jspacegirl

For those of you who didn't get an acceptance letter to the fast-track program; don't lose hope! There was at least one person in my class who got called the day before classes started saying that they had a spot for her! Also, don't forget that those people who got accepted still have to confirm that they want to go there. A few more spots can open up...

To answer the OP's post in two words: A LOT! Sometimes I feel like 75% of my job is lifting! And more and more patients are obsese, which is especially tough. We must turn Q2, and then when you account for your 1-2 patients, plus helping other nurses turn their patients, well then that adds up to a lot of lifting.

If you are single, I would not recommend moving to any of the above cities (with the exception of Fort Worth), because they are all suburbs. Like the Commuter said, look at Addison, as well as areas of Dallas such as Uptown, lower Greenville, Lakewood, and Oak Cliff. You should be able to find nice apartments with reasonable rents and there will be a lot more to do in the way of shopping, restaurants, nightlife, etc. Not to mention, you will be close to lots of hospitals. If you are looking to go into public health, try looking at Parkland Hospital. It is the county hospital for Dallas, and they have several COPCs, have mobile healthcare units that reachout to the homeless, etc. You might be able to find something that you are looking for there.

Don't expect any sort of consistency in your schedule for the 4 mo nths of the residency. You will know what your class days will be upfront, but your clinical time will be scheduled on a month by month basis and will be done so you have around 80 hours per 2 week pay period when combined with your classroom hours. Your clinical schedule will depend on what preceptors they put you with. You will have to work when your precoptor does. I know ER can have some odd shifts like 3-3, etc.

I can't say I know much about Methodist in particular, but the area in which it is located is in a very good part of Oak Cliff. It is beautiful and near the Bishop Arts District and Kessler Park. Lots of unique shops and restaurants, and nice houses.

Reps from Elsevier will try to sell you a package and mislead you into thinking it contains all the books you need for your entire nursing school career. In actuality, it only contained books for the first semester of nursing school, and access to Evolve resources (this website and CD that has additional resources pertaining to your text books) for the first semester as well. If you wanted Evolve access for subsequent semesters, you would have to go to the bookstore and buy a code. I would reccommend just finding out which books you need and buying them from Amazon.

Believe it or not, I pretty much got all the way through nursing school without ever having wiped a butt! I didn't purposely avoid it, it just sort of worked out that way. However, now that I am working in an ICU, well, let's say I do more than my fair share. And if your friend wants to be a CRNA, then that's what she's going to be doing as well as she pays her dues in the ICU.

SICU, at least where I work, is very physically demanding! We do total care for our patients (very few techs to help us out), and all of that turning, bathing, etc., really takes a toll. Especially when you have heavier patients!! As far as how the day goes; it definitely involves lots of charting. Vitals and I&O's every hour, full assessments every 4 hours, neuro checks, etc. Let's see what else...titrating drips, turning every 2 hours, oral care every 4 hours for vented patients, traveling to MRI or CT scan, maintaining art lines and ICP monitoring systems, dressing changes, suctioning, documenting, documenting, documenting!! Lots of work to be done, for sure. But don't let it scare you, it is very challenging and rewarding.

I got my first degree from TCU, and then went to TWU for my accelerated BSN. I really loved my time at TCU, but when I decided to go get my nursing degree, I chose TWU because it has a good reputation and is ridiculously cheap compared to TCU. TWU's Dallas campus ain't pretty (although they are about to break ground on a new one), but I am very satisfied with the quality of education that I got. I loved almost every one of my professors, and now that I am out the "real world," I feel more up-to-speed than some of my other new grad coworkers who went to different nursing schools. And if you want to go to TCU for anesthesia, I don't think it will make that much of a difference whether you went there for your BSN or not. What will matter are your grades and whether you have solid critical care experience. As a proud TCU alum who bleeds purple, my vote would be for you to go to TWU for your BSN.

Actually, after you complete your critical care residency at Parkland, you can go work in another area of the hospital as long as you work in the unit you were originally hired into for at least 6 (or something like that) months, without breaking your contract. This would actually be ideal for something like the OP wanted to do, like move from NICU to L&D. However, an L&D residency would probably call for another contract extension. Besides, I love Parkland, and everyone else I know that works there loves it, too. I couldn't imagine wanting to go to work for any other place. There really isn't a better place for learning the ins and outs of critical care and L&D nursing in the metroplex, IMHO.

I would say go with Parkland; their NNICU is HUGE, plus it is right by their labor and delivery department, so you would get exposure to that, and kind of see how everything relates to each other. You would get to deal with the post-partum moms and their babies. Plus, you would be able to easily transition in-house from NNICU to L&D. I don't know about Children's benefits, but Parkland's are pretty good, too.

That is really good to hear! I hope my former classmates were able to get that raise...

Btw, the last I heard, UTSW (St. Paul & Zale) pays their new grads $23/hr, not including diffs. Benefits their are pretty good, since it is a government-owned (or something like that) hospital. They pay your health insurance premiums, and the retirement plan is good. Parkland also has really good benefits, once again, because of being state/city-owned. Health insurance premiums are low, and instead of paying into Social Security, that money goes into a retirement pension fund. While I enjoyed my clinical roatation at Baylor, their pay is just too low, and their benefits are not very great either.

Oooooh, no, Children's does NOT pay very well at all!! I can't remember the exact rate, but I have a few classmates that went to work there, and I think they are only making around $20/hr, which is by far the lowest I had heard of for a major hospital in the Dallas area. Of course, they can afford to pay their nurses low wages, because there are so many people who want to get into peds. I wonder if they will have to raise their starting rate, though, once they open up the new wing of the hospital so they can fill all of those new vacancies.

I agree with the above poster; it is important to look at the graduate nurse programs. After all, the first place you choose to work is going to lay an important foundation for the rest of your nursing career, so you should try to go somewhere that really embraces teaching new grads. Personally, I only looked at teaching hospitals, because I knew that is where I would get the best experience and the best training and support. Even though I am only a few weeks into a new grad internship, I am so pleased with the quality of instruction I am getting. Of course, I am going to have to put forth lots of effort, but I know that I have all the tools available to enable me to be the best nurse I can be. The teaching hospitals that I am aware of in Dallas are St. Paul, Zale Lipshy, Childrens, Parkland, and Baylor.