Hi, Any Nurses working at Duke or Living in the Durham Area?

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jul 14, 2003

Have heard good things about UNC Medical Center. Have heard bad things about Duke. This is just hearsay, though. Don't work there. The thing that stands out in my mind about Duke is their dirty strikebusting activities a few years back. Almost had a union there, but Duke spent millions to prevent it (also got in trouble because of their blantantly antiunion activities). Lost a lot of their nurses.

glow_worm · Jul 14, 2003

I have lived in Raleigh for more than 10 years, went to nursing school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and worked at Duke Medical for more than 5 years as a technician. I did only one rotation there during nursing school, the peds clinic -- it's really nice.

My biased opinion (since I'm only one person with my own experiences): What the previous message states is true. The nurses tried to unionize a few years ago, but it was supposedly voted down by "clinic" nurses (not regular "hospital" nursing staff, so the rumor goes) -- the clinic nurses are supposedly happier, since they have day hours & easier working environments, and most of the hospital workers are supposedly miserable. There are a lot of travel nurses. Duke is notoriously a low-paying, stressful, poorly staffed, and racially charged place to work. The doctors are the most arrogant and rude you will find anywhere. When I was a technician and considered going to nursing school, I interviewed several nurses about their jobs & inquired to their happiness levels -- I could not find a single happy nurse. They all seemed to hate working there. The only happy staffers were the physical therapists. But this was more than 5 years ago.

However, several of my classmates from nursing school loved their rotations at Duke & have accepted jobs there. That speaks well for the place, since graduates have many opportunities here (UNC hospital, Wake Med, Western Wake, Rex Hospital). The main draws: 1) the name, 2) the atmosphere -- it's an attractive hospital, and well-funded, 3) the technology -- it's advanced & supposedly nurses can do alot in the ICUs, and 4) continuing education -- they have a nursing graduate school, and UNC is right down the street (graduate school rated #5 in the country).

Living in Durham -- no one wants to do it! It is the slums of RTP. The ER at Duke has at least one gunshot wound per night, but usually several. Durham has very little culture (though what culture they do have *and it's underground, really just one or two streets* is ultra-hippy liberal; the rest of it is run-down ghetto), since people are scared to live here. Most people in this area live in Chapel Hill (a notoriously liberal, pleasant college town), Raleigh (beginning to have a lot of nightlife; small town feel, though lots of cultural offerings), or surrounding areas.

Chapel Hill is a much nicer town to work/live in -- I had a really good experience there, and most people are fairly happy. Much smaller than Boston, though!

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. Hopefully a nurse from Duke will send you some input....

:roll

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 14, 2003

Hey that's my old stomping grounds. Went to Uni of NC in Chapel Hill (but not for nursing school, that came later). I worked at Duke, but probably can't give good feedback since it was over 12 years ago.

Back then it was an awesome place to work. I had a great manager, the pay was great, and the time off was awesome. More time off than I knew what to do with. Plus all the overtime you cared to work (back then when I was younger I could do a lot of OT :)

Good luck. I loved working there. It's so big there are plenty of opportunties for new grads in many fields. You could take your pick.

RENAISSANCE RN · Jul 15, 2003

Thanks for the input.. it is much appreciated.... There must be more of you working in that area??

Any more input..............................

Terri