registered nurse

research assistant

program manager

nurse practitioner

partner

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

I worked at Vanderbilt for a year. I have been in medicine for 22 years. Vandy is by far the worst place I have ever worked. The bad far overshadows the good.

There is incredibly high turnover rates on all disciplines. From janitorial to nursing. Management does not have their employees best interests at heart. Read the negative reviews. They are spot on. The only positive reviews are from managers and non clinical staff.

PROS:
This is one of the premier teaching and research facilities in the world. There is a lot of evidence based medicine being practiced here and it is awesome to be a part of it. You can learn a lot.

CONS:
Where to begin? Every single manager tows the company line. The ones that don't are quickly replaced. The Clinical Staff Leader model that they use (Charge Nurses) as their mid level managers does not work. There is no cohesive command. Ask the same question of 5 different CSLs and you'll get 5 different answers. They pick and choose what policies they want to enforce. The cost of benefits is outrageous and they aren't even that good! Staff have to pay for parking. Pay a lot. There is a free lot, however you have to take a shuttle to work from the lot and there is almost no security at the lot. Most pay between $25 - $40 PER PAYCHECK for parking. Insane. There is such a high turnover rate that you're constantly working with new employees and all the "veterans" are burned out and bitter and there is no feeling of family as there is at a lot of other places I have worked. After I had been there for two months, I was already precepting new hires with NO training or meeting with the educator to at least learn the basic expectations of preceptors. You do things the Vanderbilt way or not at all. Managers are incredibly closed off to recommendations for improvement. A lot of staff have a lot of good ideas but they aren't listened too. This is one of the biggest contributors to the high turnover. No one feels they have a voice. They pay is horrible and well below area market standard. All units are so understaffed and overworked that a lot of unsafe practices are encouraged and take place. For instance, in order to decrease ER wait times, instead of solving the actual problem, the managers simply added more hallway beds and created non licensed treatment areas. When the Joint Commission came, those treatment areas simply vanished. 

Sorry for the long review, but stay away from this place. They hire quantity and not quality and you're a number to them. They are banking on the Vanderbilt reputation from a decade ago that is very rapidly erroding. Yes it still looks good on a resume, but, to my mind,  it's not worth it.

Vanderbilt is a wonderful place to work, and they take excellent care of their employees.  Before beginning the job, everyone goes through the same form of orientation, giving a feeling of solidarity between all staff members.  After orientation, seasoned staff and managers thoroughly train employees to ensure they know what is expected of them and to make sure they can actually perform the tasks designated to them.  During the training session, staff work tirelessly to ensure that new employees have the tools needed to perform their job correctly and safely within the allotted time.

In addition to that, Vanderbilt makes sure that every employee has complete access to their benefits and know well what services are offered.  Managers go out their way to make sure that both the work life and home life (within limitations naturally) are fair.  Vanderbilt thrives to ensure that every staff member has the ability to excel in their personal and business life by offering assistance in schooling, continuous training year round, and the ability to comment/suggest changes in protocols.

The hardest part of the job however doesn't come from Vanderbilt, but from other staff.  As with any job, some staff members are hardworking and care about their jobs, and others simply want a paycheck.  Doing one's job to the best of their ability while having to work beside a staff member that doesn't care about their job can be taxing, but Vanderbilt thankfully has protocols set in play to help alleviate such situations.
The workload can also get rather cumbersome, but again that is usually not due to the company, but to staffing.  However, this does not apply to every department.

The best part of working for Vanderbilt is the solid pay and immense array of benefits!  Some jobs may have more benefits, but out of all the jobs I've worked or heard of, Vanderbilt is definitely within the "cream of the crop"!  401k, life insurance, health care discounts, tuition reimbursement, and 100s of discounts are readily available for employees, making working for Vanderbilt feel more like a luxury than a job!  Add in friendly faces and solid work hours, and working for Vanderbilt is extremely pleasing!!

