Pros
- many different units to work on, can change units every 6 months - cafeteria is decent - good benefits - good culture depending on unit. NAs are appreciated and helped when needed - staffing fluctuates, sometimes overstaffed - breaks are rarely missed - learning new skills - lots of information to learn if you want, many are eager to teach - equipment and technology is usually newer and working fine - free bus pass - education opportunities. Can change positions easily through apprenticeships - usually get out on time.
Cons
- don’t believe that tuition assistance is very much, maybe like 5k a year? - not unionized - most positions are required rotating shifts. AM/PM, PM/NOC, or NOC/AM. One month might be 7a-7p and the next might be 7p-7a. Hate rotating. Don’t think there’s many straight 8 or straight 12s either. Schedule can vary a lot. - inpatient units require working weekends and holidays - NAs don’t get the same bonuses that nurses do. Nurses get bonuses for working on their weekend off, picking up a shift less than 48 hours in advance, calling in to pick up a shift, or working on their “off shift”. I’ve heard of nurses making 100/hour with these bonuses. NAs don’t get any of these bonuses. The only bonus NAs can get for picking up shifts is if you’re in overtime. No wonder they can’t get NAs to pickup shifts. It’s a bit of a slap in the face hearing my RN colleagues talk about getting 2-3 of these bonuses for picking up one shift. - pay is not great for the Madison area (19-26 range, most around 21/hr) - NAs are pulled a lot to be sitters. Patients get put on a 1:1 for anything and everything and they don’t come off of it for a loooong time. Other interventions are usually not even tried first, they just jump straight to having a sitter because of fear of liability. It’s easy to burn out when you work 3 days a week and 2 of those days are spent sitting the entire shift. Sitters are sometimes not taken care of as well (sometimes had to wait 30+ mins for a BR break or ask multiple times) - if you float from another unit or are float pool, some units may be happy you’re there and happy to help, and some units may be nasty to you cause they don’t know you. Sometimes floaters are ridiculed for not knowing an acronym specific to that specialty or where things are on a unit they haven’t been to in months or possibly ever. Again depends on the unit - violence from patients is an issue, but it’s an issue everywhere. Sometimes the violence/aggression is not always taken seriously, sometimes it is. -PARKING IS HORRIBLE. I would not work here if I didn’t live on a Madison metro bus line. Employees have to pay for parking and sometimes there isn’t even parking available. Parking passes are hundreds of dollars, sometimes close to 1k. - the employee food discount isn’t great, only 5%
