megulator

I am a tried and true Fort Worthian, so I am a bit biased, but Austin is a great place to live, too. They just put an IKEA in Frisco (North Dallas). The great thing about the metroplex is that you are 45 minutes- 1 hour away from everything you could ever imagine. Like I said, I'm from Ft. Worth, and there's almost an ongoing "rivalry" between the two cities, so in my opinion, there are very few things worth driving to Dallas for. GO TCU BEAT SMU!!!

Here's my two cents... (I'm a tried and true Fort Worth gal, so I'm a bit biased ) Traffic and living in Houston are terrible- it is so congested. If you could get past that, the hospitals there are great. They actually have the most magnet hospitals in the US in Houston. My brother works for a pediatric flight team and he says Texas Children's takes the cake in Texas. But again, living in Houston is a totally different story. You couldn't pay me enough. Ahhh, Dallas. I have actually looked into their PICU internship (will graduate with BSN in December). Dallas Children's is a great hospital, and living there isn't so bad compared to Houston. North Dallas is experiencing a huge population boom right now, with a suburb called Frisco as one of the fastest growing areas in the country right now, so I imagine that may have some effect on the "market" in Dallas over the next few years. Not sure what your draw to those two cities are, but have you looked at Children's Memorial in Austin or Cook Children's in Fort Worth? Austin and Fort Worth are Texas' two best kept secrets. Driskoll Children's in Corpus Christi is another great children's hospital. Just my opinion-- Texas Children's probably has the best reputation, but I would do your homework on living in Houston before making the move.

Maybe y'all would would have better luck with TCU's accelerated BSN program. Not sure on the details, I'm only in the traditional BSN program at TCU, but we have classes with some of the people in the program. The first group that went through did not seem to be competitive at all for admissions. Only one has a prior degree that has anything to do with healthcare. I guess that's the idea behind it, but I just don't think you would have problems with admissions and competition. And with it being brand new, they seem to take a laissez fare approach to their GPAs and such to make the program look better.

Texas Health Resources is a great hospital system to work for, they pay their nurses well and they have a great reputation in town. I actually work as an extern for Baylor and am currently in the ICU at Baylor Cityview across the street from Harris SW. Harris has an extern program that would be a great experience for you until to graduate to see if you like it there. Cityview (Hulen) is a nice area as well. I've lived in Fort Worth my whole life and I can remember when that whole area was nothing but a big ole field!! Good luck!