I decided to apply for a position at Vanderbilt University since the University is very close to the Medical Center. And effectively I learned to:
- define and write experimental protocols to test medical devices;
- discuss (i.e. listen and explain) with the scientific and clinical communities about specific needs. 
- present in a clear and effective way my work to doctors and nurses in order to work productively together.
My day at work starts with a 15 minute Scrum meeting with my colleagues, and then I have a more specific 30 minutes meeting with the project manager, the cell culture technician and some students to review plans for experiments of the day. My day includes work in the clean room for fabrication of devices and prototypes for my experiments and for other colleagues in the project. I also work with cells and tissues (including collecting and preparation of tissues from the hospital). Half of the day is basically work in the office, to review data, study and writing. 
We have weekly and monthly meetings with the doctors we are working with to present data and to plan future collaboration (writing proposals and tutoring students together). 
 I usually spend at least one full day working with undergraduate and graduate students.I follow design projects of several students at Biomedical Engineering and I also enjoy to work with younger students (high schools) during the summer for short research projects.
I really like the working environment, my colleagues and the students I am working with. I really appreciate when colleagues are respectful towards me, my time and my achievements. 
The hardest part of my job is when I have to stop in the middle of an experiment to run to pick up my daughter: I do my best to avoid long experiments or protocol that requires more than 8 hours in the lab, but sometimes we cannot do differently. 
The most enjoyable part is to celebrate with colleagues achievements like published papers or awards: it takes time in research to get good results but it is great to receive honors and rewards after all, especially when we have worked together from the beginning.

Care for 4-8 patients per shift.  Very fast paced work with a lot of multi-tasking.  Our unit was poorly designed for primary care so there was a lot of competition for resources including the medication room/Pyxis and desirable computer workstations.  Work was not always distributed evenly and infighting was problematic.  

I learned how to function in the midst of chaos and how to be the calm in the storm.  

At one time management was amazing.  There are still some excellent managers on the units, but many resigned amid drastic changes affected by new upper management.  One change was that the open door to our managers office was closed and our manager began spending more time off the unit in meetings than on the floor managing.  
There was a general gutting of senior physicians who were replaced by good, but relatively inexperienced psychiatrists.  
There also seemed to be a lot of haphazard, wholesale changes made to policy (particularly visitation policy) that have not gone particularly well.  
There were also major staffing cuts, Christmas bonuses were eliminated for hourly employees, there was a freeze on raises, and the employee and child tuition benefit that was such a nice perk was cut drastically.  All of these cuts were blamed on the economy, and were made around the same time as the announcement of a new state of the art surgical center center being built on campus.  
Vanderbilt, on average, paid much lower wages than other area hospitals.  

Like most jobs, there were some amazing people who worked there and some who were pretty bad.  

The hardest part of the job was watching the mass exodus of people out of our facility after the big management change.  

The most enjoyable part of the job was interacting with patients.  

Management at the unit level varies by manager, but upper management is pretty bad overall and seems to be very disconnected from the employees on the floor.

VUMC was an interesting place to work. The assistant director had no idea how to be a leader. They had no idea of what was good for the facilities. The company always seemed to be reactive
rather than proactive on 
most things. The leadership over facilities is the same as the leadership over Parking and Transportation. You have to make an appointment just to go to their office. It is not a welcoming environment. The technicians and the shop managers were great people to work with. One of the directors was great to work with because they had experience in Facilities. It is very difficult to gain respect from employees when you have no idea what they do daily. There are many great folks that I met in my time here and am thankful for the experience and growth. But it was a difficult job to please folks that had never walked a mile in your shoes. The pay was moderate. The benefits are great if you use a Vanderbilt affiliated network. The SR management over the entire hospital was wonderful folks with great ideas. It boggles my mind how they can have great SR leadership in the company with such poor leadership in the facilities department. They are very lucky that the shop managers are complete professionals and are the face of the department to the staff and patients. I wouldn’t hesitate to work for any of the managers in the department as long as you didn’t have to deal with the department leaders. You will also take “confidential “ surveys that are anything but confidential. The room for growth is scarce. You might move up when someone retires, or you may get passed over for someone that has no experience in a medical center setting. The former leadership in the department was incredible. The whole staff knew how everything worked and was there to provide support for their employees. I wouldn’t change anything about the experience because it helped me grow as an individual, employee, and gave me valuable experience to go into the open market and explore all the possibilities that was there. It was a solid resume builder that broadened my horizons and thickened my skin.

