registered nurse

nursing assistant

certified medical assistant

advanced practice provider

patient care technician

University of Virginia

The idea of working at the university is very appealing at first but that quickly subsides once you are exposed to the day to day life.

I will say that working on grounds is nice. You have ample access to good restaurants and having the ability to walk around campus as a break is second to none. However there are a few things that detract from the overall experience.

First, the parking situation for STAFF is unpleasant at best. You will either add 15-20 minutes on each side of your commute, pay $100 plus per month to park somewhere near your building or decide to live in Charlottesville where you could bike or walk to work. For those who want to live outside the city be prepared for a minimum of 40-45 minutes to get to work without traffic. I am resentful about this topic because I asked the hiring manager and HR several times for details regarding the commute and was mislead. Darden may be the exception to the parking situation

Second, the culture here is surprising nasty. Working within your department is fine but other teams and departments are quick to degrade your work, dismiss ideas and stop communicating without reason. Having transitioned from a cut-throat industry with constant back stabbing I was amazed to see this type of behavior at an institution of this caliber.  Dean's and upper level management seem very reasonable with their departments but do expect very high quality work. So I am perplexed when I see so much in-fighting at the mid-level manager space and the resulting lack of teamwork.

Third, the pay and benefits are not any better than several other local industries. I had a hard time getting enough information from UVA during the hiring process to compare benefits with other competing job offers and made the assumption that an institution would offer more, sadly I was wrong. Anyone hired after ~2014 or so will find that the new benefits package for insurance and retirement is identical to most established professional companies or corporations. UVA or any state job may have a leg up on vacation but that is the only difference.

One last note on pay vs the cost of living in the local area: I found that reasonable compensation for the jobs posted during my search would need to be at the very upper end of the UVA advertised pay range to make living in the C'ville'Albemarle area feasible. The cost of living here is high, higher even than the data I found online. Having moved from a VERY expensive area near NYC I am still surprised to learn the cost of living and playing here.

Work in animal facility and animal lab requires dedication, consistency, accuracy and ongoing learning to keep pace with the changing technology. At 7:00 AM I clock in and sit on my desk to review all work-related emails and communication before I can do my daily tasks. I have a 15-minute break at 10:00 AM, at 12:00 noon I go on lunch until 12:30. At 2:00 PM, I have a 15-minute break and I clock out at 3:30 PM. When working, I make sure I avoid time "robbers" and other distractions to ensure time is utilized in an effective manner.
I have learned that the perception I have about using animals in research is not the same for everybody in the society. There are people who are opposed to using animals in research. The minimum I can do is to ensure animals are treated humanely and to report any protocol deviation to Compliance Officer.

Management at UVA is based on the concept of respect for every member of the University community, Equal opportunity and celebration of diversity. Disciplinary actions are based on employee records as documented progressively. Salary policy and promotion are performance based, availability of funds and open positions.

My co-workers make my day rich and interesting: we chat and joke at breaktime. We help each other in the accomplishment of our tasks. We look into each other as collaborators rather than competitors. Sometimes I learn new ideas from my co-workers and when I have something good to share with them, I do not hesitate to do so.
The hardest part of the job is when employees call in sick over the weekend and I have to make sure animals are taken care of. Sometimes, in case of staff shortage, I do the hands-on work myself because animals cannot go without feed, water and clean environment.
The most enjoyable part of the job for me is when I diagnose positive cases of infections or when I detect fur mites or pinworms in animals I am given to test in the lab. It gives me a sense of having my hand in the whole work of medical and biomedical research. I realize that diagnosing infections or detecting infestation on time help us curb variables that would interferre with studies.

This is a beautiful place to work, if you can get past the politics, and manage to get under the right management team.

A typical day in HR evolved over the course of the 10 years I was there.

 Initially, we maintained our own Windows Domain, security, Remote Access, Email system, etc. We always supported end users and their requests for help with software, hardware, connectivity (including VPNs and Oracle db.) I also took care of the telecom requests and inventory, generated end-user documentation and handouts, disaster recovery plans, desktop imaging, centralized antivirus administration, multimedia, classroom and conference room setups, including multimedia production for video\audio recording and editing to be posted on the web or distributed on disc. In the early days, I also rewrote our Service Awards Microsoft Access database, and worked closely with the project manager throughout the annual process.

