Tucson Medical Center Employee Job Reviews in the United States

"The workplace for this employer is very busy, due to multiple doctors working in the same office. The patients are very kind, the staff is very friendly and warm. The opportunity for growth for these employers is very hard, due to such a small, and very new company."

What do you like about working at Tucson Medical Center?

"Most of the co-workers are good people that I enjoy working with."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"You'll love the city, with warm weather and a great climate but you can't count on looking forward to work everyday"

What don't you like about working at Tucson Medical Center?

"There is no real reason to work here. There is no opportunity for growth, or movement within the company. It is just do what we say, when we say to do it."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I would become more employee focused, and perhaps give back to the employee's instead of taking bonus'"

"I am very disappointed, I really thought administration wanted to change but they don't support their own initiatives."

What do you like about working at Tucson Medical Center?

"I liked the unit I managed and the staff. I liked the mix of seasoned nurses and CNLs to help grow the new staff. I also liked having a step down unit on my unit because it gave the staff a way to grow their practice without leaving the unit so it was a great recruiting and retention tool. I liked the capacity to monitor all our pts and the ability to monitor pts on our unit with a-lines and cardiac drips which allowed our unit to be versatile in their practice. I liked the visibility of my director and CNO. I liked the weekly mgr mtg with our group director."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Get any promises in writing, don't get your hopes up and feel like this administration supports managers, they don't, but they are very charismatic and convincing about their passion for change. If interviewing for a manager position be ready to work very long hours, be able to take over a unit without any orientation, there is not standardization of information shared between units, there is no list of phone numbers, managers, supervisors, and directors of the hospital, there is no standardization of how the unit clerks process information or their duties, there is no standardization of the CNL duties so each unit has different duties for the CNLs, there is favoritism from the CNO down so be ready for decisions based on favoritism and not what is best for the pt. You could have a perfect record, out perform your peers, and suddenly without warning be told to step down. Its better to be a staff nurse, they make more money than managers anyway."

What don't you like about working at Tucson Medical Center?

"The lack of communication regarding big changes. My director asked me to notify my staff that the IO (step down unit) was going to close in Nov 2008 because another unit was going to take all IO status pts. I was given partial information 2 weeks prior to the change and was not involved in the process to make the change. I was allowed to make a budget including the IO and was not given the information needed to make a budget reflecting the said change despite administration's knowledge of the change. In the meeting the director of the unit who was to receive our pts when the IO closed stated she had notified all physicians involved and they supported the decision. Not a single physician was informed of the change and they were furious that they were not involved in the process. I don't understand how someone can make decisions to make changes that affect my staffing, schedules, etc and not include me in the process or at least give me the courtesy of giving me information so that I could make the appropriate changes. We scheduled accordingly and without any notification the unit has not closed is still open. There is still no definite communication as to what the plan is for those beds. Our unit keeps the IO beds full and divert daily overflow on our regular unit. I have never been written up. I received a glowing yearly eval both in 2008 and 2009, outscored my peers (without any raise) and was told to resign without any prior counseling, because of the response to an email I sent to a staff member who had a pattern of reporting issues every I was on PTO. Despite my effort to work on nights to grow staff, be more visible to the night staff, grow the CNLs on nights, and ask all staff members to include this staff member if there were any issues, he always told me no. I was not supported in my effort to grow the staff on nights, despite the fact that I am held accountable for their practice, it was always an issue that I would work nights and I was chastised. The night staff needed my guidance and our pt surveys support my effort to grow them due to the majority of complaints originated from the care received on night shift, which has the most new grads. I was honest upon hire that I lived an hour and a half away and everyone stated that was not an issue and they would support me, that did not occur and when my father-in-law passed away my director told me I was lucky she did not write me up for taking BL for my husbands real father because my husband did not have a relationship with him. I told her my husband needed closure and I felt the need to support him because of the issues involved. I also told her she was not being fair because I am actually married to my husband and another manager took BL for her common law husband's father's death and she had no right to decide who was hurting more and she had to be fair in her decisions and she had no right to judge me and she was not fair when she sent the other manager flowers and a card for the loss and did not only acknowledge my family's loss but threatened to write me up. I never had a lot of PTO due to a custody battle my family was involved in and I was honest about that as well. I know for a fact another mgr had less PTO than me and often took off due to sick children, vacations, etc and it was never an issue however, it was an issue for me to take off despite the fact I was honest about the need to be off and the willingness to make up the time and I was not behind in my work and met all deadlines. I was the highest scoring manager of her group for employee satisfaction, usually the most compliant, stayed within budget and managed down my FTEs despite increasing my unit's bed capacity from 38 to 70 and teaching my employees to give a pt a bed immediately to decrease pt wait times in the ED and PACU. Increased ADC from 34 to 44 and had no travelers and no seasonal staff the only unit to have all core staff. When I started there were 9 travelers and 2 seasonal. My staff turnover rate was .02% and my productivity scores were among the best. I also supported our director when other managers were making negative comments and I notified her of the comments and how the comments affected the teamwork between the managers. I think that despite the fact I admit I could have handled the situation differently and asked the CNO prior to my director's return for feedback and guidance the only feedback I received was that day when I was in the CNOs office, she did help me and the other managers by assigning all of us new directors because the one we had was not supportive, non-responsive, and did not once come to the units to round. The CNO was defensive and stated she was not going to fire her directors because she needed them, and all I asked for was help because of a situation that was over my head, I did not ask that anyone be terminated. I feel that I should have known that I was not performing correctly and given guidance and an action plan as we as managers are expected to do for our staff. I was not supported when physicians made decisions that were potentially harmful to the pt, I was chastised and told I could not interpret a 12 lead EKG and I reminded the director and CNO that is within my scope of practice and that I am an advocate for the pt and am bound by our state law to protect the pt. I have been certified in another hospital to read them and have done so for approx 17 years. I feel that administration talks about accountability and states we must manage to the values of the hospital and the strategic goals of the hospital and unit but they do not support managers in upholding those values when it comes to physicians and the directors. My director actually was the best director out of the group and it really showed when she was gone how dysfunctional the group is because they all have different expectations and took forever to make decisions on situations that require director or CNO approval. My director is young and impressionable and is unable to effect change when it comes to her level or higher because she does not have the experience to negotiate needed changes and is so in awe of her mentor she accepts questionable decisions instead of clarifying or questioning the decision as the best option. My director questioned the termination of a nurse who repeatedly had narcotic discrepancy's and did not follow the state board of nursing guidelines in her practice of pulling pts medications before assessment of the pt and documented administering medication up to 4 hours before actually pulling the narcotics, and wanted me to call the nurse and retract the termination and make the write up a level 3. I did not change my decision and explained my reason to her. She did not even give me the courtesy of talking to me at all when she came back from leave. It appeared that she intentionally avoided me and was not available to help me when I asked for help. She was deceitful in her actions instead of being honest with me which I would have much more appreciated and respected. She called me in her office to tell me I had to resign."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"To support the managers and communicate information to the managers in a timely manner. Support managers when managers are advocating for pts and have proved their argument that the physician may need to make a change to ensure a better outcome for the pt. Standardize forms every unit uses so that everyone gives the same message and ensure the staff is better organized which allows for more time at pt bedside. Hold directors accountable for supporting managers and rounding when another director is on PTO and standardize the expectations so the managers know what the director expects from them. Have a real orientation for managers so that the manager doesn't find out 6 months later they were supposed to attend a certain mtg, collect information, etc. Have HR notify IS of the new mgr so the mgr is given the correct computer access and again has a clue that the report even exists."