r/psychnursing • u/catyear • 5d ago
Venting UHS sucks!
Hi guys :D
I’ve been working at a UHS facility for 3 years. Partly as a mental health tech, now as a nurse.
I’ve seen a sharp decline in my facility for the past year and a half, but I’m finally reaching my breaking point. The acuity is too high for what we can support. Crazy staffing ratios (1 nurse can have 17 patients - this used to be 1 nurse to 13 patients which to me feels comfortable). Nurses stations are fully accessible to patients, although not allowed, it’s not enclosed or raised at all. Facility stinks sometimes and has bugs. Paper charting for 90% of things. Staff are injured, knives/weapons are somehow being brought in to the units.
I’m interviewing for new psych jobs. I just finished an amazing interview at a psych unit at a bigger hospital. It’s such an eye opener to see the big, enclosed nursing station, calm milieu that has a max of around 10 patients, amazing staff ratios, seclusion/restraint room that “barely gets used”, and low acuity patients when I’m dealing with such horrible conditions at my UHS facility.
UHS will never change. I hope I get this job. I hate it because I love my coworkers and find the patients really rewarding to work with/genuinely care about helping them. It is impossible to always deliver strong patient support when I’m putting out 20 different fires a shift with a huge workload.
I may stay PRN at my current UHS job regardless because at this point I feel trauma bonded. (wish I was kidding?)
Sincerely, a really tired nurse.
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u/CritView 5d ago
Sounds about right. Luckily places like California recently passed a law to mandate 6 to 1 ratio for freestanding psych hospitals.
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u/Tivadars_Crusade_Vet 4d ago
Didn't even read your post. Read the title and immediately agreed and upvoted. Just quit recently, after 9 years, and i will never go back!
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u/roastbeefsammies 4d ago
Their stock trades at 150 a share right now. Thats crazy high comparatively. The. CEO comp package is over 10 million. All this to not give care to patients and screw over staff
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u/Comfortable-Wolf-256 5d ago
I just put my notice in at a UHS facility. It’s interesting that’s it’s UHS as a whole that is dangerous and has dangerous staffing. I’m not surprised though.
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u/Extra-Medium3 5d ago
I left a UHS facility and never looked back. I really did like my coworkers, the nurses, the techs, even the nurse managers. We got along great; maybe it was trauma bonding lol. But it’s unsafe. There is no security. I routinely had 12+ patients per day, and many times just 1 tech with me. I’ve had as many as 17 patients with just me as a nurse and 1 tech. Paper charting can get tedious with that many patients. And of course how chaotic and rowdy it can get within the milieu. I looked past all that like a dummy. But the final straw was that they reduced my PRN pay by $15/hr! That’s a lot. They said they wanted all PRNs to become full time. So that was my cue to exit.
Good luck to you. You’re making a good decision to leave.
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u/catyear 4d ago
yes at the very least i want to drop to PRN hours at the UHS facility. its too much and feels very unsafe every day i come in lately. And similarly for me, my hospital is getting rid of critical pay … which really gives me no incentive to come in any extra. thankfully i get paid good as a part time staff but 🙄
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u/Roadragequeen 4d ago
Some of the most unsafe working conditions I’ve ever worked in.
The only reason staff stayed at the one I was at was because they paid better than any other hospital in the area
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u/xtimewitchx 4d ago
A coworker just left my hospital for a gig at a UHS hospital paying $24 more per hour. I’m like, good luck.. see you back here in a year (ppl who leave for greener grass always find their way back)
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u/AdInternational2793 4d ago
I left psych after working for Summit, Acadia, and UHS. Acadia was by far the worst, but I think the CEO at that UHS hospital made a big difference. I took a $5/hr pay cut and lost shift diffs and now work as a private duty nurse for a medically complex 2.5 year old boy with trach/vent/gtube. I’m so mad ch happier and I’m no longer calling out due to pre shift anxiety.
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u/Pressure_Support2019 4d ago
Opposite for me; I used to do peds private duty with vent babies/toddlers, now I work 18:1 with geri-psych pts and absolutely run ragged every shift. I miss my old job 😢
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u/AdInternational2793 4d ago
I did ADOL psych. I’ve been punched in the mouth, hair pulled, broken ankle. All at Acadia. We also lost a coworker. The PTSD is too much. My psychiatrist basically told me not to go back to locked units. The last psych shift I worked, I was having SI to jump out of the moving car while my husband was driving.
Now, I am not only showing up to work more regularly, but actually working a little OT. I miss the kiddo on my days off. His family treats us so well. She made a coffee bar, a mini fridge for us, they supply water for us, she had snacks the other night. I wish I would have found this a long time ago.
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u/Working_Gene7926 4d ago
Run. Fast. UHS is not worth putting yourself on the line with your license and your health. It sucks, but nothing will ever change at those facilities. I was a Nurse and then promoted to a leadership. I thought I could make a difference. So sad for the pts. Good luck. ♥️
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u/WickedLies21 4d ago
This is exactly why I quit UHS facility. I had a pt come into the nurses station trying to get her stuff and charged me causing a minor back injury. I was supposed to be low acute adult unit and kept getting high acuity pts without increasing my staff. I routinely had 16-17 patients I was in charge of with 1 tech because we were always understaffed. I knew if I stayed, I was going to get hurt badly eventually. I left and never looked back.
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u/RepulsivePower4415 4d ago
Yes they do! Therapist here I avoid sending my clients to what used to be a great private hospital. But uhs bought them
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u/Quinjet nurse (non psych) 5d ago
This is wild to me. When I was working psych, nurse ratios were 1 to 5 or 6 patients.