I worked here during a transitional period marked by restructuring and a growing disconnect between strategic vision and day-to-day operations. While there are incredibly dedicated people working across teams, the environment became increasingly difficult to navigate. This is a place where you can learn a lot but sometimes at the expense of balance and clarity. Leadership has an opportunity to shift course by truly listening to those on the ground, investing in their people, and making decisions that align with both mission and operational reality. The potential is there, but it needs to be matched with more sustainable practices. There’s limited opportunity to grow within the department if you already have recruiting knowledge and experience. Direct managers often positioned themselves as advocates but rarely challenged decisions in meaningful ways. This company has potential, but potential means little without accountability and consistency. True progress will come when leadership listens to internal voices, empowers capable talent already in place, and practices the empathy they promote in theory. At times, leadership behavior felt inconsistent depending on who was in the room. Direction was given or retracted not based on facts or workflow. The department put a lot of weight on externally managed performance metrics, even offering “t-shirts” not part of the VUMC brand as prizes based on rankings. Ironically, those rankings didn’t seem to matter when layoffs happened…many top performers were let go while others stayed. It also made me question why resources were being spent on third-party consultants who had no real connection to our culture, especially when internal teams could’ve handled those insights more efficiently.


Almost always, a typical day starts with the most important people, the patients.  Almost always they have traveled for many miles and hours to get to the one place that is going to help them.  Sometimes they are exhausted, nervous and excited.  And quite often they are very sick and have been for some time and their last hope is Vanderbilt.  Reassurance and comfort measures abound in our clinic from a warm blanket to a cool drink of water to a heartfelt hug to let them know that they will get the best care possible.  
The Vanderbilt employee takes pride in knowing that miracles do happen, thanks to some of the most brilliant doctors in the nation that have chosen to be a part of Vanderbilt. 
Wonderful nurses that care about accurate documentation in the charts because the Vanderbilt patient has only one chart and it is a document of communication between all of the patients medical doctors.
Continuity in care from the parking lot attendant who helps one find their vehicle, to the valet driver that helps get a wheelchair and patient transporter to appointments, to the custodial worker who makes sure the bathrooms are clean and comfortable, to the nurse leaving their shift or the nurse coming in to work who stop on their way to help point you in the right direction for appointments, to the food service workers that provide food with a smile.  All of management is "on the same sheet of music"...to care and provide comfort.  
The hardest part of working at Vanderbilt is the drive to work.  Over the course of 4 years, my drive went from 1 hr 15 minutes one way to 2 + hours one way.  I was putting in too much time on the road and my work/home life was beginning to suffer.  I resigned from the best job I ever had.  The most enjoyable part of my job, besides the patients were my coworkers and supervisors.  
We too were also, "on the same sheet of music".

