Pros
For the most part, it's a secure job of you're in med-surg. In most of the units I have worked, the majority of the staff is very nice and takes pride in what they do. Hospitalist doctors are very accessible, even at night.
Cons
The pay. The very max pay increase for a perfect review is 3%. I have been there for 7 years and started at $19.50/hr and now make a little over $23/hr. Before the 3% rule took effect (my first year), I got a $1 raise. Now it's like 0.30 cents each year. Yet the increase in our health insurance costs far outpaces our raises. I have frequently seen "new" nurses quietly promoted to ANM all of the sudden, based on their friendships with managers, while the more experienced, well qualified nurses are overlooked. Its definitely about who you know. Also, life at CMC revolves around the budget. If our census goes down, we have a staffing matrix to go by which is viewed basically as their bible. We would have to flex staff down if we discharged a patient or two, yet when our census went up, oftentimes there is nobody who is either scheduled or available, and it's just tough luck to the staff. We use Cerner for our documentation. It's slow and takes forever to navigate through the screens to see patient labs, vitals, etc. It reminds me of dial-up internet. The physicians use power plans and "order sets", which creates a lot of erroneous orders, along with a lot of system generated orders, which makes it a pain to look through and find orders that are relevant to the patient's current care. Lots of our important orders get missed and overlooked this way. On every single unit I have worked on. Everyone knows this, yet it remains the same.