I have always experienced a positive work environment

Megan, Employee

I started working at Bronson as an inpatient physical therapist almost 24 years ago. As a recent college graduate, I was living in Grand Rapids and working as a PT Extern at a local hospital. I had heard great things about Bronson and knew I wanted to apply. From day one, Bronson really rolled out the red carpet. Beginning with the interview process, everyone I met was so kind and excited to have me join the team. Now almost 24 years later, I can say with confidence that working for Bronson has been a decision I’ve never regretted.

First and foremost, I have always experienced a positive work environment where employees are valued. When you know you are valued, you do your best work! The people I work with are some of my best friends. When you have a team that works together and picks one another up when they’re down, you are able to give the best patient care. Our physical therapy team does an excellent job of taking care of each other and working as a team. I truly believe this is what has sustained us throughout the pandemic. The pandemic has been extremely hard on all of us, but when you get to work with people you truly care about, it makes the load a lot lighter to carry.

In my opinion, Bronson is a very unique healthcare system to work at because we are large enough to offer amazing benefits and career development opportunities, while also being small enough that we feel like a family. As a PT, there are two things that truly stand out to me:

1. We have a voice. Whenever my colleagues or I bring up an issue or idea to our leadership team, they listen. More importantly, they ACT on it and implement change! When the leadership team sees that something isn’t working, they often do not wait for us to come to them. They will seek our feedback and they investigate whether something has been tried in the past and what the results were. As someone who has worked at other organizations and knows plenty of healthcare workers at other hospitals, I know this is not always the case.

2. Our top priority is always the patient. At Bronson, we are absolutely expected to be productive employees, but I feel so grateful to work for an organization that prioritizes quality patient care over trying to hit benchmarks. Again, knowing other physical therapists who work for other organizations, I have heard plenty of stories about PTs having to rush through patient care in order to hit a certain patient quota. I think when you respect your employees and motivate them in the right ways, they will hit the benchmarks while providing the right care to each patient.

On the topic of respecting and motivating employees, I truly appreciate all that Bronson has done to recognize and show gratitude to us, particularly over these past few years as we have worked through the pandemic. The 6% salary increase that was recently given out to employees across the system is a great example of employee voices being heard. I think this raise increases morale, promotes retention and motivation, as well as shows us we are valued. It feels like a reflection of the “we’re all in this together” attitude that is felt here at Bronson.

Bronson also has really great employee perks. As someone who has a 40-minute commute to work, I often don’t have time during the week to run errands. Having the concierge service to do those small tasks that I’m not able to get to during the week is a great resource that not many companies offer! Last but certainly not least, I love that Bronson promotes an environment of growth. The field of physical therapy is constantly evolving, and we are required to take continuing education courses and complete advanced certifications. To help keep the costs down, Bronson has brought some training courses right to us. The leadership team and educators send out surveys to inquire about what the team thinks are the highest educational needs. When the need is established, Bronson helps cover the expenses to fill the need. This year, in fact, we as a team found that we needed more therapists trained in burn care. Our leadership team was able to help send a few teammates to the American Burn Association Conference for further education. This is a great example of the leadership team seeing a gap in our skills, and making sure we had the resources and ability to grow our knowledge. They recognize that increasing knowledge always results in better patient care.

Join Megan on Team Bronson

Love where you work! When you choose a career at Bronson, you join a team of professionals who care for each other as much as they care for their patients.

TAGS: Bronson Rehabilitation Services, Careers, physical therapist, Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation
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