The Bricktown Canal meanders for a mile through the heart
of downtown Oklahoma City’s entertainment district.
Photo courtesy of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

When you hear “Oklahoma,” do you think of the 1955 Rodgers and Hammerstein play-turned-motion picture? The popular musical established the state as a rural backwater outpost in the minds of many, albeit one with a catchy musical theme.

But today’s Oklahoma is about much more than corn as high as an elephant’s eye. Its major cities of Tulsa and Oklahoma City have their sights set squarely on the future, although they acknowledge and still celebrate their agrarian heritage.

On Duty

“When I ask nurses why someone would want to work in Oklahoma, they always answer by telling me what a great place it is to live and have a nursing career,” says Sheryl McLain, MS, vice president of communications for the Oklahoma Hospital Association. “Quality-of-life issues are big for us, and that includes having a good educational system, low-cost tuition, and easy commutes to and from work.

“Of course, we have a plethora of care and geographic settings for nurses to choose from,” she continues. “A nurse could work in, say, Oklahoma City but could opt to live in a rural or bedroom community and commute to the city, which wouldn’t take more than 30 or 40 minutes. And access to nursing programs in Oklahoma is vast. Most Oklahomans live within 30 miles of higher education services, and we have statewide articulation agreements between our LPN and ADN curriculums, as well as the ADN-to-BSN options. The Oklahoma University School of Nursing provides accelerated LPN-to-BSN and BSN-to-MSN programs.”

In fact, Oklahoma has more than 40 nursing schools spread across the state. In Oklahoma City, you’ll find the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center’s College of Nursing, Oklahoma City University Kramer School of Nursing, and Oklahoma State University’s Division of Nurse Science, just to name a few. Tulsa is home to the University of Tulsa School of Nursing, Oral Roberts University’s Anna Vaughn School of Nursing, and the University of Phoenix.

Tulsa’s employment environment is also a big draw, says Shon Hughes, RN, BSN, educational coordinator for surgical services at St. Francis Hospital. “We’re the largest hospital in town and the second-largest employer,” he says. “It’s a unique market because there are now boutique hospitals, such as a cardiac and open-heart hospital that takes only vascular surgery cases, and an orthopedic hospital where the surgeons handle mostly those cases. Our for-profit hospitals include the Hillcrest HealthCare System and Southcrest. Nonprofits include Sister Catholic Hospital and St. Francis, which also has a couple of satellite facilities.”

Oklahoma City is teeming with health care employers, as well, including the Bone and Joint Hospital, Deaconess Hospital, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center and Southwest Medical Center, Mercy Health Center, and Saint Anthony Hospital, among many others. Nurses in Oklahoma City report a high degree of job satisfaction, and one reason may be the competitive environment among health care facilities.

“The interesting thing that makes us rather unique is that Oklahoma has no certificate-of-need law,” says Lisa Rother, RN, BSN, MHA, health careers coordinator at INTEGRIS Health. “That means our hospitals’ main competitors are the smaller clinics. So hospitals do all they can to keep nurses happy. For instance, our hospital has set up a nurse review board that evaluates and approves major purchases. That’s not done in most places.”

Oklahoma’s cities offer plenty to do, but if you’re looking for room to roam, the state has that, too. Photo courtesy of Oklahoma Tourism.

Off Duty

Oklahoma is a great place to be outdoors, but in the summertime, it can be a bit warm. That’s why Oklahoma City’s White Water Bay is such a cool place to visit. The 25-acre water park offers everything from zippy thrill rides to the more laid-back pleasures of a lazy river. In the thrills column, you’ll find Acapulco Cliff Dive, a free-fall slide, and the towering Bermuda Triangle, which lets you choose among three high-speed flumes. On the quieter side is Castaway Creek, where you’ll float your cares away on a comfy inner tube.

Over in Tulsa, you can catch a performance of “Oklahoma!” right in its namesake state at Discoveryland, or you can spend the day on the rides at Bell’s Amusement Park or Celebration Station. The city’s Oxley Nature Center, an 800- acre wildlife sanctuary crisscrossed with nature trails, is a good place to recuperate.