  Once the decision was made to turn over management of our domain to central IT, we were almost entirely in request mode only. From there, I continued with end-user and classroom support, but also maintained the HIPAA and IT Security, as well as SSN and PI remediation for the entire department. I also took care of the Division of Training's online system; a ColdFusion system with Access and Oracle database backends. I administered the Access db's while only involved with connectivity to the Oracle system.

I enjoyed the work I did, the people I worked with, and the users I supported very much. I enjoyed the opportunities for education when they were possible.

Unfortunately, along with the souring of the economy came an intense souring of the work environment. I look forward to seeing what  the new CEO is able to do with great hope. I would Love to return to UVa, when the time and circumstances are right.

I held two jobs.
In my first position, a typical day consisted of reviewing stock of supplies, reagents, conducting experiments, and maintaining equipment.
I learned a great deal in the fields of Cancer research, murine surgery techniques and radiological experimentation.
Management was extraordinary and gave support and guidance when needed.
My co-workers were great and we all had a great time even though all of us had different areas of study.
The hardest part of the job was my Principle Investigator was very sick when I started and passed while I worked for him.
The most enjoyable part of the job was the comradery we developed.

The second position I held was that of a Lab Manager for a inter-institution research group. The typical day consisted of reviewing stock of supplies, reagents, conducting experiments, maintaining equipment and directing graduate students when needed.
Management was terrible and non-existent most of the time. She was more interested in out-sourcing most of her research and being a small part of the inter-institutional collaboration
My boss had little to no management experience and had no direction for the lab. The graduate students that I worked with were great however.
The hardest part of the job was keeping my boss happy without any direction for the lab or her desire to bring her research to the forefront.
The most enjoyable part of the job was helping the graduate students learn the workings of a wet lab

The work schedule is set up for 6 day work weeks, with your weekends alternating.  Example,  If you have Tues, Wed off this week, next week you will have Wed, Thur off.  This means that you will on have Sat and Sun off every 6 weeks.  The turnover rate is horrendous, we were operating at 50% capacity.  This meant that we were constantly short, and people had to be drafted to work overtime.  It was not uncommon for officers to work two 12hr shifts, a 16hr shift, and then another three days.  They make you pay for parking.  They can draft you for an unlimited number of days.  Example if you volunteered to work OT yesterday, they can still draft you for a double today, tomorrow, and the day after that.  They monitor your sick days.  They have no problem firing people over minor infractions.  In 23 months, I saw approx. 18-19 people fired or quit.  You will have no social life.  Night shift is a nightmare to get used too (sleep wise).  You do get a lot of vacation time, and benefits which is the only plus side.  Unless you are retired and looking for something that isn't really serious,  don't take this job.  FINALLY, the worst part!  If you are trying to get into Law Enforcement DO NOT take this.  They have set up a system based on points, that they don't tell anyone about.  And they no longer hire Security into their Police.  Apply for the Police directly, do not take security as a back up.

Listen, this job is similar to any other outpatient job and it’s really not difficult. However, if you want to practice as an LPN, look elsewhere. UVA Community Health sees LPNs as the equivalent to an MA. You will not practice to your scope and this is reflected in the pay. 

The providers I have worked with have been great! Most of the other staff are great. Management sucks. It’s always someone else’s fault something was not completed. There’s almost no leader availability because they are constantly in meetings, which are usually pointless. There’s little to no delegation from leadership and way too much micromanaging. We are healthcare professionals, you hired us, let us prove ourselves and then trust that we can complete it or teach us to do it correctly. The company preaches about “equity” but I don’t think some of the leadership actually understand what that word means. 

UVA is a major medical facility but pay lower than normal for most positions and you can only increase your pay based on years of service. There is a merit raise every other year but you are generally only looking at 3-5% if it’s even in the budget. You will be labeled a “high performer” but expected to do more work for no benefit to you. Do better UVA, it’s no wonder retention rates suck. Value your current employees rather than seeing them all as replaceable. 

