Diversity in the ICU

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I have worked in the ICU for 7 years and 4 years on Medical/Surgical/Telemetry floor. I thought I would see more diversity in the ICU's by now. I found this very disappointing in some of the major cities in Texas due to the large amount of nurses from the Phillipines, India, Nigeria, etc. What is going on? I interviewed at one hospital in South Oak Cliff Dallas, Tx and I could not believe there was only one non-white nurse on the night rotation. I know Dallas has some nurses of color, but I usually see them on the med-surg floors. Is it a surgical and CVICU thing? I recently interviewed at a Magnet hospital in Houston and the staff mix was great: the experience ranged from 2-25 years; nurses of different ethnic backgrounds working together, not grouped in one section with other nurses that have the same physical features.

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Specializes in Junior Year of BSN.

Houston is the most diverse city in Texas. Maybe that's the reason for the diverse employees in the Houston campus of hospitals.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

I agree with the PP - Houston attracts health care professionals from all over the world. Between that and the "awl bidness", we have fairly large populations from just about any industrialized nation you can think of. Diversity is just a fact of life here - no drama about it. It's a remarkable phenomenon that provides us all with a much richer cultural environment. FYI, from a geographic standpoint we have the largest 'china town' in the US - complete with street signs in Chinese - as well as the largest population of Nigerians (most of whom are college-educated professionals) in the US.

I always get a chuckle from the fact that Houston does not conform to popular notions of a Texas city -- you know, the one where everyone wears cowboy boots, rides horses and has a great deal of difficulty with polysyllabic words?

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Specializes in Pedi Rehab,Pediatrics, PICU.

Well Dallas is gonna get some ICU diversity from one nurse in particular. Maybe we'll start a trend :)

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Specializes in trauma ICU,TNCC, NRP, PALS, ACLS.

I worked in an icu south of houston and it was only 2 blacks & 1 middle eastern. The icu i work in now is not very diverse either.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU.

Funny that you made that observation. I am a very well experienced trauma ICU nurse and I have yet to land a position at Baylor or Parkland which are the two places that I am determined to work at. I did have 2 interviews with Baylor at which time I saw no diversity in their nurses, even one of the patients said all of you nurses look like you should be models!!!...and I never recieved a call back. I am a very well qualified nurse of color and I am wondering whats up with Baylor???

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i have worked in the icu for 7 years and 4 years on medical/surgical/telemetry floor. i thought i would see more diversity in the icu's by now. i found this very disappointing in some of the major cities in texas due to the large amount of nurses from the phillipines, india, nigeria, etc. what is going on? i interviewed at one hospital in south oak cliff dallas, tx and i could not believe there was only one non-white nurse on the night rotation. i know dallas has some nurses of color, but i usually see them on the med-surg floors. is it a surgical and cvicu thing? i recently interviewed at a magnet hospital in houston and the staff mix was great: the experience ranged from 2-25 years; nurses of different ethnic backgrounds working together, not grouped in one section with other nurses that have the same physical features.

when i worked in spokane, washington or a lovely college town in the midwest, there was no diversity among my co-workers. there wasn't much diversity in the community, either. i'm working in the northeast now, and we have nurses from nigeria, south africa, jamaica, columbia, nicaragua, the phillipines, hong kong, japan, singapore and korea. and those are just the ones i'm sure about.

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I would really like to work in the Northeast. I enjoy being a ICU nurse and I prefer to work with a good staff mix: Male, female, new grad to 10+ experience, and nurses from different backgrounds.

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You can forget about Parkland Trauma ICU, no diversity at all. I do not understand how that is. Look at the location and the population of patients that come through that hospital.

I don't know about Baylor, but my friend told me her horror story about the HR at Baylor. Her voice on the phone did not match her physical appearance at all. She had a 3.7 GPA and theytold her over the phone that they wanted her to interview for the ICU's, but when they met her, they sent her to the Med-Surg floors. One of her friends rode with her to the interview and the ladies in the HR were very ugly after one of the recruiters escorted her to the Med-Surg floor.

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Specializes in trauma ICU,TNCC, NRP, PALS, ACLS.

I actually got hired on to work in parkland trauma icu, but i declined the offer.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU.

Well I have been trying to get in both of those hospitals because I am a well qualified Trauma ICU nurse and would like to work at Parkland because of the patient population and my experience is from a County facility but at this point it doesn't look like it's going to happen after 15 apps in 4 months and no response..so now I am applying to other hospitals...I have never had to look for a job this long ever...and I have been nursing for 10 yrs...I am new to Dallas by the way!!

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Specializes in trauma ICU,TNCC, NRP, PALS, ACLS.

breez the name of the lady i talked to was regina she was the icu recruiter

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