Advice about California DESPERATELY Needed

LydiaNN · Feb 17, 2006

Have you posted this in the CA nurses forum, too? Sorry, even though I'm from CA, I am at the wrong end of the state and don't know much about the area in which Oakland's Children's Hospital is located. They're a pretty progressive hospital, though. I met a team of nurses and doctors at a Jump Start course back in November.

slapsilly · Feb 17, 2006

Thanks for your advice, I'll post it there as well. I'm so stressed about this that I haven't been sleeping much. It's almost 2 am here, and I'm wide awake and buzzing!

Town & Country · Feb 17, 2006

go to delphiforums.com and check out travel nurses and therapists.

MZ_RN · Feb 17, 2006

I'm waiting to start my first assignement as a travel nurse. I'm from a medium sized Ontario city and currently work in two different Level 1 trauma centres -an adult and a pediatric ER.
My recruiter has offered me a position at Oakland Children's Hospital. Not being familiar with California, I'm not sure it's the place for me, as it seems awfully busy and I have no idea if the area it's in is safe or not. Any suggestions from other people?
My friend is going to be working at Stanford in Palo Alto (no jobs for me in ER there) and I"d like to be near her. We were supposed to work in the same vacinity and share an apartment, but I'm not sure this is going to happen if I take the job in Oakland. Is it as dangerous as I've heard? My company has told me they'll find an apartment outside the city and that I can take the BART to get around, but I'm still pretty uncertain. Plus, where would we live that is close to the BART and still not too far from Stanford? This is beginning to become such a headache!
Personally, I'd rather work in a combo ER (adult and peds) in an area closer to Palo Alto, but she says right now there isn't a lot of demand for travellers in Emerg in that area. Should I hold out or see how the position goes?
Any suggestions greatly appreciated as my LOA from work starts in 2 weeks and I'd really like to have a job lined up by that time.

Hi SlapSilly,

I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area but haven't heard much about Oakland Children's Hospital. It is quite a drive from Palo Alto though (45-50min.). If you want to be closer to your friend who will be working at Stanford, I would suggest trying El Camino Hospital, which is located in Sunnyvale (15-20min. from Palo Alto), but it is not a trauma center. If you want a trauma center, there is Stanford (but your recruiter told you there wasn't a need for ER) or Valley Medical Center in San Jose (approx. 30-35 min. away from Palo Alto). The next other trauma center in the SF Bay Area is San Francisco General Hospital, but is about 45-50min. away from Palo Alto. Another suggestions is the VA in Palo Alto, but again, not a trauma center, but a good teaching facility affiliated with Stanford. Hope this helps. Good luck!

slapsilly · Feb 17, 2006

It does, thank you. I had actually applied to El Camino -but they filled the position with a permanent staff member, rather than a traveller, so that place is out for now. Sad really, cause it looked like a great place. I'm not too worried if it's a trauma centre or not, so my recruiter is looking into all the places you mentioned for me. So far, no luck, though Stanford has agreed to review my file this afternoon, even though there are currently no openings. Here's hoping for the best!

sanakruz, ADN · Feb 17, 2006

Oakland is actually a great city. Dont know too much about the hospital itself. It's no more safe or unsafe than any BIG city- There are parts of Palo Alto tislots of gang activity

anyway there's Jack London square and lots of jazz clubs and beautiful old houses like SF has