registered nurse

student nurse

senior clinical nurse

social worker

physician

University of Maryland Medical Center

My work days are full of excitement. First thing I am responsible for when the shift starts is to make sure all the first surgery cases have been prepped for and all case carts have been sent to the OR rooms. Once that has been done the next thing is to call the floors and get the patients ready for transport to the OR suite. On a typical day once all the preparations have been done, I spend my time posting cases for the wait list and the following day, performing other unit clerk duties and making sure to transfer all patients to there proper units through out the hospital. 

I have learned how to use FirstNet, SurgiNet, FormFast and Starpat software which are all required to perform the clerk duties in the O.R. each software serves a multitude of purposes to properly post and track patients surgeries and locations while admitted into the hospital. Learning the surgeons names and area of expertise was also something learned for the successful execution of the Specialist duties.

My management team is very effective despite the times when I felt they could have been more attentive to issues that were hindering my work performance i.e missing materials, disrespectful co-workers creating a hostile work environment and management turning a blind eye to it, and the occasional under staffed issue. I have always remained 100% behind management and what they ask for because I am a team player and I will always do my part, I just would hope that in future career moves that the management team is more organized and attentive to staff issues.

The hardest part of the job would be dealing with the many different needs that come all at once. Each surgeon has special needs as far as when they want their patients sent for, paper work, surgical team, etc. and they all tend to make their demands at the same time and expect you to make magic happen. Well I am no a magician, but I do the best I can to meet their request while keeping me head cool. Handling coded cases can also be hard but more so when you have code cases and no where to perform them in the time that it must be done in. The more I am met with issues, the more experienced and stronger I become with the work and how to handle the people I work with.

It seems like a hard job to do, but I thoroughly enjoy my work. I enjoy the surgical knowledge I gain with each case I am presented with. I enjoy the pleasant co-workers that are always positive and helpful to ensure success for the team. Lastly, I enjoy the work because its fast paced and keeps me tested on everything I was taught since day one. Nothing is ever really repetitive for the most part.

Pros:
- Partially remote
- Supportive coworkers (just not management)

Cons:
-No moving up the ladder
-Not competitive wages/no notable raises
-Poor Management
-Rushed Training
-No overtime but expected to work overtime
-High turnover
-Management doesn't own up to mistakes

Their training program is very rushed and you can expect to be assigned projects with outdated process files that are incorrect and/or your coworkers have never done before and cannot assist you. Management expects you to do it right regardless and shows little patience in working through it. Training was supposed to be over six months but within the first 1-2 months they expect you to know all the processes. 

In the interview they talked about how you will work to streamline processes and work on projects in groups but in actuality you will not do any of this. They also mentioned that you can "flex" hours and work overtime during the week so that you can take Fridays off/leave early but they only let people who have been there for more than a year do this and even then its usually not allowed. 

You are expected to work way past normal business hours, do not offer overtime or for you to use those extra hours to take off early. It is common for managers to assign something at the end of the day that you have to finish before you leave. Managers are also very slow to approve projects for import/export to the system, so expect to redo time sensitive reports that are based on pricing since they can change prices daily-weekly. Management expects you to be a mind reader for what they want for reports and if you ask for clarification they get upset. Occasionally you get outdated example documents for reference. They encourage you to ask questions but if you do ask, they become offended and condescending. 

Teams have high turnover, and for the few employees that have been there for more than one year (even those that have been there for 2-3) do not get promotions or title changes and only receive minimal raises at best.

Minimal workplace culture. Your coworkers are more supportive than the managers. They do a lot of the training and assistance and can be a great resource. Management has an event planning committee but is not company sponsored so expect to pay out of pocket for every event you go to. Nobody shows up because of this.

What is the best part of working at the company?
At the present time I am not working at Ummc. However when I did work there for almost 20 years it was hard work and I worked with a good team of nurses and technicians and I had a really good Nurse Manager, you see it always about team work so that you can do the best job for your patients and there families. It’s not easy job and different situations arise and you don’t know how your nights may be. I worked night shift and have worked day before  and in different units also

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
When you work in a hospital life can be stressful a lot when you working with people who are sick and it can become critical at any time. A person has to be on guard and you are always working as a team as you do your part to make sure it helps the nurses that you are working under so they can help their patients and staff. No one is an island it all about team work 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment and culture also is diversified you work with all kind  patients and staff, nurses other technicians, X-ray technicians, doctors housekeepers, dietary aids and your managers. Hospital culture.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
When worked at the hospital would be a nurses and patient technician would first get your report from the shift or staff that you are relieving. Report consistent getting the patients that would be assigned to you for that shift and the nurses and staff will tell you what is going on with the patient or patients. Tech’s have come in check the rooms and introduce yourself to your  your patients check their vitals and if they need to be cleaned or set up for breakfast or if the are finished they dinner it depends or what shift that you are on. You may have vital every two hours or four it depends on the patient needs

I work in the SICU so I can only speak for this unit.  They are really ramping up their hiring. This is due to the very high turnover lately. This is due to many reasons.

