Relocating to the Desert

Hello, HRTTX,

I just wanted to welcome you to Allnurses.com

Hello and welcome to allnurses!

Hello.... I lived in Palm Springs for 5 years...and just now moved to Palm Desert (15 miles away). I am a pre-nursing student...but if you have any questions, then I will help any way I can.

P.S. Just had my son at Desert Regional Medical Center in March '05.

I've worked at both Desert Regional (which was called Desert Hospital at the time) and Eisenhower Medical Center. Many of the doctors in the area have privileges at both hospitals as they are only a few miles apart. Desert Regional is much like any middle class community hospital. Eisenhower as well, but will specifically cater to celebrities and people of wealth. The Betty Ford Center for the treatment of substance abuse is part of Eisenhower Medical Center. I liked Desert Hospital better. To work at Eisenhower you are expected to be very conscious of your customer service and smile and be cheerful all the time. In their early days they had many staffing problems and at one time back in the 80's more than half of their ICU staff resigned at the same time after feeling the hospital was abusing them requiring the hospital to call in agency staff. Things may have changed over the years, I don't know. Bob Hope's wife, Delores, was a very big presence at Eisenhower and her influence was felt throughout the place. She may have retired (don't know), but I'd bet she hand-picked her successor. The Hopes donated the land upon which the hospital is built and the proceeds of the Desert Classic Golf Tourniment go to the hospital every year.

I don't know how to put this delicately. The hospital in Indio has a large population of poor patients. They may want their nurses to be bilingual because of the large Mexican population using that particular hospital in the area. They used to have a rather large number of Mexicans coming from over the border for medical care in America because Indio is the second city with a full service hospital on the main highway coming up from Mexicali/Calexico which are right on the U.S/Mexican border. The hospital in El Centro was usually the first hospital the Mexican visitors went to.

