Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services

Pros – The benefits package is probably one of the best in the country. Most likely retention would be poor if it were not for that. Pay is not equitable,and this was supposed to be addressed but for the most part, has not. Apparently the workers have Union representation, but the actuality is that the Union does little for individual employees when called to task.They are good at bargaining and keeping the benefits package, so for that, employees are grateful.As a registered Nurse, one does not have to work night shift, (except in Dept of Corrections)and rarely evening shifts.Most locations are convenient to get to, and job site availability is usually within a 30 mile drive from home. The front line employees are usually very committed to making life better for the residents.

Cons – They do little in the way of offering continuing education for Nursing other than a few basic classes that most RN's have little time to devote to, and mostly politically pertinent topics are covered, not necessarily information that would be adding to the Nurse's knowledge base in their particular field.

They do not have any idea as to how to conserve the Nursing Profession in an age where there is a significant shortage of Nurses.There are no cross trainings or transfers interdepartmentally. One must leave the county employment, train by providing agency services to an understaffed department at a higher cost to the taxpayer, then get hired back in.That seems wasteful, and it is not an inviting scenario for any Registered Nurse who would be interested in training in a different area of Nursing within.In other words, once a Nurse is pegged as one specialty, she is unable to provide other specialty services to departments that she or he may be quite advantageous to.

 There is no central coordinator of Nursing Services in this Government, only administrative human resource employees,(non Nurses) who cannot follow up adequately with interviews or staffing any of the different health care departments that are needing staff. Too many outside agency services are used,by each of the individual Nursing departments, and that is costly, as well as barely adequate. The Nursing Department is one that is based on the past, it needs to be separate, with it's own department coordination staff.

There are many administrators who keep their titles but provide very little in the way of hard work after years of being in this government. They appear to be buying time till they retire. This is not helpful for a department that needs hard working people to deliver services to the residents.There should be a Nursing administrative staff that oversees ALL of the Nursing administrators of all Nursing Departments.This could help in conserving and retaining the threadbare staff they have left. The Montgomery County Government does not appear to be aware that there is a Nursing Shortage.

Advice to Senior Management – Just see the above comments.