NurseMads

Hey - Senior nursing student going to school in Austin here! The cost of living here is absolutely outrageous and the pay for nurses is terrible. The hospitals are nice, I will say that, but I personally can’t get out of here fast enough. I would recommend looking at the medical center in Houston. So many hospitals and tons of great new grad residencies. Also the cost of living is way lower and the pay is significantly higher. Austin is around 2.5 miles from Houston so perfect for a weekend trip! But to answer your question, Seton, St. David’s, and Dell Children’s for peds are the main hospitals here with several campuses they all have new grad programs. I’ve done most of clinicals at Seton and it’s a great work environment, I would recommend looking there.

I know this was from a while ago but I’m in the same boat! Going to school in Texas but want to work in AZ when I graduate in May. In Texas most hospitals new grad position applications are only open from Jan-March but from what I’ve seen pretty much all the hospitals in Phoenix want you to wait until after you take your NCLEX. Which is stressful when trying to apply for jobs in two states with completely different application times! Anyways just to see, I applied to a few jobs (Mercy Gilbert, MIHS, Phoenix Children’s) and got rejected basically the next day probably because I checked that I didn’t have a license yet. My plan now is start applying to jobs in AZ after I take my NCLEX in June and to work as an RN at a summer camp here in Texas until I hopefully get an offer since I’m with you on wanting to work ASAP. Good in your search and finishing school!