New Care does not pay you for work related events... for example they have you go out and meet patients and families, yet they don't pay you for your time to do so, despite this clearly being a work requirement. Also if you go to meetings such as case conferences or team meetings, they don't pay you an hourly rate. They pay everyone the same set lump rate that is not the hourly pay that you're hired for at these meetings...so you're being cheated. It's probably not legal.
You are also expected to use your own personal cell phone and email for work. Laptops, phones, or ipads are not provided or paid for. You are not paid extra for the use of your own equipment used directly for this job. This is probably also not legal. Even if it is legal, it's still shady.
They also expect you to do a patient's housework as a nurse. I did not go to school to do someone else's dishes or to keep someone's mop alive! You are there to provide nursing care, not be the housekeeper. This is very poor and disrespectful treatment of a medical professional. Nurses are not nannies, servants, or housekeepers. My nursing professors would be extremely disappointed if they knew that I had accepted this job. You wouldn't ask your doctor, physical therapist, respiratory therapist, ect. to do your laundry. Would you ask a non-medical professional to do your housework, like an accountant? This is just not professional. Housekeepers are insured, bonded, and protected in case something happens in the home, either to them or to the property they're cleaning. This is a separate industry and should be. If I had a nurse taking care of a loved one in my home, I would want them doing nursing care, not something else.
There is poor communication between shifts, which negatively affects continuity of care for patients. This also puts nurses at risk of losing their license. Part of this problem is the family are treated like they are also nurses. You are asked to go along with the whims of the family, even if it's not safe or appropriate care. This is a huge liability. Charting is also all pen and paper...
Management does not welcome and is not open to feedback from employees. They do not ask for employee feedback and if you give them feedback, they have a negative, immature reaction. Instead of taking that feedback to make New Care better, they make excuses and/or are retaliate. There are no surveys that go out to employees asking for suggestions on how to make things better or ask employees for advice. There are free surveys that could be sent by email that would not cost them anything except time. They are definitely sticks in the mud.
Their training and orientation is questionable. Their training and orientation includes one day in the office for company orientation, then spotty 1 to 3 hour trainings for various things. Then, they only have you with another nurse for 3 or 4 days in the patient's home. This is not safe or acceptable.
If they find an excuse to take a bonus away from you after it was already offered, they will do so. Their pay is very poor. Bus drivers make more than the nurses who work for New Care. If you do your research and look online, everywhere else pays $30 and more, for starting pay in Seattle and the surrounding areas. Even other local organizations who have had recent, significant financial struggles, pay their nurses significantly more money. There is also no nursing union. Management can be rude and abusive to you with no accountability.
The excuses they make for the poor pay rate is that insurance companies don't pay much for in-home nursing care. I find this hard to believe considering they offer bonuses left and right. I think someone or several someones in upper management are making a whopping amount of money and then pretending like this company doesn't make enough, or make a profit.
Benefits are also not good. You are way better off working for one of the many other well established nursing organizations in the area that treat you better, pay well, and have significantly better benefits. Most organizations here also have a good nursing union to protect you and the patients you take care of from bad management practices and mistreatment. It's better to spend more time and energy looking for and waiting for a response back from the other organizations in this area than to apply for or accept a job with New Care. There is a reason they have a lot of job openings on Glassdoor and multiple other websites.
If you're wondering why there aren't very many negative reviews for New Care, it's because they ask you not to post negative reviews at the time you're hired. This is also shady... I'm grateful we live in a country that believes in free speech.
This may have been one of the best home health care agencies in the area in the 80's and 90's, but it most certainly isn't now. I am currently looking for another job and then will be getting away from New Care asap!!
