Pros
The nursing orientation team (which was made up of one nursing orientation manager and two orientation nurses) was extremely supportive. Without them, I would not be where I am today. Unfortunately, I heard the whole team was laid off in 2014. My coworkers (fellow nurses, speech language pathologists, social workers, and physical and occupational therapists) were easy to get along.
Cons
-Position and Salary/Work-life Balance I was a part of VNSNY's new graduate RN program; most nurses in this program were hired as Per Diem. The rates at the time were $55 per patient; $58 on weekends and holidays; no time and a half; no OT, no benefits, no sick days. On a typical working day, I would see about 6-12 patients, and, on average, work at least 15 hours on a working day, and work at least 4-6 hours on my day off (completing charting, getting patients homecare plans figured out with HHAs, and returning MD calls). I literally never had time to see friends or family due to work. This is a common theme among all homecare nurses (full time, part time and per diem) I have met. -Work Culture There are a few managers (Nursing Field manager of different nursing team/areas, and the weekend/holiday managers) nurses work with. These managers are obsessed to fill quotas, if a nurse saw as many patients as possible, it was a great day for them. They do not care about quality of care for patients, it is all about quantity; and they do not see how burnt out their nurses are, nor do they care. Due to this work culture, I found myself completing unfinished work that other nurses did not have time to do. This is a toxic environment that starts with the managers that trickle down to the nurses, which ultimately leads to low quality of care for patients. Nurses are also hounded on for not completing charting on time (when a nurse is consistently working 15+ hours a day for at least 5 days a week, and have not finished charting on time, it is because they have been assigned a lot more work than they can handle). Every single nurse I have met during this time were burnt out (and some have not even worked a year at the position), and said they were not happy with their job and was planning on quitting. -Union I still do not understand why per diem nurses pay union dues (United Federation of Teachers union). Since orientation, union representatives always said, "Per diem nurses have no rights, only full time nurses have rights." Per diem nurses paying them to do nothing is ridiculous. When the 2013 and 2014 massive lay-offs were happening, the union was not able to do anything for their full time employees as well.