Arizona nurse looking to move to Portland, Oregon

JustKeepDriving · Dec 15, 2013

Right now Portland has a difficult job market. They have some top notch RN-BSN/ABSN/ELMSN programs (OHSU, Lindfield, UOPortland ect.) that graduate a new batch of nurses almost every semester. Then they have excellent ASN programs (PCC, Clakamas, Clark, Chemeketa ect.) that also graduate nurses year round. Plus a lot of RN's move into the area from out of state. Your one year of acute care experience will give you a leg up, but it still might prove difficult to find a position.

The salary ranges from 24.00 - 44.00 depending on specialization, level of experience and type of facility. Most nurses I know at the bachelor's degree level make around 32.00 - 34.00 hourly. I know some facilities do a lot of cancellations so it can be hard for some nurses to get their full time hours.

Portland itself isn't something I would say is awesomely affordable. The city can be pretty expensive. Outlying areas (Beaverton, Hillsboro, Wilsonville, Vancouver ect.) are much more affordable - but the downside is you're in suburbia hell (well, to me it's hell - many people like those areas).

My biggest piece of advice would be not to move here until you found a job here. I graduated from nursing school in Dec 2012 with RN, BA, BSN and had ACLS, BLS and TNCC on top of previous hands on patient care experience - and still didn't start my first - and current- nursing job until July 2013 (an hour and a half commute from my Portland area home). I've sent out some applications since getting a little bit of experience to see if there were any options closer to home - but still no bites. So just be prepared for the possibility of a long search.

I wish you luck.

NurseElise22 · Dec 16, 2013

Thank you so much!! That is exactly what I wanted to know!