Best Hospitals in Austin-Dallas?

I heard Brackenridge is good.

Parkland is rated one the best by US News and World Reports.

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/07/14/daily40.html

My mother worked at Brackenridge and liked it. I on the other hand work at Parkland and feel it is the BEST place for someone to get their start. It is a teaching hospital and you learn more in a couple of years than some people learn in an entire career. Just keep in mind your career is what YOU make of it.

Dallas area- Good hospitals...I like Presbyterian system...I work at Presby Dallas...Our vacancy rate is around 2% for RN spots, or it was at the end of 2003....Many nurses who work here have been here for more than 8-10 years...I work with two mangers that have been here over 30 years...The nurses like working here..It is a great place to work...

Now of course no hospital is perfect, every hospital has it's political side/administrative side/clinical side and the management sometime do not play well together in the sand box so to speak...But that will occur at any hospital in the US....

Hello

I will be moving to either Austin or Dallas next year and am wondering which are the hospitals with the best reputation?

I will be attending nursing school and am looking to work in a hospital for the experience, even if it's as a secretary.

I appreciate any tipps

Thank you

Having grown up in Dallas and going to school in Austin, I feel I can tell you some advice. You first need to decide more on the city. The hospitals here in Austin are NOT the best. Yes, they are ok, but it depends on what you are looking for. Compared to Parkland, there IS no comparison. Parkland is THE trauma hospital and serves all. Brackenridge is the county hospital in Austin. It's ok, but not near as good as Parkland. Seton and St. David's system are good. North Austin Medical Center is part of the St. David's system and they have won recent awards for RN retention and education and training. OUt of all the hospitals in Austin, I like NAMC the best. But, Austin is a more laid-back city. If you are looking for more urban, Dallas should be your choice. Presby as someone else said, is excellent, and pays better than Parkland, but Parkland experience looks top-notch on a resume.

Hope this helps!!!!

I did my clinical rotation at Children's Medical Center in Dallas and LOVED it!

CD

First look at your quality of life factors. Austin is a cool town but I did not move there because I could not believe what how much they want for houses and rent there. The wages are not that great either. Austin charges big city prices and they are nothing more than an overgrown college town.

One thing I willl say about Dallas is that there is good money to be made there in nursing, plenty of jobs, and you can live there fairly reasonably if you steer clear of some of the expensive northern suburbs or expensive parts of Dallas like Lower Greenville and Oak Lawn/Uptown.

A word about Parkland....it is a great place for new grads to get experience and put it on their resume that they worked there just for the name alone, but not the greatest paying hospital. Nurses will brag that they work there but I knew 2 ICU RN's and one PACU RN who made $2-3/hour less than I did as an LVN working Med/Surg at a nearby hospital. I knew another ICU RN with 15 years experience there who made only $2/hour more than I did as an LVN. This info is all within the past year and a half.

I always hear great things about Presby Dallas from everyone I knew that worked there. If you can get in there, do it. Baylor is another notoriously low paying hospital that people work at just for the name. St. Paul gets mixed reviews but pays well. Medical City pays well but agency nurses I know tell me they have very heavy patient loads compared to other places.

Do any of you know anything about Fort Worth hospitals? What about the Harris Methodist hospitals, Arlington Memorial, and Hugely? I had my son at Harris and liked it, but I'm sure working there is very different from being a patient.