level 4 in Tyler, help me find hospital in Dallas

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Hello, so glad to have a community like this. I'm graduating this may 2013 from Tyler with BSN and would love to move to Dallas where my family is. I am very certain that you nurses can help me out with some career decision making; nurses have most of times been kind in my life, so I thank you for that, and I am glad to become one very soon.

I will come out frankly. There are 2 things that I prioritize with the job. Good starting salary (I live dirt poor right now + loans) and how good are they with training and how much I can learn.

I did some research and it seems that Parkland is the place of choice if I like to get top class training and good salary, but I also heard some negative things such as bad clientele, basically "poorness" affects Parkland so it seems. Then there is Baylor, Methodist, Medical City, Las Colinas, SouthWestern, etc etc etc. Anyways, I want to get as much salary I can, but also looking for hospital where I can really learn and not deal so much with bad work setting where staff hate each other. I heard Baylor is really friendly in that perspective.

Any line that meets optimally between high salary and best training would be awesome. Please write me any of your advices, I am almost a new grad, I don't know squat compared to yal. By the way, I am trilingual and very fluent in all 3, Spanish being one of them. Thank you so much!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Hmm - I really don't have any wonderful information about jobs for you, but felt that I needed to respond. I am (more than a bit) really offended by your attitude - wanting to avoid the "Poorness" associated with Parkland patients. I realize that you are not yet a practicing nurse, but using the socioeconomic status of patients as a characteristic that would help you identify whether a job is 'good' just rubs me the wrong way. Setting aside from the ethical implications (which are horrendous) for a moment - making a decision about a job based on the income bracket of the patient population is nonsensical.

There is a massive amount of evidence that clearly indicates nursing job satisfaction is primarily correlated with the quality of leadership and management (especially first line managers) as well as the sense that one is 'making a difference' and able to exercise professional judgment. NONE of these factors are tied to the decor or income of the patients served. In fact, my own experience with high-end patient populations has shown them to be much more demanding and dismissive of clinical staff.... "Hey, at these prices, you girls should be topless" "MY physician has assured me that I can have visitors at any time, and I will not hesitate to contact Mr X (hospital CEO) who is a friend of mine, if you do not honor my wishes" -- & I worked in critical care.

Be careful of what you wish for.

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I understand your concerns and I mean in no way to come out with bad attitude, but if it did, I guess I need to clarify little. I have no excuse about salary, but I lived below $10,000 for couple years and I am tired of being destitutely broke and living under constant poverty; I however do agree that there is a problem if all my incentives were on money, but fortunately it's not. Another issue is the "poorness" that you mentioned. I hope you can understand that I am a new grad, so I have no idea what's going to happen, what equipment will be present (or not), and as I can imagine that you're probably prominent and intelligent person, I am sure you know the correlation between bad public health and communicable disease (such as HIV, Hep, STI, etc etc) and low socieoeconomic status and low education level. I understand your frustration, but I am a fresh meat so to speak, so I get scared easier; also consider that my lack of experience compared to you all others will put me at higher risk of work r/t injury. This doesn't mean I will avoid their care b/c that will be unethical, but I RATHER reduce the chances as much as possible when I have no experience by looking for better environment.

Don't misunderstand that I am just all about me. I am exicted that I will get to take care of people and learn b/c this is a truly awesome career, but I definitely need to meet my realistic needs also, so I appreciate if you can consier that in this equation. Thank you.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

You are not going to find 'good starting pay' at any major Dallas-area hospital system. The Baylor system starts at $22.50 hourly, although a recent grad claimed to have been offered $26. The rest of the major hospital systems start between $23 and $25 per hour. Frankly, more money can be made in areas outside the hospital, such as home health, private duty, LTC, hospice, psych, etc.

In addition, the local job market is flooded with too many new grads at the present time, so finding that first hospital job might turn into an uphill battle.

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$22.50 to $25? My god, that is good for a starting salary. Please trust me I didn't honestly expect $35 as a starting salary oh no. the average rate of $22.50-25 sounds fine by me. Houtx's post also made me think little more about my search and reflect myself little bit, so thank her for her 2 cents.

anyways, I have no clue of how to start this career thing from the scratch. I have been searching on google for internships in hospitals and got some numbers, but plan to talk to some professors before furthering my search. Like I said, I don't know ANYTHING about this job search thing, processes, etc, so please feel free to just give any inputs. Thank you.

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In my experience, no matter where you work, there will always be problesms, whether co workers, management, admin, medical equipment, etc...It's what you make of it and what you take from it. Everyone complains about their employer and can find things wrong. No place in perfect, especially in healthcare. LTC does seem to pay higher wages, but, a lot of them don't have benefits because of corporate politics. Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for. JMO

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@rdnkmom yes, I think I have been to naive about this. I guess it's the graduate's fantasy to be full of hope of best world, but thanks to yal it brought me to reflect back on reality. I agree with you, I may not find the best place, but I believe I can make the best out of it and everything will work out in the end.

Now just a question for process, do most people just apply online or do people actually also contact nurse recruiter of the hospital and talk to her about internships? what about the unit manager, let's say I want to work at hospital x at ER, is it plausible that I walk up to the manager and ask for a position or a connection instead of just sending resume? Thank you

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Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

From my experience, you won't have any luck trying to apply in person, and absolutely will not be able to just approach a unit manager. Every facility I've dealt with the last 3 years require you to apply online, unless they're holding a job fair or something.

If you're lucky, they'll even respond to your app.

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