oncology untis in CO

core0 · Mar 30, 2008

hi...
i'm an Aussie trained RN who is currently awaiting endorsement thru CO BON. i'm really interested in working in the small mtn hospitals(vail, steamboat, aspen, durango) as i'm a huge fan of the snow, but am open to anything else around(denver/boulder) that may provide oncology services, as that is my preferred area. so... where is a good hospital/med center that focuses on cancer care? am open to working back on the med/surg wards again... but would have to be a nice ward... anyone working somewhere great that they want to tell me about?
also... if i was to go for a job and one of their requirements is to have BLS, ACLS, PALS and telemetry... where do i get these from? can i sign up to some classes somewhere? or are hospitals pretty accommodating in letting me fulfil this on the job? have to do BLS each year as part of my job(hospital staff test RN's each year at work) in Australia, just wondering how i'd go about meeting that requirement to work in the CO hospitals.
thanks and hope you're out enjoying the snow!

Most oncology treatment in the US is done outpatient. There are a number of Cancer centers in the Denver area that do this. I believe that Vail Valley and Durango have cancer centers (not sure about Steamboat). In Denver, if I recall there are only two hospitals with dedicated oncology floors. Most of the rest of the hospitals combine it with a medicine floor and have a group of oncology trained nurses to do the chemo. Even on dedicated oncology floors you may end up taking medicine patients due to census.

As far as ACLS you can find these classes fairly easily at the local hospitals. PALs is only needed if you do peds. Tele classes are usually given a few time a year at the hospital. Most of the hospitals that I worked at allowed nurses to test out of tele class if they had experience.

David Carpenter, PA-C

susieok · Mar 31, 2008

thanks for the reply david, at least i know what to expect now. am working on a 35 bed haematology/oncology ward here in Aus and was looking for something similar if i went boulder/denver. altho, had pretty much banked on doing medical wards if in the smaller mtn hospitals. thanks again.

graceomalleyRN, RN · Apr 4, 2008

Susie, you may be interested in Vail Valley Hospital's Cancer Facility. Its name is Shaw Regional Cancer Center:

http://www.vvmc.com/VVMC/info/fcc.scc.aspx

Here are a few Denver area hospitals with Cancer units:

http://www.porterhospital.org/index.php?s=cancer_oncology

My father in law was at Porter for 3 months with a very rare form of cancer. They were absolutely wonderful there and he survived.

http://www.stanthonynorth.org/index.php?s=online_oncology_center

http://www.skyridgemedcenter.com/CustomPage.asp?guidCustomContentID=BB2AC011-5910-4BEF-8F19-88AA424D54C7

University of Colorado's University Hospital has a huge new campus and are a leading research facility:

http://www.uch.edu/conditions/cancer/index1.aspx

Good luck in your search! I've lived all over the U.S. and Colorado is my favorite place overall.

susieok · Apr 4, 2008

thanks wildchipmunk, will give those websites a view. had found Shaw in Vail... no vacancies at present but may just fwd my resume there all the same. yeah... i may be bias, but i think CO is the best as well! thanks again.