Manhattan

tallynurse · Jul 16, 2014

StrosGirl, did you get a contract for NICU 3 in NYC? What company did you use? I'm currently talking to companies to try to go in Sept. Some say they think they can get me in and others aren't as confident.

HarleyNrs · Jul 17, 2014

I'm not in Manhattan, I work in the bronx and am housed in Yonkers. I work NICU with Fastaff.

Underthemoonicp6 · Jul 17, 2014

Hi there. I just completed an assignment in the Bronx. It is definitely easier to find assignments in the boroughs vs the city, but I know St Luke's and Cornell use travelers. You have to have a BSN, even as a traveler or they won't look at you in Manhattan. In the Bronx Jacobi and Montefiore use travelers and in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Hospital Center does too. There are probably more but those are the ones I know of for sure.

Pay is very good there and I'm a new traveler. It's probably on the high end of what you can get as a travel nurse. My stipend alone was $1000/week and the hospital was in the Bronx, not in the city. However, housing can be very expensive. I was lucky because I had friends living in the city and was able to sublet a room from them for a good price. A lot of people post their apartments on Airbnb so you could try messaging someone and negotiating a monthly rate. Otherwise, you can use Craigslist or Sublet.com. There are a ton of postings. The thing about NY is that housing comes together very last minute. If you contact someone about subletting an apartment a month in advance, don't expect them to hold it for you.

If you're set on living in the city, then pay the extra money and live in a neighborhood you enjoy. I'm definitely glad I did. However, if you're looking to maximize profit and don't mind having to ride the train to get in, look into living in the Bronx or Queens. The part of Brooklyn that's close to the city is beginning to get just as expensive as Manhattan. However, Brooklyn has a very cool and different vibe than the city so I would recommend it if you like a slightly more laid back pace while still enjoying city life.

All that said, being a nurse in NYC is not easy. I work ICU and although the ratio was supposed to be 2:1, it rarely was. If you work for a city hospital you could be dealing with a lot of co-workers who are 3 years away from their pension and not really interested in doing anything else but waiting for it. There was a PCA who would literally leave the unit for hours at a time. That can be frustrating when you have 3 vented patients and need the extra hands. Also, the nurses are currently negotiating their 1st raise in 10 years, so there is definitely a level of animosity there. Their base rate is $37/hr which is extremely low for the area. From my experience, the anger was towards the hospital and not towards me as a traveler which was good. New Yorkers are also more confrontational and direct than you may be used to. The first time I saw two nurses screaming at each other over the assignment I had a bit of culture shock. But it wasn't rare to have vocal arguments in the middle of the unit: RN vs RN, RN vs MD, MD vs MD, RN or MD vs pt or family. I had heard that it better at private hospitals but it still happens.

Overall, I loved my assignment in NY. The city was awesome. Although the hospital dynamic was different than what I was used to, if you have a little bit of thick skin you'll be just fine.

wylie-coyote · Jul 18, 2014

Anyone have an idea about what the ratios are on Telemetry? Especially at Lutheran Medical Center?