I worked there for 11 years because the job was in a field I love and in which I have a Master's degree. Unfortunately, the staff are underpaid and treated as peons by the ivory tower academics in Charlottesville who haven't a clue how things work in the real world. 
They have no concern for the staff's safety, are incapable of learning from persons who have far more real world experience than they do and have an intolerable attitude of superiority.
The supervisors excel in micromanaging people who know how to do their job far better than the supervisors and take a perverse joy in putting down their employees.
A perfect example is they insist on calling their field persons technicians, when they were officially hired as specialists - which is officially a higher, more advanced classification under the state employment system. They were informed of the difference by myself and other employees in the position and they insist on constantly using the inferior terminology to denigrate their employees at every opportunity.
I'm referring to the field office in Oyster, on Virginia's Eastern Shore called the ABCRC LTER lab. 
It is a shame, the place has loads of potential if they could wrest it away from the cadre of small minded people who operate it like their own little fiefdom.

For context, I was a PhD student in one of the GSAS natural/social science departments.

My personal experience working here as a PhD student was great (supportive faculty and grad students who all were happy to help each other), though I know that my specific area had a much healthier work culture than other areas in my department. For example, another area had graduate students getting literally no research funding for years from their advisors, so they were using their personal cash to fund their research (it's a norm in my science for advisors to provide the majority if not all of the research funding).

We had one month in which UVA administration somehow messed up our income and delayed pay for something like 2-4 weeks. That seemed a little egregious to me, especially since PhD students get paid so little, and some live nearly paycheck to paycheck.

Also, I found it odd that we would sometimes donate money directly to the janitorial staff for our building because they supposedly struggle to make a living wage. At my previous university, the janitorial staff were incredibly friendly and chatty with faculty and grad students, but I noticed that the staff at my department's building seemed to be pretty down and keep to themselves. I don't know what exactly is going on there, but I wish that UVA would do a better job taking care of the janitorial staff.

I was a PhD student here, and I had a great experience with my area, though of course, your experience as a graduate student will depend HEAVILY on your area's culture. Even within our department, areas differed greatly in terms of how toxic vs. supportive they were. For example, in one area in my department, some grad students weren't being supported by their faculty and therefore were using their personal money to fund research.

I also found it disconcerting that the janitorial staff are paid so little here that we're sometimes encouraged to contribute to a fund that doles out the cash to the staff. At my previous university, the cleaning staff was much happier and had enough money to take a couple vacation trips a year, though the staff here seem to always be quiet and sad. :(

UVA's health insurance was nice in that any monthly refill of medication was around $10 even though mine costs $200 per month without insurance. That being said, another grad student had knee surgery that wasn't fully covered, and he ended up having to pay around $8,000 out of pocket by taking up a second job during his PhD. Ridiculous, really.

If you take medical leave for a semester, you don't get income during that time, though you still get normal health insurance during that time.

Schedule quarterly testing of animals from different vivaria, Animals from outside sources are tested before their release from quarantine, collect tissue specimens for diagnostic evaluation, input diagnostic information into a computer database and generate reports, manage microbial monitoring of surfaces by sampling them with RODAC plates that I make using Tryptic Soy Agar medium, Supervise weekend crews, function as biosafety level 3 manager on weekends.

I started as an animal care taker, my dedication and hard work paid off. This is a big lesson I learned: hard work is always rewarded.

Participative management style characterizes UVA management.

My co-workers are good to me and each person is focused on his/her job.

The hardest part is when I do not have enough staff to cover animal care over the weekend due to illnesses or family emergencies.

The most enjoyable: picnics, good catch of positive diagnosis of infectious agents or infestation by worms and manges.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 235 salaries reported	$43.45 per hour
Nursing assistant 199 salaries reported	$18.23 per hour
Certified medical assistant 231 salaries reported	$20.94 per hour
Advanced practice provider 188 salaries reported	$115,617 per year
Patient care technician 184 salaries reported	$17.92 per hour

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