One of the big reasons is definitely d/t people going back to school. Make no mistake, many of the nurses are coming to the floor to get experience for CRNA school.

Second reasons for attrition is due to the poor compensation. After a year or two you will be making a base pay of roughly $25-26/hr. This is to take care of the sickest of the sick in the region. It is easy to see how many of the more experienced nurses are getting poached by other hospitals/units.  Their pay is awful and they keep it that way by actively working against any unions (apparently they hired a union busting law firm a few months ago to deter any potential unionization).

This in turn leads to what I see as a third reason - safety. On a unit with more than 60 nurses, I can count on my hands those that have more than 5 years experience. Many of the nurses are fearing that they cannot work on the unit and provide a safe level of care. The unit is expanding to a new part of the hospital with even more beds soon so this is also adding to the need for new nurses.

However instead of trying to keep experienced nurses, management seems more interested in hiring new (cheaper) nurses. Management seems either indifferent or unable to make changes.  They continue to cut "costs" for staff but I can't recall the last time any of the executive members didn't get their annual raises or bonuses.  

We are always being pushed to cut cost while doing more with less. Focus is constantly on financial "growth" each quarter but at what human cost?

A typical day of work would start at 9am. Call patients back into the clinical area, take down all of their vital signs and performed EKG's on patients who required it. After taking down patient's vitals I would wipe down any medical equipment so that it will be clean and ready for use on the next patient. When patients exit I would go into the examination rooms and clean them up thoroughly using sanitary wipes. I learned how to work in a medical setting, and I learned how to maintain a steady work flow. I learned that even the simplest job can be hard work even when you gain the hang of it it's still hard work. My co-workers were all very well professional women. They worked hard on their jobs and didn't mind me offering them a extra hand, which I did quite often. I learned how to label, use the hospital's tubing system, and I learned how to stay on my toes. The hardest part of the job was assisting those patients who would come in that were in wheel-chairs or those who were on crutches. It made my job a little harder with taking down vitals and it really became hard with doing EKG's because I couldn't properly place the probe in the correct location. I enjoyed the job because I came in contact with all kinds of different people. It made my day to be able to make their day whether with good conversation or having to crack a joke to lighten the mood. I enjoyed my co-workers, even though we worked hard every day we still found time to take a breath a two. We were there for each other and lent helping hands when we were not busy. I enjoyed helping out the nursing staff and the phlebotomist, with all the hard work they were doing they loved receiving a helping hand. 

My day at work is challening, I deal with alott of irate/attitude having customers whether it's on the phone or in person. I wear many hats in my position; I do birth registration(interview moms who wish to name their babies, request ssn for babies and witnessed/ sign an AOP form to those who wish to have dad's name on birth certificate) dealing with difficult people to try to name their baby is a job by itself. I'm also a medical records techn II; I merge patients medical numbers,create medical numbers, I index/file/scan an enormous amount of loose work and charts. It's very time consuming and tedious, it can really work your nerves. I answer multi phones; one for birth registry, the second line is for an area called release of information (I'm like a operator because all I do is answer and transfer calls to them and thirdly, I answer calls that's specifically for my area to handled. The hardest part of my job is dealing with irate patients/customers, the adding of the workload that we get on the daily,finishing multi assignments by the due date, attending every monthly meetings,and dealing with some of my annoying/ attitude having co workers. What I have learned is the many job skills as a tech II/ birth registrar, how to be a leader and multi tasking.Management can be very pushy but I do understand why. What I do enjoy most about my job is my hard work is always recognized and at times it can be rewarding,

