Pros
Salem Hospital was good to me from the time I started as a candy stripper at 13. SH trained me to be a CNA at 17. I went to 4 years of nursing school. Graduated and returned to S.H. I worked there the majority of my long career. But in 2009 all the nurses were feeling un-easy abt possible lay offs. It had been rumoured in the past abt getting rid of older nurses. Which of course was adammately denied by administration. I felt paranoid and was being taken advantage of by younger staff. Assistant managers were talking with there buddies on their cigarette breaks abt other staff members. Rumors were flying. I began to notice I was not getting the recognition I deserved. I felt very vulnerable and fearful that these girls were setting me up for a fall. I was always a hard worker. Rarely had free time. Rarely took breaks. Put my pts first. My younger coworkers had time to sit and socialize and gossip. I felt compassion was missing in alot of the patients care. Many nurses just did what they had too to get done. I always had good evaluations and I was very proud to be a part of the SH nursing team. To this day I have pain in my heart for how I was treated. I went into nursing to help people. That was God's Gift to me. See I spent a good share of my child hood in a hospital. I knew what it was like to feel pain . God gave me a purpose in living. S H destroyed my self esteem and my sense of worthiness.
Cons
If you were not in the popular bunch of staff members...you sometimes got mistreated or taken advantage of. I was guiet and a hard worker. I was an easy target for difficult assignments that other nurses didnt want. I must stress that this was not always the case. Things didnt really start getting difficult untill after abt 2001.