Submitted by Ancient_Tooth8773 t3_107k36a in newhampshire
Howdy all!
I just received my nursing license (thank GOD) and was wondering the best hospital to work for in NH. I have my eyes on a couple and have heard different reviews (from both employees and patients).
Are there specific hospitals that are on the top of your list? Hospitals to avoid as a new grad?
TIA!
I was interested in WDH but they did not have an opening on the unit I want! I've heard great things though!!
That's where I go if I have a choice. I'm surprised they don't have openings. I thought there were openings everywhere in healthcare right now.
I work at WDH and am shocked that there is not an opening in the ED!
Have you gone to their actual website? I've seen ED RN openings .....
What kind of nursing do you want to do?
110% emergency nursing!
Well, I don’t know about the emergency room but I know that Dartmouth Hitchcock is experiencing a very serious nursing shortage in quite a few departments, I know quite a few people who absolutely love working there and the Upper Valley is an incredibly lovely place to live.
Housing is a tough situation in the area but it’s pretty much like that everywhere so…
DHMC has DHART which you might get into there.
We had a good experience at the Elliot when my mom fell. Only the trauma ortho there was willing to do the surgery (after bouncing around to 3 other ortho people in the area) and did a fantastic job.
Not the Elliot unless you believe people with mental illness should be abused.
What’s your level of experience in emergency med? If you’re good to jump right in then go right for the bigger names, if you’re newer consider a smaller and more remote ER.
WD inpatient wonderful, ED awful experiences every time. They have repeatedly turned me away and minimized symptoms that are serious and have then resulted in health crises and being admitted, having surgery, etc. and worst of all staying sick or in pain. I love every other type of service and care offered at WD but their ER just seems to really be a different story unfortunately, imo.
Sorry youve had bad experiences. I thought I was the only one whose had shit experiences with ER Drs at wdh but guess not
Far from it- been in the area for a decade and never had a positive ED experience yet. Urgent care hit or miss. Lol at whoever downvoted me for experiencing my own experience 🙄
I work at DHMC, not as a nurse. It's a really great institution to work for and is HURTING for nurses. It's also the only level 1 trauma center in NH if that's what you're looking for.
Stay away from hospitals owned by HCA so that eliminates Portsmouth,frisbie, parkland in Derry and the freestanding ers in Seabrook and Dover. Also Exeter is in the process of being bought out by Beth Israel/Lahey Health out of Boston
Good to know about Exeter! I haven't heard much about Beth Israel/Lahey. I'll have to check those out and compare!
I 2nd the HCA hospitals as ones to avoid
Why? What’s wrong with HCA? As a frequent patient, not a nurse
They suck. They prioritize profits over quality and compassionate care and it shows. They also treat the staff like shit. They also ruined Frisbie even more than it already had been and I didn't think that was possible
Ok, thanks. I’ll stick to SNH or St Joe’s
35 plus years nursing experience here.
Pick the most technical job you can, like icu, etc. Make sure they have a preceptorship program. You can always get a lower level job later. Point is, you must learn what real hard-core nursing is like , otherwise you'll regret it later, you will fear certain positions and be very limited and disgruntled. Nobody likes a shitty nurse. Plus you will get paid extremely well for that experience. Good luck , you are a fine person for selecting this field, make us proud!
Wow, thank you so much. The final sentence of your comment just resonated so hard with me. I'm taking a job in the ED because that's where I fit in, where I connect with my patients and feel myself making a difference. Thank YOU for paving the way for graduates like myself!
Elliot in Manchester or Southern in Nashua
Elliot and SNHMC are both owned by solution health but they are MGH affiliates. Which means they have access to some of the specialists that MGH has. It allows solution health to give both the hospitals access to special care without really having to have someone on the pay roll. I have had experiences with both Elliot and SNHMC and they’re fine hospitals. Elliot more than SNH—however if I had to pick between SNHMC and CMC in Manchester, I would absolutely go to SNH.
SolutionHealth is the parent organization of Elliot Health System and Southern New Hampshire Health. But does not own them. I can’t speak for Elliot but Southern NH health has kept its name and remain independently licensed. The organization has kept its own board of trustees.
Southern NH is also affiliated with MGH.
How?
