Parkland, Dallas TX travel question

smartassmommy · May 13, 2017

Really????

Read "Conspiracy of Silence" by Charles Krenshaw he was an ER doc who was on both cases

bear14 · May 13, 2017

I love history I am going to have to check that book out! Thanks!!!

sonovascpro · May 26, 2017

I worked there for about 3 months fresh out of nursing school in 2012. I was not new to medicine at the time, justt to nursing. Id been an anesthesia tech for 6 years just before that, and a paramedic for 7 before that in Oakland .CA. So I was no stranger to high intensity, high acuity, understaffed, work challenges. But Parkland was not enjoyable to me. In most ERs 90% of what walks through the doors is not a real emergency, that's expected. But with a volume like parkland has that 90% is a hell of alot of people. It was more than enough prisoners trying to get some time out of the cell, homeless coming in for a meal and time out of the heat, and abusers coming in trying to get meds or an IV. All to often people would come in with paperwork from another ER that they had just been discharged from, and say this is what they said at this place but I want to see what u guys think. I'd walk in and be told I had 8-9 patients but the nurse handing off wouldn't know where most of them were since people just wander there. I'd get descriptions of what they looked like and were wearing, and when they were last seen and where! It was nuts. And they have a dedicated trauma team, so I wouldn't expect to see much trauma action as a traveler. At the time Parkland was being monitored and investigated and inspected by the state and CMS. So that added to the misery daily since inspectors were actually in house everyday. All of this was in 2012, and in the old Parkland building. They have since built a brand new facility with a ton more room so maybe things have improved.

I'm not in 20s anymore, so my work habits and needs are vastly different from what they were when i was young. I like my breaks, specialty service pay, clean controlled conditions, and being off on time way to much now. That's why I switched to vascular access!!!!

The tests as far as I can recall:

meds/math was alot of conversions (Gm>mg>mcg etc,) calculating flow rates with different variables, side effects and interactions of commonly used ER meds (none that u shouldn't already be very familiar with), and i think a few scenarios that asked what med wpuld u anticipate being ordered.

The basic ER/trauma was just what it sounds like. Alot of situational questions, some critical thinking/ prioritizing questions, if you have acls and some sort of trauma cert, and some ER experience u shouldn't have any issue with this.

EKG was basically like taking the test for ACLS. It was strip recognition followed with what to do next or what to expect next.

Everyone I worked with had passed them first shot with no issues, so I'm sure you will do fine.

Anyway, good luck with it. You may love it. Like I said I liked the crazy stuff when I was in my 20s, now I like to do a few piccs, do a few IVs and then go home!

Matthew.RN · May 30, 2017

Update!!!!

Sorry I haven't had much time to post, I've been exploring Dallas when not working.

I passed the exams, however I will say the cardiac stuff was definitely a bit challenging, mostly because some of the cardiac strips in my opinion were terrible and were not easy to differentiate. Lots of fill in the blank on that exam and very little multiple choice, so for a few of the strips I really had to look hard to figure out what it was, I think the person who created the test was purposely trying to trip people up. Defiantly stressful to say the least.

I like the big/new building, but it's a huge ER, so it's easy to get lost, even in the ER due to how the sections or as they call them "pods" are broken up.

Management and the education team seem really nice and welcoming, as do most of the parkland ER team. I think what makes this assignment a bit different is that it's not going to be as easy to make friends in the work place because they have over 70 nurses staffed in the ER each night, and you always are working with someone different it seems.

So far though it's all been a very enjoyable experience. I'm off of orientation this week.

If I'm honest it's one of easier travel assignments I've actually taken. It's busy all night typically, but. The travelers are placed in what they call "pods" there and that's your typical 3, 4, and stable 2 ESI patients. And since it's a teaching hospital most people are doing stuff you would normally do in a smaller hospital. I started out in a teaching/university hospital and worked there for 3 years before traveling. Now I have been traveling for 2.5 years and have been to small community hospitals in the middle of no where all the way to huge level 1 trauma centers that weren't really "huge" but big for where they were. I find that the larger busier hospitals are often easier work for you when you're traveling because they often stick you on the basic patient care sides, until they trust you to do trauma or triage. However the smaller hospitals don't have as much staff and experienced staff to rely on. So I find those hospitals fun to work in because we get to come in and really learn some new skills and also learn new ways of doing things and get more hands on with some of the unique cool stuff.

I'm actually taking a PRN cath lab position while in Dallas on this contract to get some experience in another field before starting grad school next year, so I'm hoping to continue traveling but eventually switch to traveling via cath lab!

Anyways thanks for everyone's replies and positive energy sent my way :)