Brigham and Women's Travel Assignment (NICU)

Specialties NICU

Published

Hi All,

I'm starting a 4 month travel assignment in March 2015 at Brighman and Women's (Boston). I've heard that they were hiring on a good number of nurses for this assignment, so I was just wondering if anyone out there is starting with me.

Also wondering whether anyone starting as a traveler in Boston has found any good housing situations (all the furnished 1-bedroom month-to-month options cost way more than my housing stipend, so I'm probably just going to sublet as a roommate)... just wanted to hear what others are doing.

Take care!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

Hi. They are hiring tons of travelers because they are converting their EMR over to Epic. It's a crazy busy NICU with everything but ECMO. To get the most from your stipend I suggest living on the outskirts and taking the T in....Brigham is on the green line so you'd need to live somewhere along the red or orange line for an easy switch to the green...Medford, Malden, and Melrose are decent. Check out the air B&B website for good housing deals in those areas.

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Thank you for your response and the ideas! I'm really excited to start at Brigham. It also seems like they're very "traveler friendly" since they hire travelers all the time. A nurse I work with used to work in the NICU there, and absolutely loved it.

I've done a lot of searching for apartments, on Airbnb, craigslist, other apartment sites, etc. I actually found an Airbnb apartment in East Boston that I'm leaning towards (great price, safe neighborhood, big, and nicely furnished w/ all utilities, parking) and I'm wondering what you think about the idea of driving from East Boston to B&W every evening (I'll be night shift). Google maps calls it 17 min, but with traffic I'd make sure to leave at LEAST a half hour. I'm going to have a car with me anyway, so any thoughts on driving?

Thank you!

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More like an hour at least is a safer bet for driving. I lived 10 miles north of the city and it took easily 45 minutes on a good day, and I wasnt going all the way into town. (I would park at an outlying T stop and ride in to Children's, which is right near the Brigham) Keep in mind that you may have to pay for parking as well. The T is super easy and pretty affordable :) best of luck! Gotta admit, I'm pretty jealous ;)

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

You'll have a reverse commute if you do that, so expect between 20-30 minutes in the morning and about 45 minutes in the evening. If you're working straight nights there's often discounted or free parking so it'll be less expensive. I have interviewed in the city a couple of times and would have chosen to drive in. I live close to East Boston so if you even need a friendly face for drinks after a bad night just message me :)

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Thanks so much for the comments. After considering everything I'm really rethinking the East Boston situation. People are saying bad things about the traffic, and I called the BWH parking office (they say you have to park off-site and then take a shuttle, which can be up to 2 miles away from the hospital, so who knows how much time that would add in traffic plus the waiting... Also it's $138 or something a month for days, and my shift is technically rotating, although I'll probably be mostly nights, but what about that 1 day they want me on days...) All in all it seems like I really should have the T as a backup.

So, I'm starting my search again, and this time acquiescing to having a roommate, since I'm really not finding any 1 bedrooms along the T in my price range, but that's ok! I'll have a roommate and it'll be fine. Something in Mission Hill or Brookline would be amazingly close, but I'll definitely expand my search to further along the green line, and if necessary the Red and Orange.

I have no nurse friends in Boston so I might be hitting you up after a particularly hard day :)

Any other advice about this issue would be totally welcome! Anyone tried to look for roommates in a random month like March? There are tons of postings for January, and I'm hoping come February, people will be looking for March roommates.

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Specializes in ED, Pedi Vasc access, Paramedic serving 6 towns.

Another thing you may look into is living in NH and using a Park and Ride. Its so much easier to just take the bus to the train station!

HPRN

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Specializes in L&D, OBED, NICU, Lactation.

When I was a traveler at BWH, I lived outside the city and commuted. I worked nights so I had free parking, but the savings was worth it. As NeoPediRN said, it is a crazy busy unit and if you are so inclined, there are always extra shifts to be picked up. That place is a freakin' factory for deliveries.

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Can I ask where you commuted from? And how long it took you?

That's awesome-- I like busy! (as long as it's well-staffed..) Unfortunately if I pick up any extra shifts, above my 3/week, I'll only make $20/hour, so it probably won't be worth it for me to pick up any extra :/

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Specializes in Pedi.

East Boston is where the airport is. Traffic around there is crazy. I also wouldn't necessarily call it a "safe" neighborhood of Boston- certainly it's not as bad as Mattapan or Roxbury but it's not the best. And then you're talking about the Blue line. Government Center (the blue line-green line connection) is closed so you'd have to go blue line-orange line-green line or blue line-orange line-walk.

The D line goes all the way out to Newton, you might be able to find a sublet there but it's about the most expensive town in the state.

If I were you, I'd be looking in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, West Roxbury or Hyde Park. All have easy access to the orange line at Forest Hills or bus and commuter rail access that goes to Ruggles. The 39 bus which leaves from Forest Hills and goes through Longwood to Back Bay is easily the best bus in all of the MBTA. I did the commute from Brighton to Longwood on the green D line (3 stops), then Roslindale to Longwood on 2 buses and both ways took just as long. The green line is pitifully unreliably and breaks down multiple times every day. You can walk to Brigham from the orange line at Roxbury Crossing or Ruggles, though I wouldn't recommend walking to/from either alone after dark.

You could also consider living South of the city on the red line- like Quincy or Braintree. There's a free shuttle bus that goes to Longwood from JFK/UMass.

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Specializes in Pedi.

Also want to add, if you know what you're doing you can find free parking in the neighborhoods around the hospitals at night. I had a subsidized T pass from the hospital and drove when I worked nights. I parked either at meters (3 years ago when I left the hospital they stopped running at 6, now they run until 8 but they don't start until 8am, good incentive to get out on time, just watch out for street cleaning and Red Sox games) or on streets in Mission Hill that were either Resident parking/2 hr parking from 8A-6P. Sunday day shifts you can park on Louis Pasteur, but you gotta be there by 6:30AM otherwise all the spots are gone.

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This is such great information. Thank you for taking the time to respond! I didn't know that the green line was so painfully slow, and I hadn't really thought about taking the bus before. I looked up the 39 bus and it really is a straight shot from JP. It sounds like the orange line is a way more reliable option than the green line as well. Walking from Roxbury crossing is only 14 min or so according to the map. It's also great to know about the commuter line which I haven't paid any attention to (the Needham line, it looks like). Rooms for rent in March are slowly but surely starting to pop up, so I'll know which neighborhoods to focus my search on. Thank you so much!

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