California Dreamin'

[allibear]

Hello everyone! I love the amount of knowledge you all share with one another! Maybe I can get help, too. It's a little early to be looking, I know, but I still would like to find out your opinions of respected/not so respected hospitals in the Hermosa Beach, Long Beach, or Venice areas. Basically, I want to be a short distance from LA area without actually living in LA (unless of course there are great hospitals and places to live within LA).

A little about myself: I am a first year junior in a nursing program. I'm incredibly excited when I think of all the opportunities I will have as a RN when I finish school. I am from a very small town in TN, and even though I've spent my whole life in that little town, home is where the heart is, and my heart just isn't there...it's in California and has been for quite some time! I, along with my fiance, want to move to Cali as soon as school is finished and we take (and Lord willing pass) our NCLEX. To us, California is a dream state...the land of opportunity...the state that never sleeps...the state where the weather should be bottled and sold at high prices, etc. We want a piece of all that! We are always looking for things to get into (entertainment, fine dining), and I'm always looking for shopping. I'm just needing insight as to where to work and live. We want to be near the beach (or within 30-45 mins.) and near the LA area (or within 30-45 mins.). We want to live in a condo/apt. and are willing to penny pinch as much as humanly possible. Of course we want to work at a very well respected hospital in an ICU (because we are wanting to become CRNAs). I've been looking at Kaiser and Sutter, but created some very confusing scenarios for myself in the process. What is the difference in working for Kaiser/Sutter and just working? I hope that makes sense. Of course we want the best pay, benefits, hours, etc. (who doesn't), so which of the two (Kaiser/Sutter or just working) would provide that? I mean, I can read all I want on the other internet sites about all this, but I value far more the educated and experienced opinions of you all.

Whew! Sorry this turned out to be so long. Perhaps I should jot down all my questions to make it a little easier to answer, rather than having you kind readers sift through all my words to find out what I'm asking. I think I shall do that if this thread doesn't do very well.

Basically, I'm wanting a nice, clean area near the beach and the LA area with well respected hospitals and good pay, benefits, hours, etc. (this is where the Kaiser/Sutter question comes in), and an affordable condo/apt. in a safe and clean community.

ANY advice would be overwhelmingly helpful!

[suzanne4, RN]

If your goal is a CRNA program, then you should be steering more towards a facility that has a CVICU, you will generally get the most in hemodynamics training there. Titration of cardiac drips, intra-aortic ballon pumps, pulmonary artery catheters, etc.

Pick more along those goals.........................

[kitten77]

The wife of a friend works at Kaiser & just loves it. She is in the San Fernando valley but I think Kaiser is like a chain store, they are run around the same from area to area. She started at 34 an hour and was increased to 36 an hour a few months later. The thing she likes most about Kaiser is the strict nurse/patient ratio. The floor she works on has a 4 or 5 patient ratio to each nurse. This is taken very seriously (she previously worked at a LTC facility and bombarded with patients, if they had a ratio is was violated daily) She likes Kaiser but it is not my bag, I am at UCLA Med & like outpatient stuff. Good luck

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

The wife of a friend works at Kaiser & just loves it. She is in the San Fernando valley but I think Kaiser is like a chain store, they are run around the same from area to area. She started at 34 an hour and was increased to 36 an hour a few months later. The thing she likes most about Kaiser is the strict nurse/patient ratio. The floor she works on has a 4 or 5 patient ratio to each nurse. This is taken very seriously (she previously worked at a LTC facility and bombarded with patients, if they had a ratio is was violated daily) She likes Kaiser but it is not my bag, I am at UCLA Med & like outpatient stuff. Good luck

I also wanted to add that there are 2 Kaiser locations in the San Fernando Valley (L.A. County): the Panorama City campus and the Woodland Hills campus. Panorama City and Woodland Hills are both comfortable suburbs in the Los Angeles area, about 15 miles north of the city of L.A.