as the runner during emergencies, transporting patients to OR/CT/flouro, dropping off blood and meds, turning over rooms, assisting with minor procedures and cleaning/pt. care), patient and family emotional support, general nursing/unit support, contacting and working w/ EVS, CDC, EDC, milk room, dietary, etc., and the list goes on. The job takes a great level of responsibility, compassion, and adaptability. Overall, thankful for the experience.

From the moment I arrive I will have a camera following every move. I have only  two minutes pass the hour for tardiness allowance.  If I punch two minutes late in two occasions the writing up process starts.  The favoritism is flagrant of who gets treated with what degree of respect and gets requests or promotions  approved. Leadership  are extremely rude. Extremely high turn over by terminations or resignations.
Workers are all hardworking, nice people.
The work is hot, heavy and dirty sometimes. Co- workers get along most of the time,  but I will be chastised for talking, what they consider too frequent breaks, deny breaks, give warnings for answering phone calls or be holding the personal cell phone. 
Schedule gets posted long time in advance and I won't get time off if I feel unwell or something comes up even if I find coverage.
My job is to clean and sterilize instruments for surgery. Requires physical strength to lift trays and stand for long periods. Deals with toxic fumes and loud noises.  I learned a new trade. The positive aspects are to know we are helping patients and we belong to a very nice diverse group of people.
I am sad to have to look for another job because management makes the workload super heavy and honestly, many other issues I cannot discuss here.. Toxic, toxic. Unhealthy for the mind.


I worked in the pharmacy department. I applied for this position coming from a large academic medical center thinking that this position would be comparable to previous positions. This position was sold to me as a clinical pharmacist position but it is nothing more than a staff pharmacist position that does nothing more than verify orders. During my interview I was told that managers picked up shifts to help with staff coverage during COVID and that the position would be mostly clinical. Not knowing that management was required to full open shifts and this was not voluntary as I was mislead into believing. The pharmacy is always short staffed and someone has quit every month that I have worked here. This position was also sold as being more clinical, but the only "clinical" things that are done is vancomycin and warfarin review. There is often not enough time to take breaks throughout the day, leaving everyone irritable and hungry. Other departments have very little respect for the department and often call and message frequently to tell pharmacy how to do their job. Management does not seem to know anything about the problems going on, even though most of them have worked in this department for the majority of their career, so at this point it is willful ignorance. Do not apply to these positions if you care about work-life balance, career growth and development, or job satisfaction. 

The unit I worked on as a PCA (hospital CNA) was full of wonderful, cooperative people that always had your back.  I had no issues with management and found them to be supportive of my career goals, although human resources let me down a couple of times.  The negatives of a job here is that the sheer amount of work you do taking care of about 10-12 patients a day is really too much in my opinion, although usually not overwhelming.  However, the staffing situation and workload is still leagues better than working in a nursing home.  Another issue that is not specific to Shands is that I think CNAs/PCAs are not compensated well in relation to the effort they put in and the importance of their work.  As an employee here you also have to pay for parking, which just makes the compensation even worse.  Despite this job being pretty grueling and paying a low wage, working at Shands is so much better than working in pretty much any nursing home.  You have plenty of resources and employees actually want to help each other out.  Overall, a good place to work.

A typical day at Shand's was face paced. Patients would be coming and going, the floor would go from barely any patients to slam full in hours. Everyone worked as a team and communicated effectively , we all talked and worked through our problems together, management tried to create a sence of family and loyality on our floor. The hardest part was when we were understaffed and a flood of patients would come in, especially if there was only one PCA on the floor working with 4 RN's. The most enjoyable part of working with Shand's was the patients we were caring for. I enjoyed going into my patients room first thing in the morning and greeting them with a smile and telling them good morning and asking how their night was; I truly enjoyed making my patients feel like they were at home and always helped them laugh because I honestly believe that laughter is the best medicine. I learned alot from Shand's, the units I worked on and I learned alot from my coworkers and management team. They have really found a way to work together to get patient care accomplished with minimal conflicts and that is something that is hard to accomplish.

Typical Work Day:
~Receive report on 4 - 6 patients. Disperse medications, physically assess patients and document all actions and interactions. Do this while being interrupted frequently from the phone in your pocket. Phone calls relate to patient needs, different department needs, and family and physician or other services communications.

~I learned to be more efficient at organizing tasks and more efficient and proficient at delivering patient care. Became more efficient locating information and documenting on EPIC medical record system. Gained more ease in communication with patients, family, physicians and other interdisciplinary team members.

~Management aided me to become a better nurse.

~Co-workers usually friendly, helpful and professional.

~Hardest part of my job was getting all work done in a timely manor.

~The most enjoyable part was interacting with healthcare team, patients and family.

Pros:  
Shands Gainesville has been one of the best places I’ve worked.  They protect their ratios.  Never tripled in the ICU.  Equipment is 1:1 unless staffing is dire.  Organized.  Well supplied.  Fair managers.  Epic.  Alaris pumps.  Much better patient safety since it’s a teaching hospital.  Extenders and all the medical hierarchy are all on top of what is happening with the patient.  High expectations for patient care.   Classes for training on equipment.  My unit had a great family culture.  If you need specialty care, Shands is a place I would send my family.  

Cons:  
ER wait times really drag down reviews.  I wish they could fix the ER throughput because it’s been a problem for a long time.  They aren’t even responding to online patient reviews, which is a problem.  

Nursing pay is just not competitive.  Pool and contract nurses should be making at least $50/hour.  Shands needs to have its own internal staffing agency for local 13 week nursing assignments.  Core staff need a raise that corresponds with inflation.  

Day shift has to pay for parking and take a shuttle.  

Tried to cut corners with staffing in the last few years.  All ICUs need a resource nurse!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 7 salaries reported	$38.29 per hour
Patient assistant 3 salaries reported	$17.00 per hour
Health screener 20 salaries reported	$32.00 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 1 salary reported	$21.05 per hour
Respiratory therapist 1 salary reported	$32.54 per hour

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