Children's hospital at Providence

[Fleur-di-lisRN]

Hi everyone. I am seriously looking to move to Alaska within the next 1-2 years and wanted to get some feedback on pediatrics at Providence, specifically the OR. I am a pediatric surgical nurse at a level 1 trauma center and I specialize in general and heart surgery but can circulate in all surgical service lines. I have tried to research what Providence has to offer in the way of pediatric surgery but it looks like its not nearly as big a children's hospital compared to what I am used to where I currently work, which is approximately 1,200-1,300 surgeries a month with 17 ORs. One of the surgeons I work with has worked at Providence temporarily a few years ago and his feedback was that it was much slower than what I am used to and the children's area was 1 floor of the adult hospital. Is this still the same today? Also, how much of a need is there for pediatric surgical nurses and how hard is it to get hired? what is the pay scale for experieced OR nurses? I love being in peds surgery and would prefer to continue doing that while living in Alaska. Thanks for any help with this!

[toomuchbaloney]

I suspect that you might be a bit disappointed in the Providence Alaska Medical Center's level of pediatric care. The complex and interesting surgical cases that may be a draw for you are transferred to Seattle, for the most part.

Keep in mind that Alaska remains a "frontier" state with limited access to some things that folks in the lower 48 take for granted.

Good luck.