Moving to texas

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Specializes in Step down ICU, Medical-Surgical, Acute Rehab.

Looking to possibly move to Texas. Been looking at other articles and news about nursing down there (from Minnesota) and wondering how the nursing experience is overall and in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. What are the nurse:patient ratios? Pay to cost of living? Culture?

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Pay to cost of living in Texas is generally considered to be very good. The cost of real estate is moderate but growing. The biggest issue is property taxes. I got my statement yesterday and it went up 10%. Third year in a row it has done that. However, Texas has no state income tax, which makes it appealing to many.

DFW is generally a good market for experienced nurses. Texas on the whole vastly favors employers over employees, so you will not find hide nor hair of any kind of nursing unions (or most other types of unions) in the Lone Star state. Who you choose to work for will have a big impact on your nurse to patient ratios.

I have worked in most of the Dallas hospital systems. THR and Parkland maintain the lowest nurse to patient ratios, generally speaking.

HCA hospitals tend to have a bad reputation both for pay and work environment; I was happy at the one I worked at, but my floor was staffed by awesome nurses who did as much as they could to help one another. One by one, we all left for greener pastures and lower stress.

Baylor is known to be one of the lowest payors in the DFW area. That being said, they also tend to have some of the happiest nurses.

THR works hard to be a good hospital system to work for. They have strong nursing leadership and tend to pay well for the DFW area.

Parkland is the safety net hospital in Dallas and has the busiest ER in the nation. Working there is pretty make or break. Nurses either love it like an addiction or can't get away fast enough. There isn't a lot of in-between.

If you are a newly graduated nurse you will have greater difficulty finding employment. Generally they are only hired into acute care via nurse residencies/internships and are highly competitive.

If you have a two year degree as an inexperienced nurse you will have a lot of trouble finding work in acute care. If you have experience you may secure a position with the agreement of obtaining your BSN within a couple of years.

Hope this helps.

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Specializes in Step down ICU, Medical-Surgical, Acute Rehab.

I’m sorry, what does THR stand for?

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Texas Health Resources. ?

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