Best DFW Hospitals for nurses

jv503 · Sep 2, 2022

Hi there! I am a nurse from the PNW who has worked in DFW for 2+ years. First of all, unions are really hard to come by in Texas as far as I've found...

In Dallas you have the major hospitals-- Baylor, UTSW, Parkland. Then there are branches of Baylor, Medical City, Presby all over the DFW area.

From my experience and what I've heard: I worked at Parkland's ER. It is the busiest in the country, and has its fair share of issues like any other hospital. Unfortunately we are pretty overrun by psych and social work related issues. The turnover is pretty high and there is a lot of youth in the department currently, but also some incredible experienced nurses who have stuck around. Pay is competitive especially for an experienced hire, and there is still a ton of $40 extra/hour critical pay available as well as sign on bonuses. Critical care cases are treated in a specific pod of the department so you only get true critical patients (2:1 ratio) on certain scheduled days, and trauma is entirely separate from the main ED (this is important in my mind because a lot of people come to Parkland because of the trauma/burn draw). Besides the critical care pod, ratio is typically 4-6:1. Once you are pod lead though, sometimes you get 14-20+ patients in your pod with 12 beds! One thing that bothered me the most was that since the entire hospital is rather busy, the ER has to hold admits wayyy longer than most hospitals, but I know leadership is working hard on this. The good about the department includes decent management who are always present even on nights. Assistant managers are awesome as well, at least on nights. Night shift director is the best and is present. You get the Parkland name on your resume which is a lasting positive effect. Physicians are mostly amazing-- it is a teaching hospital but the residents tend to be great and so attentive and smart. The hospital is less than ten years old, and the facility is pretty nice overall. You will NEVER be bored haha.

As far as the other hospitals go, I will leave that up to other people for the most part. I have a friend who transferred to UTSW Clements from out of state and really enjoys the team and the acuity-- they have sicker transplant/cancer/etc patients more often. I have also heard good things about most of the med city ERs, that even though they are smaller they are well organized and pay well.

Hope some of this helps! I think it's important to get the brutal truth haha!