http://www.desertmedctr.com/CWSConte...contactus.aspx
Here is the link to a page where you can contact Desert Regional and ask those questions. Sorry that I dont know myself. As for what is going on in the valley here..well, the best places I would say to live are Palm Desert, Indian Wells or Rancho Mirage. Cathedral City and Palm Springs (IMHO) seem somewhat run down and small. Every year in April I believe they have a White Party, which is to celebrate the homosexual society/lifestyle, and is a pretty huge event. Usually in the spring they have fundrasing events for Charitys such as Luekemia and Lymphoma society and Aids walks, marathons, etc. They have a few other annual gatherings for other things such as motorcycles, etc. Those things usually take place in Palm Springs. The north end of Palm Springs seems to have a lot of crime for a small city. I work downtown Palm Springs right now and in the summer it seems to be a ghost town as it is incredibly hot in the summer. This past summer it got up to 129!!!! Winter is absolutely beautiful. I have noticed a trend in the type of people that live in each city.. and this is a generalization.... Palm Springs attracts homosexuals,(they even have a bridge that was just built for a nudist colony i believe) and near downtown there is an area known as Warn Sands which is known for prostution, Cathedral City has a major population on hispanics/mexicans and housing is at the lower end of cost ( I believe it has a larger poplulation of people than palm springs), Rancho Mirage has a high population of elderly, although there isn't a very high population there. Lots of country clubs and very pretty. I could say the same thing for indian wells, although not as much elderly. Palm Desert is the highest populated, except for Indio. Palm Desert has a community college there that is centrally located. There is also El Paseo which is a street similar to what Redeo Drive is to L.A. It's much more city like than palm springs. Indio is definantly growning, but generally known for being crowded and unsafe. I believe Kennedy is near there.
As for High Schools... I really can't help you there. My brother went to Palm Springs High School and he graduated. hmm.... I wouldn't say it was a great school, but at least no one got hurt. I would think that the most unsafe one would be in Cathedral City or Indo. I do go to College of the Desert which is the major community college in the valley.
http://www.collegeofthedesert.edu/
They have Cal State of San Bernadino campus there, so one is able to get their bachelors without having to leave the desert. During the winter you get all sorts of people here in the valley. Most of the toursists I would say are from England or the Netherlands. Very diverse!!! As for things to do here... there are lots of casinos, resorts, golf courses, country clubs... and parks. My experience at Desert Regional with the birth of my son wasn't the best. I heard from lots of people how great an experience they had or how great they heard it was. I am not a person who goes around trying to find something wrong with every thing, but my sister didnt have a very good experience either. For my sister .. they let the epidural run out on her right before she was to start pushing. They thought she would be done in 15 minutes, but it lasted a little more than 2 hours. She also delivered a 12 pound baby that almost didnt make it.. and yes.. it was vaginally. As for myself, most nurses were really nice. I spent a week in the pre-labor section (ashamed to say i forgot what it is called... the section where you are monitored, but not due for a weeks) I had a pyonidal cyst that the OB/GYN couldn't lance in office, because it was way too painful. It was pinching my sciatic nerve and I couldn't lay on my left side. While on my first night there, they nurse was giving my 2 pills of vicoden (which i have never taken ... always only one).. and i wasn't eating very much that day. Later on at night i was feeling sick and ended up throwing up. The nurse told me i ate too much (which wasnt true).. They then put me on one pill and i was fine, but she must have told other nurses that i ate too much becuase they would come in and say "i heard you were eating too much". Kinda made me not want to talk to any of them. Then weeks later when i was having my son, i kept having to go to the bathroom, and needing help with the cords and such. Maybe the nurse told the new one that i did this a lot and when she came in .... told me how to hook myself up to the fetal monitor and IV and such. I was in pain and didnt want a mini course in how to hook myself up to machines.... and well... my doctor almost missed me give birth! The baby was already coming out when she walked in the door, but maybe that is how it is supposed to be... lol...
Anyway, I love Palm Desert! I would think it is the most centrally located place with lost of things to do. This is all i can come up with the top of my head. I may have made this sound like a mad and crazy place to live, but for the residents that are here year round, it is one of those places that everyone tends to get to know everyone. The valley is about 2 hours away from the beaches depending on where along the coast you wanna go. Traffic isn't too bad in the summer, but every year it is getting heavier, because the valley IS growing. Anything else you want to know.. just give me a holler.
P.S. Here is a link for a map of the Valley:
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ad...w=1&name=&qty=
Click on number 5 on the left hand side and you can see the entire valley map. Looking at the map I see I forgot Desert Hot Springs..... You do not, Not, NOT want to live there!!!!!!!!!!! (Lets just say that they have bars on windows in homes and buildings.) You have to take a number of streets to get over there anyway. Not too close to the other cities!
P.S.S. lol... Here is a link to another thread here that is similar to this one... might want to look into Eisenhower.
http://allnurses.com/forums/showthre...39#post1332039

Nicky. . .Do you know who the head of the Nursing program is at present at College of the Desert? I graduated from their nursing program in 1975 so I'm sure most of the instructors are gone. We had the great fortune to be taught by Marian Blondis, a professor emeritus of the nursing program, a year of two before she had to retire due to her M.S. She was one of the original educators who started the nursing program at the college and had been a Navy nurse for years. I wonder if she is still remembered. She was a wonderful person. We did our clinicals at Desert Hospital and Eisenhower. Is Angelview home for children still in operation? Daytonite

I don't know who the head of the Nursing program is.. I'm sorry. I think her first name is susan as she was one of my instructors for my Intro to health Science class in 2000. I am probably wrong on that though.
Angelview is still in operation. One of my good friends adopted 4 autistic, physically and mentally challenged children, but becuase one of them needs extra care that she can't provide, she was able to place one there. They were located in Desert Hot Springs I believe, but has now moved to Palm Springs, and the child is really doing well there.

Thanks! When I went through the nursing program in 1973 to 75 we did the LEGS (Learning Experience Guides for Nursing Students) program. No formal lectures. I'm sure that has all changed with the times. We did a clinical rotation at Angelview in our last semester. It was a very interesting facility and have not heard of any other one like it. They had a huge dog (same breed as Beetoven in the movies) named Schmernov (named after the vodka!) at the time. When the kids were put to bed, individual kids would call him to come in and sleep with them. I'm sure there must be other homes like this around. Good luck with your studies.