The 17-acre Myriad Botanical Gardens, located in the heart of Oklahoma City, is an unexpected oasis. Its gently rolling lawns and sunken pools beckon you to stroll a while, explore the grounds, and forget life’s cares. Rising from the garden’s center is the seven-story Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, a sparkling glass cylinder that features a fascinating collection of palm trees, flowers, and exotic plants from across the globe. Inside you’ll find a 35-foot waterfall and a skywalk from which you can get a bird’s-eye view of the entire indoor jungle.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is one of the newest
additions to Oklahoma City’s blossoming downtown area..
Photos courtesy of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Mesmerizing museums. People who worked the land and raised livestock settled Oklahoma, and their stories are kept alive at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, where the early days on the range come back to life for visitors. The museum features Western works of art by such legends as Frederick Remington and Albert Bierstadt. It also has Prosperity Junction, an indoor replica of a turn-of-the-century cattle town. Its buildings were constructed to be as historically accurate as possible, right down to the kerosene lamps and honky-tonk piano in the saloon.

No visit to the city is complete without a stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which is on the site where the P.Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building once stood. After a bombing destroyed the building in 1995, the memorial was constructed as a remembrance of those who died there. Its two monolithic stone gates and reflecting pool bear mute tribute to the victims of the blast.

Tulsa features the Gilcrease Museum, home to more than 10,000 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures depicting the American West. It’s the largest collection of its kind in the world. The city also claims the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, which is just down the road from the Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum, a 78-acre nature park that contains about 1,500 species.

Arts aplenty. If you’re a patron of the fine arts, you’ll be happy to know there are several venues for opera, ballet, and stage plays in Oklahoma City. They include Carpenter Square Theatre, the Children’s Theatre of Oklahoma City, the Jewel Box Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Oklahoma Opera & Music Theatre, and the Prairie Dance Theatre. Lovers of the visual arts will enjoy haunting the City Arts Center, Kirkpatrick Galleries, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and the Paseo Artists District.

The End of the Trail, one of the most recognized symbols of the
early West, is just one of the magnificent artworks on display
at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
Photos courtesy of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Shopping and dining. Shopping is one of the favorite pastimes at the Paseo Artists District, but Oklahoma City offers many other options, as well, including the Heritage Park, Penn Square, Northpark, Crossroads, and Quail Springs malls. For a unique shopping experience, try Bricktown, which is next door to downtown’s Bricktown Ballpark. Built on the site of the city’s first commercial wholesale district, the shopping and dining district borders the Bricktown Canal, where water taxis shuttle visitors to shops and restaurants.

At Bricktown, you can browse through stores such as the Laughing Fish Gift Shop, Bass Pro Outlets, Oklahoma Native Art & Jewelry, and Omni Flag & Gift, but that’s just the beginning. After your purchases are made, relax and dine by the water at Bricktown’s many restaurants, which include The Biting Sow, Daiquiri Zone Sports Bar & Grill, Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse, and Pearl’s Crabtown. There are more than 40 places to eat, drink, and even dance at the complex.

Tulsa offers the Eastland Mall, Tulsa Promenade Mall, The Plaza, Woodland Hills Mall, the Shops of Seville, and many other interesting destinations for browsing and buying. The Brookside historic district serves as a quaint shopping destination during the day and a neon-splashed nightspot after dark.

TulsaPeople magazine recently bestowed its Readers Choice Awards on a few local eateries. They include Bodean Seafood Restaurant, which won for best seafood; Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, which won for best steak house; The Bistro at Seville, which won for best bistro; and The Chalkboard, which won for most romantic dining.

In Oklahoma City, you’ll find dining options that range from down-home barbecue to haute cuisine. Epicurious.com mentions the steak soup at Cattlemen’s Restaurant in the stockyard district as being one of the best 10 in the U.S. Abuelo’s Food Embassy in Bricktown is consistently cited as one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. And The Museum Café, on the ground floor of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, offers an eclectic menu that features such dishes as pepper-seared tilapia and grilled asparagus panini.

It may not be easy to find a surrey with fringe on top in today’s Oklahoma, but if you’re looking for a place that’s temperate, friendly, and welcomes nurses with open arms, you’ll find the state is much more than just OK.