UNC hospitals

I haven't worked in the Raleigh/Durham area for about 1.5 years (and when I did, I was a new grad)....but generally, I think UNC is highly regarded by nurses. UNC and Rex likely have the highest pay; my friends at UNC especially commented on the higher night/weekend differentials they got. Duke has the fancy name but pay is lower, and some would argue they are considerably less nurse-friendly. I worked in the Duke ED so I'm not 100% sure about their med-surg ratios, but I would guess at least 5, more likely 1:6 (on days). I hope it's not higher than that, but who knows.

Pay in NC for nurses overall seemed very low to me - new grads at Duke started at $20.74/h in early 2014; maybe it's a bit more now. And outside of Raleigh/Durham the pay can be even worse! The cost of living in Raleigh/Durham is cheap compared to NY or LA, but it's not THAT cheap. Many of the nurses I knew in NC were living with roommates well into their 30's for financial reasons.

Anyway if I were doing it again I'd probably try UNC first. Good luck!

Duke has the fancy name but pay is lower, and some would argue they are considerably less nurse-friendly. I worked in the Duke ED so I'm not 100% sure about their med-surg ratios, but I would guess at least 5, more likely 1:6 (on days). I hope it's not higher than that, but who knows. !

I worked at Duke as a new grad in med surg, and our ratios were max 1:5. During the day we usually only had 4. Night shift we'd have 4-5. One time I had 6 on night shift, but that was the absolute last bed in the hospital. The step down floors were four patient max, with a goal of three.

I have to say Duke is the most nurse friendly hospital I've worked in. There's a lot of shared governance, in that RNs are very involved in policy and procedure development, and there is a lot of opportunity for continued education. The CEO was a nurse as well. However; the pay was low, and the retirement benefits weren't great.

I have to say Duke is the most nurse friendly hospital I've worked in. There's a lot of shared governance, in that RNs are very involved in policy and procedure development, and there is a lot of opportunity for continued education.

Well there you go, OP....your mileage may vary. The pay is an objective fact, but other stuff gets fuzzier when you try to compare, even if you ask questions during interviews. In my unit (a high-volume, high-acuity ED) our ratios were theoretically 1:4 at one point, then increased to 1:5...but they didn't bring anyone in for breaks, so that meant 1:8 during your coworker's lunch...and 1:8 for psych patients... and it was supposed to be 1:1 in trauma, but then they changed to 1:2 between 3AM and 9AM...etc etc. I only worked there 8 months and I believe 25% of the staff turned over in that time period.

In any hospital though, the work culture depends very much on your specific unit/manager.

But I have to say overall, coming from a union state (MN), I found the pay and working conditions in NC to be surprising (low pay, high ratios, few protections, slow to fully adopt EMR). People who were from the region had a different set of expectations, and probably they would consider my requirements unreasonable. I don't know what conditions are like in MD, but you may want to consider that question.