Alaska Psychiatric Institute

Sounds like fun. I would be very interested in knowing the company you are using. I am in Phili and work psych.

Thanks

I live in Alaska and two of my fellow students who graduated with me work at API (as it's known here). I was also offered a job there but did not want to go into psych nursing right out of school. According to my friend, they are great to work for. The DON is fantastic. I actually did a 3 week clinical rotation through API. The facility is beautiful, the staff great, and the pay fantastic. While doing clinicals, I was able to meet and talk with several traveling nurses. They were very pleased with the facility compared with many they had worked at before. There are many safety protocols in place, it is next door to Providence Alaska Regional Medical Center, and the patients are amazingly complex. I really enjoyed it there. The DON calls me every couple of months to see if I'm interested in working there yet

As for Anchorage compared to Pittsburgh, it's going to be colder during the winter. However, we live in the south central portion of the state so the weather is much milder. Minnesota gets more severe winters than us. You acclimate quickly. I hope you go ahead and do it! It'll be a great experience

I spoke w/ my good friend who works at API yesterday and she said I could pass on her email address if you had any questions. Her name is Sherron and her email is banjopkr@acsalaska.net. Hope this helps!

Good luck! Jenn

Hey there! I was born and raised in Pittsburgh...and have lived in Anchorage for the last 7.5 yrs. My thoughts.....Anchorage is "cleaner" and not as crowded. Things are more spread out....but overall not too many differences. The weather itself temperature wise isn't necessarily THAT different. There are plenty of times when I talk to family back home and the temps there are about the same as they are here. But where in PA you can have a 20 degree day, followed by a 30 and snowy day, and then a 50 degree day.....they STAY low all the time (and the snow stays on the ground rather then melting and then snowing again, lol). Summers aren't as nice...and not as long. But the temps you will feel here are NOT unheard of in PA....so you won't be totally taken by surprise. The dark, for me was the hardest. Something I had never experienced before. You just need to make sure you keep busy.

As for API.... I have never worked there...but I did clinicals there several years ago in nursing school. I actually really enjoyed it, the people were great, and the facility was beautiful. Good luck to you and I hope you enjoy yourself!!!