Pros
Ochsner has the best teamwork among nurses I've ever seen. Patient care is top priority, and I would rate it very high. Also, Ochsner has great technology and can treat almost any problem. It's a teaching hospital, so most of the doctors are residents. The doctors and nurses are very good and knowledgeable about what they're doing, and most try their hardest to be compassionate to patients and family. I found the benefits to be VERY good. There's a gym for employees that's free to use. Also, if you're coming to work from Mississippi or someplace far, you can stay at the Brent House (hotel), which is really nice. The restaurants are good and healthy too, although pricey. Another good thing is the scheduling: you put in your request about a month beforehand and management usually honors your desired workdays. Plus, if you want/need some extra hours, you're basically free to work as many hours as you wish (at your own risk or being burned out).
Cons
Safety precautions for nurses are not top priority, ex: if you are emptying a catheter of a person with VRE and the front desk calls your phone, you had better drop everything midstream and answer it or they will come and fuss at you. The floors are way too busy and over-stimulating, and you get such an acute patient load that it is common to misplace things, lose things, forget things, etc, thus risking your license. As an aside, management says it has protections in place for its staff but it does not. They don't care if you come to work with the flu, as long as you're a warm body to fill a staff RN's hours. Patient visitors and screaming children get the run of the floor, and are free to distract, heckle and scream at the healthcare providers as they wish. Many (not all) patients treat being on the floor as a free-for-all narcotics buffet, so in essence you are obligated to get people legally lit, knowing they could possibly be going home with a new addiction. It doesn't matter if you're the best nurse in the country, there are patients who WILL complain about you, and your patient satisfaction cards will not mean a thing: management almost always vies on the side of the patient. Again, risking your license. They will not hire more than 2 PCTs per ~50 beds, on a floor where everybody is bowel incontinent. And trust that on a Sunday when the Saints play, these PCTs will call in sick, along with 3 or 4 other nurses, so their load is on YOU, and nobody bats a lash at this (except for the nurses). It's not uncommon to see new nurses crying before the shift starts, just out of contemplation for what may go wrong that day.