Green Oaks Hospital

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jun 25, 2007

Moved your post to the Texas Forum for more answers. Good luck!

chris_at_lucas_RN, RN · Jun 26, 2007

I worked at Green Oaks Hospital for about 1-1/2 years. I liked it. They are pretty much all electronic now.

You can expect to start at about $20 an hour. There is differential for 2nd and 3rd shifts. I don't remember how much that was. Also, you can work weekend doubles, and there is a special rate for that as well.

You can expect a little extra if you are fluent in Spanish. Unfortunately, it is a rare patient who is fluent only in Tagalog so they will very likely not give you any leeway there, money-wise.

A warning about weekend doubles at Green Oaks--if you take two hours or a whole weekend, it counts as one absence. And you have a limited number of absences within any six month period. If you exceed this (even with permission for extenuating circumstances--for example, I lost a weekend after being assaulted by a patient, it still counted), you lose the special rate and go back to the hourly rate, which isn't that great.

HOWEVER, Green Oaks in Dallas is a much better place to work than Green Oaks in McKinney. Definitely stay away from the psych unit in Sherman (Texoma Health Center, I believe).

You will get lots of experience, but probably not as good pay at the psych unit at Parkland.

Definitely overworked and underpaid at most of the others.

I can almost guarantee you that you will find the nursing service at Green Oaks superlative, but the administration stinks. Always double check to be sure you are paid appropriately.

Good luck to you. When are you coming to Dallas?

boobit · Jul 5, 2007

Thanks for your response.

Why did you quit Green Oaks?

How much do they pay for experienced Psyche RN?

How much Differential do they pay at night?

Thanks again.

chris_at_lucas_RN, RN · Jul 5, 2007

Thanks for your response.
Why did you quit Green Oaks?
How much do they pay for experienced Psyche RN?
How much Differential do they pay at night?
Thanks again.

This is a long answer, but it is pretty much illustrative of the usual experience there, so maybe worth reading.

I quit Green Oaks because I moved about 45 miles away at the same time I was trying to work weekend doubles and had lost my weekend doubles differential because of "too many absences." It was no longer worth the trouble.

The 45 mile trip took me a little over an hour. I often worked the emergency/observation room, because I was a "float" I got no support from the regulars in the next room, so I would not, for example, be told that my patients had to be placed in the units for sleep because there was no staff for my side of our unit. This could take a long time, and I might leave an hour or more after the scheduled end of my shift.

This meant I had about 4 hours at most to sleep before I needed to get up again to go to work.

Weekend doubles means 17 or so hours with one meal break.

So, when I was informed that I could keep that schedule up and not be paid for it, I opted to find something local and changed my position at Green Oaks to PRN. I told my supervisor AND I send an email. I stated when my last day of weekend doubles would be. I stated when my first day of PRN would be.

The first weekend I did not work, I got a call. "Where are you." I told them I was no longer weekend doubles, I was PRN. "No you aren't, HR sent me an email that said your last day would be such-and-such (about two weeks later), and you are supposed to be here."

HR had never sent the email to me, nor had the supervisor. The value of this bit of detail escaped them both.

The next problem arose about two weeks later. I had started a job in a hospital 30 miles north of where I lived (2nd shift). I called Green Oaks to get a copy of my CPR card faxed up there. While I was on the phone with the LVN who did the schedules who was also faxing up the card, she said to me, "Can you work Thursday?"

"No, I work in Denison now, I am PRN but I am scheduled to work up here this weekend, it is orientation and that means 8-5 Monday through Friday. I can work this weekend though, just not doubles."

She said, "okay."

That Friday, I picked up my phone and heard the signal indicating a message. It was the same LVN, "where are you?" The call was on Thursday morning, the day I said I could not come!

I immediately called, because she had scheduled me for the weekend and because I needed to know whether I was still needed the next morning.

I got my supervisor (the same one who didn't think I needed to know that HR had changed my plans). He said I was on the list for a "no show." (I do not do that. I'll come in dead before I won't call or come in!) I told him about the earlier conversation and he began to yell (and I do mean yell) at me.

He ended with "never mind, you are cancelled, we don't need you!"

I was a little surprised, but okay. Since I never got called after that, I waited a month, then put in my resignation.

That wasn't the worst thing that happened to me with the administration in that hospital, but it was the thing that happened at the end of my tenure there.

As for pay for an experienced RN, I would not look for much more than $22 or $23 an hour. But recall that I had a master's, had been licensed and performing psychotherapy and counseling for nearly 20 years, and I was not considered to have had "experience." I was paid $19 an hour (starting for a new grad, they said, was $18). However, a young nurse who had had 6 weeks there in a clinical rotation was hired at the same time I was, the clinical rotation was her only "experience," and she was hired at $24 an hour.

So I don't know what to say--I think if you are not middle aged, you will be paid more. Sad, but probably true.

I never slowed down enough to check my paycheck, but I had friends who always clocked in at the same time and clocked out at the same time, each day they worked, and they would occasionally have a different (smaller) amount on their checks. I don't think they ever got a good explanation for that.

I do not know what the differentials are. I do know that they do not vary from one employee to another.

If you are not here yet but have your heart set on Texas, you should consider either moving to the Austin or Houston area (pay is better, but I know nothing else about hospitals in those areas), or you should consider an agency. Pay is much much better, and you are protected by the agency. At least that has been my pleasant experience with agency employment.

Also, if you are willing to work nights (back talking about Green Oaks again), you hardly have to deal with administration at all, and if the night shift supv is the same one, her name is Lucinda and she is absolutely wonderful. You can tell her I said so. She cared for me after my assault and I know (and I told her this) that I would have had some pretty bad reactions to the attack, but I never did. She's terrific.

I think I have answered everything I know at this point.... I hope I have helped. It's an OK place to work, all things considered. I am a very positive and optimistic person generally. Hard to be all that positive and optimistic in that situation....