Travel Pathologists' Assistant
Rochester, NY
Health Carousel - Travel Allied
5x8 hrs, Days
Referral Bonus

I worked for over two years at Strong, with the first nine months being as a nurse extern (a position where new grads can work essentially as a patient care tech while also shadowing a nurse) on a MICU during the height of the pandemic, then a year and six months in the CVICU, and three months in the Emergency Department. I worked through COVID, which itself may skew my experience as opposed to those who work during “normal times.” In my time in the MICU and CVICU, I never worried about lacking resources in terms of equipment or staffing. The staffing ratios were also good. I never once was tripled in an ICU assessment, although in the CVICU part of the expectation was to take multiple patients with devices (CRRT in particular), which could make for a challenging shift. The sheer level of acuity I saw was an incredible learning experience, and something that many nurses never get. Also, the opportunity for education in terms of orientation, additional classes offered by the hospital, and from conversations with other nurses or doctors during rounds was great. As for the cons, the biggest challenge was the scheduling. The shifts in all of the ICUs and ED (with very few exceptions) are 50% day shifts and 50% night shifts. This swing-shift dependent schedule makes it very difficult to have much work-life balance, and also leads to general unhappiness among the nurses. Coupled with this, at least in the MICU and CVICU, is difficulties with the nursing culture. Most of the nurses on the units were in their 20s and 30s. Furthermore, these units were, for many of them, their first jobs as nurses. So I cannot discount general immaturity on behalf of the nurses. However, the nursing culture was rather cliquey on these units, and often lead to micro aggressions towards other nurses. I think another factor here has to do with how much say the surgeons have in the CVICU over the nursing interventions. At times, the expectations of these surgeons are unrealistic and their attitude towards implementing these interventions is militaristic. Perhaps this can just be boiled down to “surgeons being surgeons,” but it does make for a difficult work environment after a while. With that said, I cannot overstate how thankful I am for the education I received on all of the units and the experiences I had. They made me a very well-rounded nurse. For myself, the schedule was the most challenging part. I would go back to work at Strong, I would only do so if I was offered an all-nights or all-days contract.