Plaza in Fort Worth

U.S.A. Texas

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I am moving to Fort Worth at the end of this month and I have received a call back from Plaza to work in their CCU. I am curious about anyone's experience or advice about this hospital and unit. I also applied to Harris Methodist and Arlington Memorial. Also if anyone has any advice about the Saginaw, White Settlement, Eagle Lake areas and commute to the hospitals it would be helpful. i.e. driving time, traffic etc.

Thanks

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Specializes in OBGYN.

I have a friend that is very dedicated to Plaza.. I worked for Harris and really liked it there as well.

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I am not a nurse yet, but I have had clinicals at both Plaza and Harris Methodist. I loved my clinicals at Plaza, and the nurses were SOOOO nice to us. I know that having clinicals there and working there are two different things, but my experience there as a student could not have been better, and it has been my very favorite clinical site so far. Most of the nurses that I talked to liked it and many of them had worked there for a long time. Harris Methodist was nice also, and the majority of nurses that I talked to really liked it, especially new nurses. A lot of the nurses told us that Harris was very nurse friendly and that they had great orientations. I always ask nurses about the hospital where I am doing clinicals because I want to know how they view it as employees. I graduate in May, and I don't want to put in applications at a hospital where a lot of the nurses seem unhappy. I will definitely be putting in applications at both Plaza and Harris Methodist.

I know several people that work at Arlington Memorial, and I hear nothing but complaints from them. In fact, I had thought about putting an application in at Arlington Memorial because I graduate in May and the hospitals in Arlington are closer to where I live, but a few of my friends who work there talked me out of it. They complain a lot about it being understaffed and other things. After listening to them, I am convinced that I wouldn't want to work in that type of environment, and I don't even know if I would want to be a patient there or not. Also, several of the other students who are ahead of me in nursing school and have done clinicals there have told me that they would not even consider putting in an application there. Supposedly, they are in the process of making some changes, but I don't know how long it will be before they become effective.

Have you considered Baylor, JPS, Harris Southwest, or Medical Center of Arlington? I don't know much about these hospitals, but they are in the area. Anyway, good luck with your move.

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Thank you so much for your replies. I haven't applied to baylor only because a friend of mine from DFW said she wasn't very impressed with them. She works for JPS and loves it there but I am looking to work with open hearts and she said they all go to Plaza or Harris.

Does anyone know anything about starting hourly wages and differentials?

When does tuition reembursement kick in?

What type of patients will I see in CCU? Where I currently work we see open hearts, balloon pumps, CRRT, caths, and any other cardiac patients. I know the CVICU will get the open hearts and most likely the balloon pumps just curious

Thanks

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Thank you so much for your replies. I haven't applied to baylor only because a friend of mine from DFW said she wasn't very impressed with them. She works for JPS and loves it there but I am looking to work with open hearts and she said they all go to Plaza or Harris.

Does anyone know anything about starting hourly wages and differentials?

When does tuition reembursement kick in?

What type of patients will I see in CCU? Where I currently work we see open hearts, balloon pumps, CRRT, caths, and any other cardiac patients. I know the CVICU will get the open hearts and most likely the balloon pumps just curious

Thanks

If I were going to do hearts, I would definitely go to Harris. Baylor is a good place, but they aren't getting so many CABG's these days. As a patient, word on the street has always been to avoid Plaza. I've never been over there so that is just heresay.

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Why is that the word on the streets? I have read negative comments about Plaza in other threads....what is the deal? Is the management horrible? A bad nurse to patient ration? Low wages??? Anyone with some advice would be appreciated. I really want to know what I am going ot get myself into if I decide to work there. I haven't heard back from Harris yet.

Thanks

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Why is that the word on the streets? I have read negative comments about Plaza in other threads....what is the deal? Is the management horrible? A bad nurse to patient ration? Low wages??? Anyone with some advice would be appreciated. I really want to know what I am going ot get myself into if I decide to work there. I haven't heard back from Harris yet.

Thanks

I know one nurse who has worked there and she said it is a great place to work. I know lots of people who have been patients there and they said it was *horrendous* and in general most people in Ft.Worth tend to prefer the other two main hospitals as ptaients. All of my docs either go to Baylor All Saints or Harris so I've never had a patient experience there. I'll ask my nurse friend more specifically about her experience working there.

