Greedy for-profit system. Benefits are terrible. Unsafe patient assignments. This patient population is critically ill, unstable, and often come with infections, pressure injuries and other conditions they acquired at the sending hospital. Most packed ICUs send patients here when they aren’t progressing fast enough or about to die. You often have 5 of these patients at a time on ventilators, critical drips, complex wound treatments, etc. Due to high staff turnover you are often working with a staff who was rushed through orientation and hired with no acute care experience. Their clinical liaisons often withhold or fail to assess for pertinent information prior to them arriving and they often make promises to the families and patients that are untrue (they get paid bonuses to bring in patients- regardless of their outcomes). If you become a charge nurse expect to have a full patient assignment while rounding with providers, running codes, and doing admissions. Don’t expect support from your local leadership team as their expectations from the regional team are too high and they are also overburdened with responsibilities.
