Raleigh-Durham area nurses....need your help!!!

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My husband and I just found out that we're FINALLY moving back to the Raleigh-Durham area. We're so excited since all of our friends and family are still there and we're so sick of the DC area (where we currently live). Anyways, I'm going to start looking into the area hospitals for RN positions and I was wondering if you could give me all of the pros and cons of each. I'm looking at Duke, Wake Med, Rex, and UNC hospitals. Would you be willing to share with me the good and bad of each? Overall enviroment, patient ratios, employee morale, pay, benefits, etc... Thanks so much for your help!

Thanks so much for the tips. I guess I just have to come down as soon as I can to actually view the places for myself. I am looking on the internet, and it really can be deceptive. You guys are great, and I appreciate the feedback.!!

Hey there!

I've lived in the ral/dur area for over 7 yrs...Parts of Durham are downright scary, thus the high crime stats but then there are very nice, VERY expensive parts.Research Triangle Park employs a lot of people, high tech types, many of whom live in Durham. You just have to know the right places. The trick there, it seems is knowing where to avoid driving thru. It didn't seems that bad to me, but then I'm from NYC. My hubby, however wouldn't even consider lookingthere when we were house hunting. North west Raleigh is very nice, also expensive, not too far from Duke. Chapel Hill..apts I don't know but def. some of the most expensive real estate in the area. Very young, college town feel, liberal etc. Cary is about 20 min or so from Duke, has the 6th lowest crime rate in the nation and was voted the best place to live on the east coast this year. Its a great place to raise a family, but not sure if you are single, might be kinda boring to you in that case. Also Cary's rep is pretty snobby, but there are more down to earth people here than not. Just have to look past all the Lexus wagons :) Anyway, that's my 2cents! Good luck...I'm a pre-nursing student, I'd like to start at Duke, seems like it would look good on the resume, but I have heard Rex is nicer to work for. Also, both Wakemeds seem really nice. I had a baby at Cary Wakemed and was really pleased w/ the staff. Everyone seemed happy, not overworked all that. Nice digs to be sure! Let me know how it goes!!!

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Specializes in Telemetry & Obs.
I am writing to ask you if you might consider working for the Bureau of Prisons. I work at the Federal Medical Center in Butner North Carolina. Our specialities are psych, oncology, and soon to be orthopedics. We also plan to open a telemetry unit shortly. I am the nurse educator for the Medical Center. If interested, email me using NC Hospital as title.

Good luck, I love NC also. Ginny McLaurin

ginnymac_624, the strangest thing happened to me today.....I was shopping in Belks in Garner while wearing my labcoat, etc from clinical and a lady started talking to me about nursing school. We were joking about my age (I'll be 51 when I graduate in May, 2006) and I mentioned that someone from Butner came to recruit nurses from Wake Tech last week and that her big selling point was federal retirement after 20 years.....we laughed about my being 71 by then :lol2:

Anyway, the other shopper mentioned YOUR name...I couldn't believe I'd run into someone that knows you after seeing your post on allnurses.com!!

Just thought you'd like to know what a small world it is

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Hi. I was just in Durham 2 weeks ago, interviewing at Duke's Accelerated BSN program and apartment-hunting. If you go on to the Durham police department website, it lists all the crimes for different areas in Durham. I was able to search around the specific address of the apartment I fell in love with, and found that there were only 5 incidents of larceny within the past year and NOTHING else! (Not bad, considering I'm moving from L.A.). I definitely found some nice areas of Durham, and this website helped reassure my first impressions. :) Here's the link:

http://www.durhampolice.com/

(You have to click on "crime statistics" from the left menu, and then on to "Durham crime mapper".)

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Hey I apprecite the tip. I will check it out soon....thanks!

Hi. I was just in Durham 2 weeks ago, interviewing at Duke's Accelerated BSN program and apartment-hunting. If you go on to the Durham police department website, it lists all the crimes for different areas in Durham. I was able to search around the specific address of the apartment I fell in love with, and found that there were only 5 incidents of larceny within the past year and NOTHING else! (Not bad, considering I'm moving from L.A.). I definitely found some nice areas of Durham, and this website helped reassure my first impressions. :) Here's the link:

http://www.durhampolice.com/

(You have to click on "crime statistics" from the left menu, and then on to "Durham crime mapper".)

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Nia King and WCU nurse, let me know how the apartment search goes. I am starting at Duke as a new grad also in July and am in the process of finding an apartment... I have only looked online, but after reading the previous warnings about Durham, perhaps I should be a little pickier. Lets keep in touch !

Katie

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Nia King and WCU nurse, let me know how the apartment search goes. I am starting at Duke as a new grad also in July and am in the process of finding an apartment... I have only looked online, but after reading the previous warnings about Durham, perhaps I should be a little pickier. Lets keep in touch !

Katie

I would recommend chapel hill or raleigh.

~Kim

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