A competitive place to work that demanded a lot of your time away from home with many opportunities for advancement.
At Sentara you definitely had to work hard. I found myself working 8 to 12 hours a day at the facilities, then I would come home and work for hours, just to keep up. It seemed as if upper management would always find something more for you to do. I another form to fill out, that often made no sense at all. There was not a lot of team work. Each department that had a part to do in the MDS was always behind and often caused the assessments to be late. I complained at first about it, just like every other MDSC, but found it got me nowhere fast. So, I just did their sections myself, and there were no complaints from the department heads. I did ask that they complete the admission, annual, and significant changes so that they would know their patients. PPS and Quarterlies I did their sections. Now I am exaggerating a little, but I kid you not there were probably five different ways that the MDSC had to complete to notify the team of what assessments were due. You would think that a PPS sheet for the skilled assessments and a monthly calendar for the LTC assessments, would have been all you needed. But different department heads needed different forms to be able to complete their MDS. I felt like, I am doing five different forms for these departments, who complain that they cannot complete their sections on time because they don't know what is due. It was always an endless battle between the department heads and MDS. MDS was always to blame when being questioned over
Prosmatch up to 6% on 403b, job advancement, ability to go to another department or building.
ConsFast paced, lots of unnecessary forms to complete, stressful, no help from upper management with department heads.
3.0
Mammography Technologist | Norfolk, VA | Sep 26, 2019
Great place to be a patient-NOT an employee
The department that I was in while I was working at Sentara was incredibly stressful.
The main management was never around to help manage our department because they were busy running 3 other departments at the same time. Our lead tech was our acting "manager" and she was spread incredibly thin as well, trying to be a tech, a lead, and everything else in between. She was always the first one in and the last one to leave.
I, too, felt the pressure of being run so thin. I would do a lot of the patients that needed to be done in the department, and then I would get cut as soon as the rush of the morning died down. I was hired as full time and was sometimes lucky to get 30 hours in a week. I had to FIGHT for my hours, as did everyone else on the team. It cause so much friction because we always had to huddle and basically kick someone out for the day. We all eneded up hating each other for it because no one wanted to go home. We all had bills to pay.
When I would ask to be cross trained, or advanced, they would always "try" but they could never afford to pull me off the floor to cross train me because they needed the manpower in the morning, an then when it wasn't busy the department couldn't afford it.
I would come home many nights crying from stress and the very poor morale my team had. We weren't a team at all. We all had to watch out for ourselves.
Mistakes were forbidden here. You always felt like if you made a mistake you were going to lose your job. Heaven forbid you
ProsTuition assistance, 401k match
ConsShort Lunch, Hours cut
2.0
Credentialing Specialist | Norfolk, VA | Jan 15, 2021
Gaslighting is the norm
As a credentialing specialist on the initials team you will be responsible for lots of things that are not in your control and you will not be given help. It's a sink or swim environment where everyone is sinking. All new rules will overwhelmingly make your job harder while relieving someone up the chain of something.
You will need to verify affiliations, work history, licenses, boards..etc. Files are blindly assigned without consideration of a person's current workload or ability to handle the size. There is a list of analysts and files are assigned in the order on the list. You are automatically also assigned any file you previously had. This means you can get lucky enough to receive harder files than others and a higher amount if you were there longer than others. You will be assessed on how long it takes you to finish a file, but you will also be given important files to start immediately which creates a conflict in the time you turn around your other files. They will then turn around and ask why it took you so long which is gaslighting at it's finest.
Getting or having a CPCS or CPMSM is a waste of time and you will not find any financial support from management to continue membership or pursue any education. This department expects you to do as you are told and to shut up. The company scrapped the pension so there is no reason to stay long term.
Everyone doing credentialing including the supervisor is in school pursuing options to get out of there. The working env
ProsBenefits, Pay, Flexibility
ConsVery hostile working environment, No pension, Gaslighting, No advancement, Hospital politics, No paid holidays
A Typical day started at 4 am calling and checking on the unit for any issues or change in conditions with any resident, or any concerns.
0700 am validation of staffing on the unit, review of the 24 hr report and the morning huddle with the staff. This consisted of report, change in condition with any resident, appointments and new admissions. Any incident that occurred was discussed and the intervention as well as Md notified and the RP.
0745 Nurse Registry placed on the board. Assignments completed for nurses and Aides.
0800- reviewed new admissions for proper assessments completed, incidents assessed for proper documentation and notification along with care planning.
815 am rounded on residents with change in conditions
0830 preparation for the morning meeting
0831 am meeting started, MUDD meeting followed
0931 Discharges discussed and GG's to be carried out.
1000 am rounding o the floor and small huddle with nursing staff based on the morning meeting for more follow up and new admissions coming.
1015 Rooms validated for admissions and discharges completed.
11am rounding and checking on staff and residents.