Your training will be slow and things are done “the Vanderbilt way.” Someone told me once Vanderbilt had a bad reputation in the community bc it was believed that the workers who had been there for years run off new employees! At first I was like hmmm. Then I started to pay more attention to my surroundings and I can honestly say that statement is true. Lead techs are not helpful when it comes to being a team player with FNA’s and are missing the majority of the time. Sometimes the lab can be hectic and that one extra hand could help out but that’s never the case.  Vanderbilt was really my second worst professional job I ever held. It’s a revolving door for a reason. Also, some lead techs want to micro manage and talk to you like you’re still in middle school. Oh they’ll say your opinion matters but it really doesn’t. Another important fact is you’ll never get a true break. Some departments stress taking a break but they’ll distract and say “oh yes we do breaks” but they absolutely do not. You’ll feel like you’re being watched even when you leave for a bathroom break. You will feel confined at times. Lunches are set between 11:30 and 12:30 and you cannot veer off from the schedule even you want a later lunch. It is a very rigid work environment with set lunches, clock ins at 7:53 exactly and no actual breaks. Overtime was great and was a positive. Be careful with sticking with time off for holidays bc they rotate so never volunteer to skip bc the same want be applied bc you have your time away so want be able to float to the next holiday by helping someone else out. Trust me, life is to short to deal with a stressful environment anywhere. Promises mean nothing and can be changed. This department has a high turnover rate for a reason. It want take long to figure things out. 

I would still be at this job if we would had stayed in Tennessee. 
A typical day consists of greeting one another and working as a team and in collaboration with extended resource minutes of need. We had quick access to specialized Doctors, labs, x-ray, emergency protocols, pharmacy as needed. Each LPN or RN had a technician, secretary and cared for the Primary Doctors patient in AM or PM shift and when not attending to these patients then the nurse attended for the resident doctors as many as 3-4 at a time and each of these doctors would have 5-6 patients. In between the clinic care the nurse would triage all phone calls, send refills for pharmaceutical need as per Dr. orders and patient requests. It was an ordinary day to handle 100 phone calls in one day along with the messages in our baskets as the patients all have access to a sophisticated secure communication email system into their nurse/doctor. I would do respiratory treatments, IV's, administer medications, PPD's, vaccinations, emergent care, staple/suture removals, splints, wound care in a typical day. We had four Pods and in each Pod would be sectioned off into four quads each quad consist of a nurse and a tech, secretary and their own Doctor/resident Doctor. I had 5 Primary Doctors and 8 resident Doctors. The Resident Doctors changed every 3years and the Attending was permanent. It sounds chaotic but it works and it was very busy. We all worked together in the Pods. The benefits were great. Management was there to help us run smoother and collaborated daily with us if schedule arrangements needed to change due to unexpected accommodations. It was very demanding and good to have management available as needed. This was one of my best experiences ever as a nurse.

Lack of structure, known for not paying enough, and benefits have drastically worsened. I can't afford to come here as a patient&I work here. Depends heavily on what unit you are in, but structure in adminsitrative tends to be a mess. They don't train, you're just expected to magically learn what your job is supposed to be and teach yourself everything- including sometimes the jobs of those around you. If you do a good job, they start to take advantage of you. They don't promote growth in admin, they would prefer you just stay there for a lifetime in your particular admin role. I feel like it didn't always used to be like it is, but I feel like so many people are retiring and nothing was done to prepare- even though clearly many in administration are nearing retirement age. Since splitting from the university, education benefits are nearly non-existant now and the insurance is really nothing to write home for. Pay is laughable, and it's like they expect you to be happy with it because it is "Vanderbilt". Maybe in the past that worked, but they exepct far too much of their employees now to justify that. It's a better culture all around than corporate healthcare, they have no idea how good of people they have...but as good as those people are, many are leaving for jobs elsewhere because they're realizing they're being paid far far less than they deserve. 

The biggest pro is really PTO, honestly. 

By unit and by boss it's a completely different story- but that's part of the problem. There's a complete lack of structure, it's easy to feel like there's no one to turn to, especially as an admin. You are your only support. They act like that is something to take pride in, but it's really just more taking advantage.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 37 salaries reported	$41.70 per hour
Research assistant 6 salaries reported	$19.17 per hour
Program manager 4 salaries reported	$90,010 per year
Nurse practitioner 6 salaries reported	$124,500 per year
Partner 7 salaries reported	$20.43 per hour

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