Pros
The biggest benefit of working here is that you definitely get to touch people's lives and if you love working with children, then it's often fun to play and work with all the cute babies and toddlers. Other benefits include flexible work hours for nursing staff, bonus pay for working above your point status in addition to overtime pay and many of the nursing staff really care about children and LOVE helping others. This is an excellent hospital for children and their families and this hospital's mission is to have a positive impact on not only the lives of the children that walk through its doors but also the Columbus community as well. I have been at Children's for more than 4 years and have been able to move between positions easily and have gained a lot of beneficial skills from moving around. I appreciate the opportunities to grow that have been provided.
Cons
The biggest con about working here is the benefits and the work load. I think it is downright ridiculous that they don't provide maternity leave for young mothers especially when we are a CHILDREN'S hospital. Staff are forced to use PTO for everything including sick leave, vacation and maternity. I'm sorry...but having a child is not a vacation and it isn't fair if a mother has been put on bedrest during a pregnancy to have to leave her young child earlier because she has run out of FMLA and PTO. I don't even have children and I feel really sorry watching many of my coworkers go through this. Also, the hospital has gone through major expansion with the new building and facilities. As a result it is suffering major growing pains. When the new hospital first opened, instead of hiring more staff to care for the growing number of patients, administration just expected nursing staff to take on more patients and this is still continuing today and not just with nursing staff. In addition, the expansion project has cost the hospital a great deal of money and it seems as if whenever they want to cut costs, they take away more and more of our benefits. For example, the hospital recently took away all STD (short-term disability) accrual from all employees with less than 5 years service and outsourced disability benefits to an outside company. While there is bonus pay for nursing staff, Children's Hospital pays the least out of all the hospitals in the Columbus area. As a whole, this is a great hospital for patient's and their families but often the hospital seems to not care as much about the staff. For example, patient safety is talked about all the time and the hospital even has a Zero Hero initiative to prevent patient harm. Unfortunately, it took the hospital 2 more years and countless staff injuries (including a young woman being assaulted by a male patient) for the hospital to care about staff safety. All in all, perhaps a first stop early in one's career but I can not possibly see how anyone could or would stay here long enough to retire.