Pros
The people you meet in the hospital. Teamwork between the NA’s is amazing. Self Scheduling is a plus. Cafeteria deduction, uniform discounts.
Cons
Absolutely zero cohesion of care between the different units. On some floors, staff nurses do not work in collaboration with their NA’s. Nurses will avoid patients room the entire shift, only going in to pass meds. They won’t answer call lights so NA can take breaks and lunches, so most NA’s skip lunch and breaks for 12 hours. Then on other floors it’s nothing but teamwork, it makes the shift better for everyone involved when everyone is helping. Critical Staffing incentive pay between the nurses and NA is laughable, There isn’t a laid out plan for moving up in the position. Schedulers do a horrible job of placing people when they pick up shifts, sometimes switching you minutes before you walk in the building instead of having it done at least an hour prior to your shift. The new benefit structure with BJC is terrible, HSA contribution dropped to half, part time employees are paying almost double for medical benefits than full time employees, and excludes a lot of medications that people need. Time off benefits have changed as well. From PTO accrual, sick leave, FMLA ,and even bereavement. The new attendance policy went into effect January 1. There were no meetings prior to that for any of these changes, and even though there is a new Attendence policy, as of right now, BJC isn’t even allowing for Saint Luke’s employees to get a blank slate as of January 1. Most employees don’t even know about these changes, but will be expected to follow them.