Not sure. My kids pediatrician told me about it years ago and websites states it on the opening page. My ENT got me an appointment with an oncologist at MGH through their affiliations after thyroid cancer diagnosis pretty quick too.
I am a pharmacy technician at DHMC. I can attest to the shortage of nurses. It's so bad, they use so many travellers to keep up with the patient population.
CMC has been a nightmare since the pandemic, at least. They are having some serious issues with employee retention (as is everyone) but they are hiring the worst of the worst, just to fill shoes. It’s not playing out well and they should be seeing more state/fed involvement soon.
What type of state and federal involvement?
Agree with all the negatives (Portsmouth, frisbee). Also meant to add not to work for the concord hospital system (concord, Laconia, Franklin). What part of the state are you? Memorial in Conway and speare in Plymouth are nice. Dartmouth would be such an amazing way to start if you can make the commute work. Elliot will grind your soul into dust but you will learn a lot. CMC and at joes are nice Manchester alternatives.
Memorial in Conway seems like going back in time 20 years. It’s also extremely small. Littleton seemed much much nicer.
I now live near Wolfeboro and if I have to be taken by ambulance and my only choices are memorial or Huggins I'm going to memorial every time because Huggins fucking sucks and their ED gives piss poor care in my opinion.
I've been taken by ambulance to Memorial twice actually and it was fine. The Doctors were great. It makes sense that they have a good ER because of all the people getting hurt skiing, hiking, etc.
Yeah I heard that at one point years ago memorial used to be THE place for doctors doing residencies in orthopedics to do their training because of all the skiing, snowboarding, hiking etc injuries
St. Joes, sorry
St. Joes in Nashua? I've been looking into them!
[deleted]
Nah, CMC ain’t what it was.
Definitely don’t recommend CMC. I worked for them a total of 4 days of “training” and they showed me how to do everything EXCEPT any parts of my job. Every single person calling in to schedule anything got the complete run around. Told to reach out to their doctors or insurance when it was the doctor or insurance that told them to call us. It was a mess and I couldn’t keep working for such a terribly “service” based practice.
All I can say... if they use Sunrise for an EMR stay far away.
I'm toying with Exeter hospital - I've seen primarily good things
My mom died because exeter hospital sent her home from the ED saying she was fine. She was not fine at all. Plus, you should look up the story about the nurse who gave everyone hepatitis by diverting drugs. They certainly don’t screen their employees for anything, so if you’re into that I guess that’s a good place. There was a more recent drug diversion case out of that hospital but the one I’m talking about is the male nurse that gave like 80 patients hepatitis who have been fired from the last few hospitals but Exeter still hired him.
They do screen employees. Just like every hospital does.
He wasn't a nurse
it's giving "Good Nurse" vibes = not my vibe
There is only one great hospital in NH, DHMC in Lebanon. It happens to be a very beautiful part of the state. If you want a more urban situation consider Boston. Extreme NH emergency patients are sent to DHMC, if not MGH in Boston.
I've had two personal experiences with the ED at Exeter. Both a disaster.
I know some wonderful people who work at Exeter. It gets a bad reputation because of the Hepatitis guy who was a traveler, I believe. It is a small community hospital, so it has its limitations.
Perhaps with a buyout, Exeter could become a better hospital. IntelligentMeal40 wasn’t exaggerating the known problems at Exeter. A friend’s wife went there ~ 10 years ago while he was at work. 50-something female, fatigue, non-specific back pain. ER/Attending said something along the line of: Menopausal female, likely depressed, requires HRT and antidepressants.
She was dead of a heart attack just prior to 8 PM. She presented symptoms that anyone in an EMT or Paramedic program would learn on day one of “what does a heart attack present as, in the female patient”.
Word on the street was to consult a veterinarian rather than Exeter Hospital. If in an Ambulance, get out and take your chances - you might survive.
Exeter is being bought out. Beth Israel deaconess medical center out of Boston who is part of beth Israel/Lahey Health is currently in the process of buying out exeter
How far away are you from DHMC and would you have to relocate regardless?
Housing costs are insane in the Upper Valley.
Where are housing costs reasonable right now?
The floor has moved, and everything is more expensive than it used to be. They will never be like they were pre-covid.
That being said, Upper Valley real estate, both houses and rentals, are much higher than average.
Tell me about it! I had a guaranteed job at DHMC, but I simply could not afford to live there and was unwilling to commute an hour+ each way to work there.
