Pros
This is a review for the 801 Womens and Childrens Clinic. As a pediatric nurse practitioner straight out of school, you filter your job search for positions that will foster an environment of growth, learning, and support. I was a character in that new graduate narrative, but as a spoiler, I left Ryan Health after almost 2.5 years. The most unfortunate piece of the story here is that I fought really hard to stay because of the caring, patient, and knowledgeable providers I had the privilege of working with and the patient population I had the opportunity to meet. Unfortunately, this clinic took a toll on my mental health and left me feeling unsafe, gaslit, and disrespected:
Cons
Compensation/wage theft: Nurse practitioners at Ryan Health are obligated to pay dues to the 1199 Union and are paid at an hourly rate. One hour of pay will be deducted every day as your “lunch.” There were instances where schedulers erroneously scheduled patients during my lunch hour and when I saw them for visits, I was denied overtime pay. I was made to seem like a complainer and informed by an individual in management that any time worked “under 45 minutes will be rounded down” and that if I brought this up to pay roll I “would create a mess.” Nurse practitioners are also on an uncompensated call schedule of 24 hours for 7 days a week in a rotation as hourly employees. I accepted the on-call responsibility as part of the care team, but if I am an hourly employee, I should be paid for time worked. Speaking of not paying, Ryan Health will not pay for your professional license or DEA renewal fees. Lack of basic competency: There are so many issues that are easily solvable, but are just left to a “it is what it is” mentality. It takes weeks/months and repeated emails for a response from some individuals in upper management Lack of respect: Some individuals in upper management will either not ask for feedback or ask for feedback and then completely disregard concerns/opinions. The same individuals will lie and go back on their word and gaslight you into thinking they never made any claims. Providers are often villainized and talked to like we are complainers for expressing concerns for the above. Authoritarianism Some individuals in upper management will make critical changes to your day to day without speaking with you first: e.g. altering your entire schedule/template, changing the medical assistant/nurses you are allegedly permanently working with. No open communication If not already in the “Management for Dummies” handbook, then when almost all employees have voiced to you multiple times that they are at the VERY least asking for open communication, emails are still being ignored, decisions made without prior or even post-communication. If I am not enough proof, between May-July 2024, 4 out of 8 pediatric providers have put in their notices to leave. It is unfortunate, as our patients are also the ones who suffer here, losing the strong and trusting relationships they have built with their primary care providers. Ryan Health does not care about or acknowledge provider burnout. If they continue on with the way they have, patients will continue to lose their PCPs. I fear that this will contribute to our patient population losing trust in a healthcare system that is already flawed. Additionally, the remaining providers will continue to suffer in a suppressive and abusive environment. When I should have spent most of my time building my new provider tool box and clinical expertise, I wasted a lot of mental and emotional energy dealing with all of the above. I felt like I was drowning and tried to grab onto any sort of floating support, but was left to fend for myself. In summation, employees are extremely unhappy here, having to constantly fight for earned wages in a toxic work environment, with lack of respect or support for providers, and very low employee morale fostered by an out of touch “bottom line”-focused administration.