1130 am passing trays and feeding residents
1230 Assist with Restorative, Wound Care and documentation
1300 Check on Aide documentation.
1400 follow up from homework sheet given to nurses and aides
1500 Taking report on new residents from the hospital
1510 end of Day Meeting with Department Heads for closure of open business.
1520 Staff vali
Productive, enjoyable,and very interactive with patients
A typical day of work included: greeting patients and visitors, checking in, registering, admitting, transfering and discharging patients as instructed. Patients that arrived for testing and/or surgeries would be asked to collect any copayments or deductibles and I would process the payment. It was our daily goal to provide excellent customer service to all patients and visitors that entered the hospital. I was responsible for registering and/or admitting patients and verifying all personal information and insurance coverage. After registration or admission was completed I would call either the department in which they were going to or medical transport to tell them the patient is ready and in the waiting room. We were expected to multi-task by also answering the telephone and individual pagers.
I absolutely loved my job! I enjoyed the daily personal contact with the patients and getting to know them. I consider myself a very personable person and if there is anything I can do to make somebody's day a little bit better it makes me happy. I worked in a department with all women and one man. There was quite a bit of drama between the employees, usually the same few that just did not get along and would sometimes bicker in front of patients. I find myself an easy going person and easy to get along with. I am always smiling at work and found it easy to get along with all of my co-workers. My boss would tell me I was a great team-player. I learned how to deal with some difficult p
Proshalf-off lunches, salary, paid leave and sick days
I worked at Virginia Beach PACE from 2013 to 2014. Professional staff is pressed to their limits without adequate compensation. Turn over among professional staff is extremely high. At this facility, under-staffing and not replacing employees when they leave is routine. Instead, they pass double duty to remaining employees. Salary positioned employees routinely worked a minimum of 50 to 60 hours per week due to inadequate staffing. Voiced concerns were meant by management as 'that's the meaning of working salary.' In other words-We own you. Professional staff were pulled to the day room due to inadequate staff-per-patient ratio when officials visited. Management attempted to address cost and over crowding by cutting patient services which lead to strong push back from the clients. Instead of addressing this directly with the patients, management passed this task off to the social work dept. who were left facing the resistance. During my employment, the Social Work department turned over completely twice with no remaining employees. The housekeeping department was dropped from two employees to one. The visiting nurse department lost one of two nurses and the new nurse left. The recreation department lost two directors. Ethical practices became a serious issue when management ordered staff to violate the code of ethics. This is not a company that I would recommend to anyone. As a result of my professional experience with this program and family members' personal experience
ProsBenefits offered
Consroutine 50-60 work week on a salary with no form of compensation or comp time for excessive hours, serious ethical issues, staffing issues, patient dissatisfaction
Typical work day as a secretary is filled with accommodating patient phone calls and needs, making appointment and fulfilling my providers requests on demand.
I've learned, organization, great customer/patient relations, consistency and a great knowledge of the medical office field.
Management in my office is by fare the best I've EVER had the privilege to work under. Shes not what some would call a title toting desk hugging troll. Shes a genuine , kind , hard working, authentic and inspiring leader.
My coworkers are excellent, hard working and extremely smart. its truly a team.
The hardest part of my job is the volume, the provider i work for has a rather large patient population, she/he is an amazing doctor and amazing doctors tend to due things differently. She/He is very loved and sought after and therefor the demand can be overwhelming some days.
Also the volume of the company's new initiatives and requirements monthly is ever looming and a bit stressful. But it is all so vary valuable to the success of the company and the excellence it brings to health care.
The most enjoyably part of my job is the patients , getting to see them through the challenges and take care of their needs. Their gratefulness and relationship with the practice is endearing and lovely to experience .
Enjoyable also, and goes with out saying , is the amazing benefits and consistency in which the company delivers PAL, SICK and Holiday hour accumulations that are much appreciated and beneficial to pe
Prospal, sick, holiday pay, off saturday and sunday and all major holidays, health benefits and work perks with local and national companies
Consshort brakes, office is never closed during business hours (makes it very hard to catch up on work)
Worse job ever ! Hospital in ghetto with the most ungrateful patients ever. Managers spy and eaves drop on you all of the time , they love to write you up while rewinding what you did on the camera that is on you 24/7. No privacy. No lunch or breaks. Not even to go to the bathroom. Very short staffed. Currently have the radiology film room employees to help out. Doing what? Heck if I know because they can't start IV, scan, answer phones or research implants. Call is ridiculous. Get called in for diabetic toes, back pain of 10 years , and bicep tendon tears, and fingers. Weekends you can end up working 16 hours with no break or lunch and the holidays are the worse. They have employee appreciation where hospital cooks nice meal etc but if you work in MRI you are lucky if you get enough time to make a mad dash to get it, but you can forget about eating it. You better pack nuts and raisins in your pockets because that is the only way you are going to eat.
