Veterans Medical Center Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – The pay is great, the benefits are even better, and working for Veterans makes a person feel good at the end of the day.

Cons – Most employees have been here for years. Almost everyone knows everyone else. A new person can find it difficult to integrate.

Advice to Senior Management – I personally feel they need to embrace change and technology more. Healthcare is a fast paced environment. Change is inevitable.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – Flexible schedules
Most people are friendly
Salary above minimum wage

Cons – Supervisors failed to solve staffing problems and issues in reasonable time
Very little accountability for bad performance
Hospital holds onto bad employees instead of letting them go
Felt like good workers go unrecognized, but are given more work to make up for the failings of other employees
Nepotism in hiring of some positions

Advice to Senior Management – Figure out who the good employees are and give them a reason to stay
Figure out who the low performing, problematic employees are and get rid of them
Management should take more control to solve everyday problems that linger on

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – Being able to interact with veterans.

Cons – Sometimes the work load can become too much. Sometimes patients get mad with rules beyond anyone's control at the VA but Congress.

Advice to Senior Management – Value the staff.

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – Pay and benefits are unmatched by private sector

Cons – culture of mediocrity is tolerated and encouraged, making waves or working too hard often backfires

Advice to Senior Management – Stop counting the days until retirement and start looking for ways to improve morale and culture around here

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – The benefits are better than private sector employers. The insurance is decent, the pay is consistent, but the management is horrible. I think too many kneejerk reactions are exercised, due to the lack of proper planning.

Cons – The level of education isn't stressed as much as in the private sector - typically diminishing the potential for productivity and effective leadership. I understand that even people with specialized education aren't all the best; however, the experience combined with the education is a better foundation for one to contribute effectively to an organization. The "good ole boy" system is employed entirely too much in the federal sector.

Advice to Senior Management – Engage in training and continuing education to stay abroad of current business practices.

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – The health benefits, retirement and vacation/sick time.

Cons – The unsafe neighborhood you have to walk through to just get to work. You are not allowed to park in the VA parking garage but rather a public parking garage 3 blocks away that YOU have to PAY $40 a month to park there and then take your life into your own hands to walk through the "hood". I actually have started carrying pepper spray. Not to mention the rain, sleet, snow.....etc.....

Advice to Senior Management – Do their own jobs and stop delegating everything.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – The best part of working there is that you can pay your bills while looking for another job.

Cons – There are numerous hassles working at the VA. Even getting to work is difficult. The parking is bad and it rolls down hill from there. Even if you never work with patient data you are under demands to protect your data on computers. Wasteful retraining is required for irrelevant material. As a researcher in the biological sciences if found it cumbersome to work under rules designed for medical workers.

Advice to Senior Management – I really didn't deal with them. I would generally say that there are huge bureaucracies between people that work there and the senior management. A typical government agency.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – to build clinical skills and take care of patients in a system that is continuously improving and without the interface of insurance problems of the private sector

Cons – government beurocracy
older managers who are not using best practices to motivate employees

Advice to Senior Management – this is advice for nursing management at this VA:
support your employees
avoid the top-down management style that you currently use (my way or the highway)
listen to suggestions and grievances

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – The Dietetic Internship is strong, and has a great reputation. I thought when I was coming in that it would be an amazing and challenging year, but it really turned out to just be challenging.

Cons – Bureaucracy, lots of frustrations and being treated like a kid by some of the higher ups. I though that this would be a place where I would make great connections, and I did connect with some of the medical staff and other interns, but overall, the RDs treated us condescendingly, which was really awful.

Advice to Senior Management – Try to make the interns feel more welcome so we will come work for you! Almost none of us ever wanted to see that place again.

Former Employee – worked at Veterans Medical Center

Pros – The benefits are from the government. Huge stable organization.

Cons – Run down dark and dingy facilities with out-dated equipment. The staff seems miserable and not of the highest caliber. A lot of the Dr's seem un-caring, just going through the motions. If you don't smoke or use vulgarity on a regular basis you won't fit in.

Advice to Senior Management – Clean up the facilities and make even the grounds non-smoking. Set some standards of dress and hygiene and curb the raunchy talk amoungst employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend