Pros
$5 shift differential for nights Professional setting, you know what you're gonna get, exploitation here is typical for the field (understaffing, you pay for parking, expected to arrive early for shifts to "look up patients" unpaid, similar bs). CCF offers free- to- staff classes and sponsors successful ccrn/pccn test attempts. If you want to move around in the organization, there are a lot of types of units you can work at and management has in my experience been extremely good at helping you realize professional goals. After working for 1 year on the unit you were hired for, they support you to transfer anywhere if you did a decent job on that first unit. Feels like there are adequate physical resources (supplies/ linen/ etc) as well as pt care resources (physician/ lip oversight, pt escalation protocol). Love the people I work with and I was able to gain a lot of valuable experience. Overall, I can't say I regret my time so far here and I'm a generally regretful person haha. So that's good.
Cons
Management and unit culture are a mixed bag, vary 180° by unit. Understaffing seems to be getting always worse, never better. Over reliance on travel nurses and revolving door of new grads contribute to a positive feedback loop of burnout and attrition among experienced staff. This is exacerbated by pathetic, out of touch compensation structure; post covid, salaries increased by only $1. The next year, only $2 more, despite a huge jump in nurse: pt ratios, pt acuity, and inflation (which, when factored in, indicates a significant pay cut). Huge premiums are offered for picking up extra shifts d/t absurd staffing deficit. CCF does not seem dedicated to retaining full time staff, but seems to operate like a factory, taking on many new grad rns who they work hard for relatively less pay to the point of burnout, at which point another new grad who wants CCF clout steps in to take their place. Pts' lives are frequently endangered by travel nurses and new grad nurses, who, instead of supplementing a core of experienced full time staff members, very often comprise the majority of staffing for a shift. Hard to see and hear about all the preventable patient harm, it truly haunts us all. Don't want to think about the needless loss of life caused by CCF's irresponsible staffing model, but working here, you definitely have to confront that reality personally.