There is no work / life balance in MRI at Norfolk general so I don't know why the hospital advertises that. Not one manager or team leader have any experience in MRI and they make the most stupid decisions. I was even told by one of the managers that they do not care that any of the techs have sleep or a life , if you don't like it you can leave. The open scanner is the worse magnet ever. Working there was the worse experience of my life and I'm so glad that prison sentence is over. I would rather be working in a zoo clean
ProsRetirement package
ConsRude patients, horrible managers, no lunches or breaks, no work life balance, call
High acuity ICU setting with high management turnover, 7 managers in 8 years with director of area turnover as well.
20 bed CSICU with high acuity patient population. CSICU staff members intelligent and hard-working. Stressful environment with lack of managerial support making the situation unstable. The core group of CSICU nurses are the reason staff stay working in this area, excellent ICU nursing experience.
Day starts at 0700, 0630 if you are in charge, you receive an assignment. A Typical assignmentL two patients that need to be de-lined and weaned off of a vasoactive drip to prepare them for transfer and then admit a post patient. Or two chronic often ventilated patients on a large amount of vasoactive drips, central lines, epicardial pacing, chest tubes, support devices such s ventricular assist devices, IABP, CRRT. Patients may require new central line placement at bedside or emergent cardioversion, or open chest in patient room.
I learned how to manage high acuity patient population, took care of ECMO and ventricular assist device patients.
Hardest part of the job would be the frequent turn over of management with changing expectations with each managerial change. This managerial instability led to high staff turn over, 18 nurses this past year. During low staffing, still expected to precept new nurses with little to no ICU experience. Stressful environment for new staff to learn, many of the new hires had job dissatisfaction and rapid job turn over.
Most enjoyable part of the job? My CSICU co-workers and the Cardiovascular surgeons and their team of mid level practitioners
ProsGood benefits
ConsLack of breaks/lunches due to high patient acuity with short staffing.
1.0
Registered Nurse - Home Health | Harrisonburg, VA | Jul 30, 2021
Constantly changing the rules
typical day starts with calling your patients only to have scheduler call you and tell you that you have to see other patients instead. Then you regroup, call previous ones back that you are not coming and that either someone else will or pick another day. Then call the new ones just handed you. Then you find that you have to drive to the farthest ends of the territory to see patients, get there and discover that that they don't have the supplies you need and that no one previously ordered them. You also discover new problems that they told the last nurse about but nothing mentioned about it or what was done. Then you listen to the patient complain about not getting the help they need or how all the doctors are leaving Sentara. If you have a problem and call into the office about it you are told "well what do you want me to do about it?" or that you'll just have to figure it out for yourself. You are told at staff meetings that if you have concerns to come talk to them. Then when you go talk to them you are either told that your the one with problems or that its handled by upper management team. Yet no one ever hears back from upper management team. The hardest part of the job became having to get up and go. The most enjoyable part of the job were the patients. I do miss them
Proscaring director BUT forgets quickly what you do for her and turns nasty when stressed
Conssalary based not by the hour therefore working well beyond 40 hrs/week, only way to get extra pay is based on productivity numbers which are very difficult to reach, office staff play favorites, no concern for number of miles and time it takes to drive between patients
Questions And Answers about Sentara Healthcare
How often do you get a raise at Sentara Healthcare?
Asked Jul 15, 2021
yearly
Answered Mar 31, 2023
Yearly
Answered Mar 21, 2023
What is the most stressful part about working at Sentara Healthcare?
Asked Dec 27, 2016
Staffing ratios
Answered May 9, 2021
Dealing with multiple medical and emotional issues and trying not to take that home.
Answered Nov 19, 2020
What is the interview process like at Sentara Healthcare?
Asked Jul 2, 2016
First a talent recruiter who works for them will call you and ask typical interview questions which is a complete waste of time because after that they send your info to the hiring manager to see if they’re interested. It would be more convenient if the hiring mangers were the ones getting the applications from the start. So this part is literally like an entire interview before your possible interview with a hiring manager. Then if the hiring manager chooses you, you’ll come in person and answer THE SAME questions you’ve already spent 15-30 minutes on the phone with the recruiter answering. I was offered the job immediately on the spot but after learning what I’d actually be doing versus the job description online, I was uncomfortable and uninterested.
Answered Feb 12, 2022
Panel of interviewers
Answered Oct 12, 2021
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Sentara Healthcare a better place to work?
Asked Jan 8, 2017
Better nurse:patient ratios!!!
Answered Jun 12, 2021
They are so broken that I would never go back there. I traded them in on a much much better organization that invests in their RNs
Answered Jan 17, 2021
What is the vacation policy like at Sentara Healthcare? How many vacation days do you get per year?
Asked Oct 3, 2016
The vacation policy was OK if you had vacation already planned before Higher they were granted to you if you want time off and someone else does they will work with you
Answered Feb 20, 2021
At a minimum, one can get two weeks, however, the veterans of the company, who have been working for the system for more than 10 years, accumulate time off quicker which can allow them a month or more throughout the year if it is approved by their individual time keepers.
