Alaska?

RNERHOUSESUPOR · May 24, 2006

I don't know anything about it now, but in 1990 I knew a nurse who was set to travel to Alaska. She had plans to go to several assignments and they would be cancelled at the last minute she finally packed everything up and headed to Anchorage with no job and took a position there when she arrived. I took a cruise to Alaska last summer and may try an assignment there when I start traveling again.

TxPsychRn · Jun 18, 2006

I am on my 3rd set of assignments in Alaska , so I may be a little biased in saying I love it here (summers are best since I fish ) . I have done all my assignments in Juneau (18 months alltogether) . Bartlett hospital is where I work and it's pretty cool .The housing isn't the best ,but it's not bad either. It's like an efficiency at a hotel . The hospital sets it all up so there is not alot of choice in the housing (again this is in Juneau ). Chances are you won't be spending alot of time there anyhow if you like the outdoors .I obviously love it up here and yes the company you travel with will make a difference in your pay (it's a long story , but trust me ) . I am with Medical Express now but have talked to TheRightSolutions and their pay is better due to the way they structure their stipends etc . I could go on and on , you can PM me if you want more info !!

RNERHOUSESUPOR · Jun 18, 2006

Thanks for the post. If you read the RV's Anyone posts you will already know that I have committed to myself the this fall I will start traveling again. On my long drive from Kansas to Florida I was able to come up with a plan (I hope) to make it to Alaska again in 10 years (long time away!!) I hope to purchase a motorhome and trailer and spend the next 10 years alternating between Florida during the school year and somewhere way north of there in the summers. In 10 years (maybe sooner) my daughter will be out of highschool and hopefully will still want to take one last summer trip with me. I am starting an Alaska trip savings account today so hopefully I won't have to work for the first part of the trip. Do they have any motorhomes that withstand the winters up there? I guess I should check into that in case I really like it and want to spend a winter there too before coming back to the lower 48. I remember seeing a few class C's in Skagway but don't remember many Class A's. My thought was that they were summer visitors. Probably would need to leave my little Celica down south and bring up the old Jeep pickup eh? How is the Alaska nursing license? I'm going to try and keep my self with just a Florida and one other state license ( if I can) even though the companies reimburse you for some license fees, it's just too hard to keep up with a lot of them. Oh for the day of the national license.

Ezekiel2029 · Jun 18, 2006

I lived in AK for 4 years and worked agency the entire time. LOVED IT! The link for my company is http://www.alaskanursing.com/ I pretty much set my own schedule so I never did an actual travel assignment with them. I worked in Anchorage the entire time, but they can send you to the AK bush country if you want. They do send nurses all over the state. Just call and ask them any questions. The AK license was no problem to obtain. They require 30 CEU's every 2 years.

I also owned a Class A coach with a pair of 4-wheelers. We used them every weekend from May thru Sept. If the snow melted early then April was great. Most RV's are stored for the winter and require winterizing (draining all water and running an anti-freeze through the pipes). Most RV parks close around the end of Sept or beginning of Oct. I think there was 1 in Anchorage that was open year round. The roads definitely become an issue to consider. However, I did have friends with snow machines that would pull them behind the RV and use the anti-freeze to flush the toilets. There are unlimited places to go and see in AK and you can always dry camp anywhere on the side of the road. The Milepost is a definite must have. It is the Bible of travel in AK with tons of good info and phone numbers to call ahead.

I highly recommend AK simply for the beauty. You will probably want to do several assignments. There's no way to see enough of it in 13 weeks. Anchorage is nice because of its central location. I preferred Providence to the others in Anchorage.