Sorry I can't be more specific! It's always been kind of a 'bad vibe' type of thing based on my experiences with these patients.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Why is that the word on the streets? I have read negative comments about Plaza in other threads....what is the deal? Is the management horrible? A bad nurse to patient ration? Low wages??? Anyone with some advice would be appreciated. I really want to know what I am going ot get myself into if I decide to work there. I haven't heard back from Harris yet.

Thanks

Nurses and other healthcare workers generally like Plaza.

However, patients and residents of the city usually choose Harris, Baylor, John Peter Smith, USMD, or other hospitals for their care. Plaza has a probably undeserved reputation for medical errors. When one of my CNA coworkers was recently admitted to Plaza, the other CNAs were making comments such as, "Oh, she better be careful!" "Mistakes happen at Plaza!"

I'll emphasize that people typically like working at Plaza.

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Nurses and other healthcare workers generally like Plaza.

However, patients and residents of the city usually choose Harris, Baylor, John Peter Smith, USMD, or other hospitals for their care. Plaza has a probably undeserved reputation for medical errors. When one of my CNA coworkers was recently admitted to Plaza, the other CNAs were making comments such as, "Oh, she better be careful!" "Mistakes happen at Plaza!"

I'll emphasize that people typically like working at Plaza.

I agree...and I don't know if the situation has been rectified and things are better or not. I know that when the ostepathic hospital closed, Plaza absorbed most (if not all) of their medical staff and a lot of the residents, etc. from the school (which remains open.) In all of Ft.Worth, I would say the two worst hospitals with bad patient reputations are Huguley and Plaza. But I agree with The Commuter in that I've never heard a nurse badmouth the place. All of my general feelings about Plaza are from patients who were formerly Plaza patients.

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Thank you so much for your info. I heard back from Harris today. I called the recruiter back from Plaza to set up an interview left her a message and haven't heard back from her yet (It's only been since Tuesday so no worries yet). Between the two if I am offered jobs at both I am getting the vibe that Harris is better for obtaining open heart experience, better pay, and overall job satisfaction? Am I correct?

Thank you again for any and all feedback.

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I'm not a nurse yet, but I will be doing my clinicals at Plaza starting in January; however, I can post as a patient because I've been to both hospitals. I had my oldest daughter at Plaza and they took extremely nice care of me. The nurses were so wonderful. Even after I got moved into a room after my C-section, one of the nurses from the labor and delivery floor came up after her shift to see how I was doing because I had had some complications. All of the nurses were awesome excpet for one. That was 9 years ago and I was nervous about going there because at that time I had heard not to go there as a patient, but I think they've made a lot of changes and as far as I've heard from people who have been patients there recently, it's good. And from my experience, the nurses seemed less busy than at Harris. Harris took really good care of me too, I had my youngest daughter there. The nurses were all really friendly and helpful. The difference in my opinion from Plaza and Harris were mostly the perks.

As far as areas to live in, we bought a house on the far west side of Fort Worth a year ago. We live in Fort Worth, but my girls go to a White Settlement ISD school. We've been very happy out here. It's quiet and my neighbors are awesome. We've been pretty happy with the school. The only issue we had is that my oldest (who is very gifted) hasn't gotten quite the level of education she was getting in FWISD simply because their gifted program out here is pretty much non existent. However, her teacher this year has been excellent about giving her more challenging work and library books. So I think in the long run, it will all work out. It's an easy commute into downtown on I30. If you are going in at 6 a.m., there is really no traffic to speak of. Coming back out here at 5ish however is kinda slow, but it has never taken me longer than 25 minutes to get home from downtown at rush hour. So if you are working a 12 hour shift, you would probably miss all the traffic anyway. Good luck!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

i did clinicals at plaza. the nurses were very stressed, some were rude, some were very kind. back to the stress part, i remember several nurses being stressed due to not getting around to their 9 oclock meds until 11 oclock. i know this can happen anywhere, but this seemed very ongoing every time i was there.

i heard a school mate tell me that she was with a group that silently obseved many nurses not using aseptic technique. in other words, nursing would come out of a pt room without using alcohol gel or washing hands.

i personally chose not to work there, but i know somebody that works in ccu. i'll ask them and come back to this thread and let you know.

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