This is the community based, inner city, small sister hospital of UMMS. This hospital is very old and outdated, with many members of the staff and management who just appear dejected, degraded, and downright unpleasant. 
    Since it is a University of Maryland hospital, you see a little bit of everything. This can be a great thing for a newer nurse who would really like to get some valuable experience. The clientele is a different type of population than you will find at other hospitals as well and I have found it very stimulating to try to educate people who have no idea what their medical condition is, how it was caused, how to get the medicine and resources they needs and who will help them. (and in some cases can't read, write or understand any "fancy medical terminology". This part is super rewarding, but NO SNOBS WELCOME. You have to realize where you are, who your patients are and how to speak to them in a respectful manner. 
.....That brings me to the negatives. The staff here are probably the very worst part of working in this hospital. There are a few nice people with which to commiserate, but they are either on their way out the door or just one of we unlucky few who need the money. Staff are not helpful, they don't even speak to you, and for some reason they seem to enjoy chasing out every new employee and then whining about being short staffed. Ugh. 
    For an experienced nurse who wants to make some money- Per diem committed  positions pay a TON. There is an option for benefits as well. There are usually plenty of overtime hours. 
THE CHOICE IS YOURS, and its not an easy one!

A typical day starts by driving to work, parking, taking a shuttle that drops you off in front of the hospital building. 
Parking comes out of your check bi-weekly. Some days the lot at Camden Yards is closed due to a game or some other event. You don't even get the notification until you arrive at the lot. The parking attendant redirects you to another lot 10 minutes away, and the shuttle runs every 15 minutes. Due to the heavy rush hour traffic, this makes you very late to work. Privileged people get to sit down first and put their bags in the seat so that you can't sit down.  

Lets talk about the K***** Transplant Department...
 
The unprofessional manager had mental issues, talked about me in front of my face and behind my back.  staff...ok some days, nurses are the worst you will ever find...ever, doctors take the CAKE though! The doctors treat assistants less than human, yet they can't do their job without the assistants. They don't care about the patients and judge each case poorly. God forbid your family needing ANY KIND of transplant... DO NOT LET THEM COME TO UMMS! 

Lets talk about the HR department...
Professional liars, phony, play favorites. I had to go above and beyond to get help and the higher up act the exact same! 

I spent many days crying due to being mistreated. 

Do Not Work for the Transplant Department! EVER

I moved to this city with hope that my work would eventually evolve into something meaningful and helpful. I know that a few bad apples doesn't represent the entire workplace, but this is one of the few cases in my professional journey that made the exception.

As a new project manager to oversee the implementation of new technology for the children's hospital, I was always met with red tape or unwilling attitudes to keep UMMC's Children's Hospital competitive with other children's hospitals.

VPs and Directors would consistently hide behind meetings to prolong the processes and implementations. Almost every meeting would follow the same format: meeting start > I provide deliverables from last meeting's requests > upper management now requests something else that should have been part of the previous series of requests > repeat.

Management is a nightmare. My management was incapable of making easy decisions to assist their team of child life staff. I was not directly impacted by the poor management of child life resources, but overall it impacted the entire team morale. Despite thorough reports and data to back up our provided consultations to improve quality of life in our wings, management would always apply red tape or outright deny any of the child life staff's requests for essential equipment.

Working at umms pros:
1. Teaching hospital (if they give you the opportunity to go to a specialized area, I wanted that opportunity but never given a chance even if I was an employee already, they would rather hire an outsider who has that experience) 
2. They have a lot if resources for patients.

Cons: 
1. It’s hard to go to specialize area even though your already an employee.
2. They don’t pay well compared to other health systems, full time nurses are under paid and over work. 
3. You pay for parking even though you work at night. 
4. Management blocked and threatened their nursing employees when there was a vote to unionize umms nurses. 
5. Management took away a lot of good benefits after 2008 recession and never gave them back after the recovery.
6. Work life balance in umms is poor specially for nurses who are at the bedside. It was hard to get approval for vacations even though you have the time accrued. 
7. Full time nurses have so much work to do in this hospital and they are poorly compensated. 
8. Management gives 1%-3% salary raise which really doesn’t do anything to help alleviate the hardships of the nursing staff. 

Over all my experience in university of Maryland medical center was bad so I left and never went back to this day. Its been almost 10 years now. That’s how bad it was for me and my nursing friends who have left there.


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 6 salaries reported	$41.50 per hour
Student nurse 4 salaries reported	$17.00 per hour
Senior clinical nurse 3 salaries reported	$44.38 per hour
Social worker 3 salaries reported	$67,667 per year
Physician 6 salaries reported	$68,663 per year

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