Need Info on Christus Health Hospitals

Hi Lucky,
I'm wondering what you might have found out about either of these hospitals? I just applied and was offered a new grad residency. They seem to have great benefits and a great work environment, but I'm looking for some first-hand insight.

Thanks!

I am with CHRISTUS Health - and work closely with both of those facilities. They are actually 2 campuses of the same hospital (CHRISTUS Hospital). St Elizabeth is a large tertiary facility in Beaumont and St Mary is in Port Authur - only a half hour away. They have Magnet status and great nursing leadership with a joint governance model. Their nursing scores on our annual employee satisfaction surveys are very high.

Beaumont is not a very large city, but it is only 90 miles from Houston, so your major 'retail therapy' needs can be easily satisfied. Close to the Louisiana border, so it's easy to visit New Orleans for fun times. If you enjoy the beach or sport fishing/sailing, they are close by also. What additional info do you need?

Thanks for your reply! I'm wondering about the culture within the nursing units. Are new grads readily accepted and supported or does the "nurses eat their young" attitude apply?

Do you know anything about the residency programs? I've been interested in finding one of these types of programs. In Houston for instance, the med center hospitals offer these twice a year and I've heard from previous classmates about their experiences with them---mostly good of course!

Overall, I'm very interested and excited about the opportunity to work there, but wanted to fish for insight from someone with first-hand knowledge.

Oh-what about parking? Can employees park for free?

Thanks again!

Parking at CHRISTUS Hospital (both campuses, Beaumont & Port Arthur) is free for staff.

The New Nurse Residency program is has been a very popular program for a number of years. The majority of participants are recruited from local schools, but they have recently expanded the size of the program to accomodate hospital growth needs. The program is not as cut-and-dried as most hospitals; they try to tailor it to the needs of the participants. For instance, if a new grad is particularly interested in Women's Health, they try to ensure that she has the opportunity to experience all clinical areas in that service line. Overall, they are very focused on ensuring that new grads are welcomed and supported.

We are a Catholic health care system, and this does have a great deal of influence our culture. For instance, we have dedicated infrastructure and resources for providing (ecumenical) spiritual care at all of our facilities and place more emphasis on integrity and ethics in business practices.