It's a pity because it was a great hospital to work at. Super exciting.
WDH is part of Mass General now and uses EPIC. Once you are in the system switching departments isn't too hard.
DHMC Lebanon is a fine hospital and they're alllwaaayyssss looking for nurses. If you can live a half our outside of Leb, you can find more reasonable housing.
I loved working at Concord Hospital! I was there as an RN for 5 years before moving into education.
But the pay is horrible. They love hiring new grads cause they can pay them the bare minimum. I was so happy to get out of there and get a $10 pay raise at another area hospital.
Yes, I agree the pay is a bit lower. I think they upped their new grad rate to $28. When I left I was making $34 with 7 years experience.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
28
+ 34
+ 7
= 69
^(Click here to have me scan all your future comments.)
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Highest volume ED in the state is Elliot in Manchester (at least for the last couple years), and they are building a brand new ED currently. DHMC in Lebanon is where I did my training (am currently a Hospitalist). ED residents could be pretty weak, but I can’t speak to the nursing experience.
DH was beautiful and in a beautiful location, and I got excellent training. They did have an incredibly high nursing turn over rate, however, because nurses felt there was little to do in the area, and a long commute burned people put
What are you looking for in terms of work, location, career path?
Looking to work as an ED New Grad in the New England area, gaining core certs like TNCC and CEN and eventually getting my DNP
Come to DHMC, I work in the ED and we have a good team. I commute from Concord area, not horrible because it’s only 3 12 hour shifts a week.
Not to discourage a nurse from coming here, but as someone else in human services in NH, if you’re open to other places in New England, look first at Maine, VT, or MA. No state is perfect but NH is the worst in the region for human service based positions, and it’s continuing to trend down and not up. I stay here because it’s so bad and needs good people and I own a house here now, but boy do I fantasize about jumping the border sometimes with the uniquely NH stuff I encounter
ER is great experience, you'll learn a lot. As far as where to work, ask your local paramedics where they bring g the most trauma. Preferably a big city with lots of violence🤣(nurse joke) manchvegas or trashua? City hospital in Boston would be great. Work 3, 12 hour shifts, then 4 days off. It's called the Baylor plan of scheduling, paid at 40 hours full time.
Dartmouth
Avoid the Parkland ER in Derry if you actually want to help/save people (and any potential patients avoid if you want to survive unless it's cardiac arrest). Not sure about other people's experiences there but I was misdiagnosed 4 out of 5 times I ended up there. The first time as a child (which was actually 3 visits over 2 weeks but I'll count it as 1 situation), I can forgive (sort of) as it was an unusual medical condition beyond their expertise for someone my age. 3 other emergency visits, going in stating I had a history of my medical condition and describing symptoms of it, were misdiagnosed as... a spider bite, a UTI, and a chest infection. All were eventually actually diagnosed as life threatening issues related to my medical condition.
The one time I was actually diagnosed properly and admitted, the staff were great for the most part (one nurse actually applied a medical device that could've made my situation worse but my girlfriend in the medical field, called them out). The ER just seems like a disaster. I think Parkland is for-profit, so maybe that's the reason?
Sorry for the rant about Parkland, it's just an awful ER. Great place to send relatives that you hate but they have you in their will though, so that's something I guess.
Dartmouth Hitchcock and affiliated health care providers
Stay far the fuck away from Concord hospital.
Catholic Medical Center for cardiac!!
You can’t base the entire hospital off one surgeon though, who doesn’t work here anymore. Every hospital has their horror stories
We are still one of the 50 best cardiac hospitals in the US
The Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative reporting team (a very highly regarded group, uncovered the Catholic priest shit, WR Grace water pollution, etc, etc - many Pulitzer prizes) wrote a couple of extensive articles on this. The hospital's in deep shit. Fired nurses, denied doctors opportunities etc who reported issues, etc. Covered up lots of issues. Read the articles.
Also to your point, CMC fudged data to make their cardiac center look good.
But hey, to each their own. People should just know what the situation is
I hear they have a great internship program for prospective serial killers!
SNHMC in Nashua
dogmom603 t1_j3mzls7 wrote
Dartmouth Hitchcock? Wentworth Douglas is now part of Mass General Brigham. As a patient, that’s my choice.