Best Hospitals for New Grads

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg.

I'm graduating in December with my R.N. Have just about made up my mind that I'm moving to California. As most of you know, we don't enter the workforce knowing much, and I'm really hoping to find a hospital that has a good preceptorship program for new grads. I'm looking into the Ventura area...possibly L.A. Any recommendations?

Any info will be greatly appreciated!

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New nurse, just received my California license in the mail, living in Ventura County (new to the area). Am debating between Los Robles, Ventura County, St. John's Camarillo. I'm looking for a hospital that will teach me the most as I am nervous! Any advice? Anyone know about any new grad programs in this area? My husband is ready for me to work! :typing Looking for input!

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Specializes in L&D.

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Interested in this topic as well. Is there really a glut of nurses in Cali?

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The day after I graduated from nursing school in Texas, I packed up, sold my house and moved back to northern California at the request of my aging (82, 86) parents. My dad is in early-stage Alzheimers. (I say this, because I came for reasons other than a big salary)

After a couple of months of getting my act together out here (taking the NCLEX, endorsing my license to CA from TX) I started looking for a nursing job.

I am still looking for a job. The new grad programs out here are quite competitive, and are apparently accepting and hiring students that have been in clinical rotations at their facilities.

Other posted nursing positions require "someone with experience."

It is my opinion that if you have had the chance to go to southern- rather than northern-California, I certainly would suggest going south!

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There are many nursing school programs in the Bay Area so there is more of a glut of new grads and not enough spots to cover them with positions when they finish. Agree totally with the above poster. And the limited jobs that there are usually go to students that rotated thru a facility or that worked there while they were in school, they already are familiar with the managers on the units.

If you have a couple of years of experience, then it is much easier to get hired.

And most of the facilities that do hire new grads only do that several times per year with their new grad orientations.

Best of luck to you.

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MSU nurse

There are many hospitals hiring in the Ventura County area. I recently attended a new grad hiring fair at St Johns in Oxnard. They have the highest hourly wage in the county, pay 10k to 12K hiring bonus for two year commitment and give a 2100$ biannual retention bonus. I'm not sure how good their new grad orientation is, but they do offer new grad orientations into specialty units. Also I believe there is room to negotiate a relocation allowance if you are moving from more than 50 miles away.

Ventura is an awesome place to live, though expensive.

Cottage in Santa Barbara pays 30$ and hour for new grads and offers 4,000k sign on bonus. From the outside, their new grad progam looks pretty good.

There are tons of opportunities for RNs in LA. Check out UCLA and Cedars Sinai new grad programs.

I have lived in LA and I think Ventura is a much better place to live and you should have no problem getting a hospital job in this county.

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Specializes in NICU, High-Risk L&D, IBCLC.
New nurse, just received my California license in the mail, living in Ventura County (new to the area). Am debating between Los Robles, Ventura County, St. John's Camarillo. I'm looking for a hospital that will teach me the most as I am nervous! Any advice? Anyone know about any new grad programs in this area? My husband is ready for me to work! :typing Looking for input!

It depends on what specialty you want. It can be difficult to break into specialty areas straight out of school in the Ventura County area (especially ICU).

St. John's in Oxnard and Camarillo rarely hire new grads for ICU's, ER, or L&D. However, if you want anything med/surg or telemetry you will be almost guaranteed a job (especially in Camarillo, which is a smaller facility in a community with a fair number of retirees).

Ventura County Medical Center is a teaching facility with UCLA residents, but I don't think they are hiring many new grads these days. If you eventually want ER this would probably be the best place for you, since any serious trauma usually gets sent to VCMC.

Community Memorial Hospital is comparable in size to St. John's in Oxnard. This is a good place for you if you want a specialty area that has anything to do with maternity. They hire new grads in L&D, NICU, and postpartum. You will also get the chance to do quite a bit as a RN here because it's not a teaching facility and it's a very busy facility with a level III NICU (about 3000 births/year).

I don't really know much of anything about Los Robles...sorry!

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Hey there! Los Robles Hospital is located in Thousand Oaks where I was born and raised. In my opinion Thousand oaks is the nicest of all the surrounding areas...gorgeous and close enough to excitement but has a nice suburban feel to it. The hospital has had a lot of growth over the years and I think the nursing ratios have gotten better. My dad is a physician there and I do have to say that he is one nice doc so that is good! They aren't a huge hospital by any means but location is GREAT.

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