NICU Nursing in North Carolina

[sfricker]

Hey there! I am just doing some early research. My fiance is a Navy Nurse and we are currently stationed in San Diego. We are looking into our next station to be North Carolina. I am a NICU nurse and will have 4 years experience by the time we move. We will be stationed at Camp Lejeune close to Jacksonville. I am looking for suggestions of good hospitals in the area with a level II-IIII NICU. Any good or bad experiences with getting hired or working there?

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Vidant Children's in Greenville, NC is 90 miles away. It is a Level III/IV. The hospital is little over 4 yrs old.

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) | Vidant Health

[psychlady17]

I'm not sure about the naval hospital on Camp Lejeune, but Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, NC has a level II nursery and a level III NICU. I've never worked there, but I have heard they can be slow on the hiring process. You also have Cape Carteret Hospital in Morehead City, NC. They have the Brady Birthing Center, but I'm not sure about NICU specifics. Another option is New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, NC. They have a level III NICU. NHRMC is the monopoly hospital in that area, so it can be hard to get hired. However, they have good benefits, self scheduling, etc. NHRMC and Cape Carteret are both about an hour drive from Jacksonville.

Hope you find what you're looking for!

[4mybears]

The local hospital, Onslow Memorial, is slow to hire and more of a small rural hospital. Worked there in the past and its typical conditions, no breaks, high patient load, unhappy employees and hospital board members worried about their bottom line. Can't speak for Naval, have heard better things from there. For personal care most people would rather drive to a different hospital rather than be treated at Onslow, what does that say about the hospital? Not good. There is a good drive to Wilmington, which would be New Hanover or Greenville, which is Vidant. New Bern has a hospital but they send all their peds to Vidant. Don't know enough about Carteret hospital but it is closer than Vidant or New Hanover. If you are only in the area for a short time, 3yr, you may be ok sucking it up at Onslow. Your honestly better at Naval as the pay will be higher and staffing should be better. Pay is average to low, in the range of $23/hr. for most hospitals in eastern NC. I don't mean to sound so bleak, but it's what you will find around the base. Good luck.

[RNBabies]

I worked in the NICU at OMH. It is a great place to work if you accept it for what is is... A rural community hospital. They can keep babies over 30 weeks and transfer the teenies to new Hanover and most surgical babies go to chapel Hill or vidant. Many babies come back to omh after they are stable as feeder growers. There are a lot of great things about working there and a lot of frustrating things but staff becomes like family and it's an easy drive.