Hawaii travel positions

caliotter3 · Sep 21, 2002

Don't have any info about travel assignments in HI however I noticed you want to go from Alaska to Hawaii. Gee, I wonder why? HeHe.

2ndCareerRN · Sep 21, 2002

JudiL,

Are you presently doing a travel assignment in AK?

One place to go for some advice, and fellow travel nurses is Delphi Forums. There is a travel nurse forum thaer that has many people who can answer your questions.

http://forums.delphiforums.com/travelnurses/messages?fpi=yes

bob

JudiL · Sep 21, 2002

No. This would be my first travel assignment. I live in Ketchikan, AK and have worked here for eight years. We use a lot of traveling nurses ourselves, especially in the summer when the cruise ships are visiting, but I've not traveled myself yet. Thanks for the link. I'll give it a try.

sjoe · Sep 21, 2002

judil--on this very BB, there is a forum for the specialty of travel nursing from which you might get some useful feedback.

I used the agency Nursefinders when I was already in Hawaii, and found them honest. Don't know if they do travel nursing, but you could ask.

Bad experiences: Don't take an assignment at the Hawaii State (psych) Hospital in Kaneohe.

NMAguiar · Sep 21, 2002

My wife, who is a nurse instructor, grew up on Kauaii. It is one of the few places we want to travel after I receive my RN in 2003 to spend an extended period with her family.

But when her mother passed away recently, we found the sole acute-care hospital to be very backwards and clumsy. The few doctors we worked with seemed rather ignorant of many things -- almost as if they were "leisure" doctors with degrees from Granada.

These were our impressions only and certainly don't represent all nurses and physicians there. We may have just lucked out with the worse. But it has tainted our desire to travel to the Garden Island -- who wants to be surrounded by a bunch of yuk-yuks!

So we're kinda thinking a bigger island to work, while commutting days off to the smaller, might be smarter. Anyone know anything?

sjoe · Sep 21, 2002

Visit Queens in Honolulu sometime (take another holiday and write it off as "job search") and see what you think. But, as I said on the thread about Bermuda, the State of Hawaii IS a colony in numerous ways.

Keep in mind that since the Japanese stock market tanked in the early '90s and markedly decreased the number of tourists from that country, which had been a major source of tourists, (ditto for Aussies, who more frequently now go to SE Asia on holiday)

AND decreases in military spending through the '90s also decreased the state's income from the military

AND international competition for both sugar and pineapple has all but decimated those industries (what remains is government-subsidized)

--its economy is in VERY bad shape and can't very well support a state-of-the-art healthcare industry or social services or education system or.... Even in Honolulu.

NMAguiar · Sep 21, 2002

Good input Sjoe. My wife has specifically suggested Queens, on Oahu, as a possibility -- she had positive experiences there. And after living in California, we'd die of boredom on Kauaii after 20-minutes.

The Hawaiian economy? We bought and were given four pieces of land -- 3 on the big island and 1 on Kauaii -- when we were married. Despite all are in developing areas, they've actually significantly DROPPED IN VALUE in the past 10 years. Where else do you see THAT happen (with the exception of Bagdad).

Audreyfay · Sep 22, 2002

I lived on Oahu for 6 months. I worked with a nursing agency, and also accepted a full time job at St. Francis Liliha hospital. It's hard work. Most of the hospitals have only 12 hours shifts. I did agency nursing at all of the hospitals, short of Queens and Tripler. The thing that fascinated me was the cockroaches. Everywhere. In the hospital, in the hallways....

This is my humble opinion: I did not think the doctors were supportive of nursing. I did not enjoy being a minority. If you are filipina, you'll fit in fine. I found that the majority of the nurses in the hospitals did not treat caucasian nurses as nicely as I would have wanted to be treated.

Health care in general was not good. Supplies were limited and of all the areas in the US I have worked (WI,MN, Upper MI, Lower MI, LosAngeles, SanFrancisco Bay, and HI), the healthcare was the worst, the work load was the heaviest, the sites were the dirtiest, and the technology was the worst. Needless to say, I would not accept an assignment there. If you do go, do not plan on making money. The cost for everything is very high. Most people have to plan on taking extra money, just to live there. So, my humble opinion, nice place to visit, but I would not want to live there.

I'm sorry of I'm offending anyone. I'm just offering my opinion. I loved the hawaiian people and the hawaiian culture. I just did not think the healthcare was much to consider.

Good luck! If I were to suggest a travel assignment, I would most recommend Tripler, the military hospital.

sjoe · Sep 22, 2002

Audrey--well said about discrimination, healthcare, finances. It is not a mainland economy by any means, but much more primitive (or as I said earlier, "colonial").

The fact is that people raising kids usually means the two adults are holding down at least 3 and often 4 jobs between them, with no time to spend with, or rear their kids. Constantly afraid of missing a paycheck or something going wrong with the car, if they have one.

The comments you made would also be true about the University (third-rate at best), public schools, on and on. White mainlanders living there are treated just as you would expect they would be treated by people who consider them to be colonialists who have stolen their ancestors' land (which, of course, we did).

BUT then again, one would not be very wise to move to Hawaii with the expectation of more than "just getting by" economically or academically.

I trust NMAguiar does not have these expectations, but if he does, my advice would be LOOK OUT! A lot of people move to Hawaii with some money and what otherwise would be reasonable plans, but return to the mainland after some months or even years, broke and in debt. It is not set up for people to move there successfully, but as a place to visit, spend lots of money, and leave.

Of course, someone who has prosperous relatives already there who can provide jobs, place to live, social support, and a personal network would have a reasonable chance of success. Or a retiree with many millions of dollars, of course (though their healthcare would not be the best).

Don't mean to be discouraging, simply factual. The State of Hawaii is insular in every sense of the word. (And frankly, the weather doesn't beat that of San Diego, though the scenery is another story altogether. IMHO.)

NMAguiar · Sep 22, 2002

Mahalo,

No, as I said, we only intend to "travel" there as travel nurses for a few months to spend quality time with our relatives. The place is too weird to spend too much time -- although I agree with your statement about the economics.

I have found whites are discriminated against. It has always helped me to be standing next to my babezilla native wife, but more than one Hawaiian male has given me the "U-took-one-of-our-women" glare. They have a unique culture in more ways than one.

And cockroaches? As big as your hand. The disgusting things kinda make up for the islands not having snakes. But don't leave young children unattended. :D

motes · Sep 22, 2002

Of all the hospitals that I went through as a student in Hawaii, I think Queen's Hospital and Kapiolani Medical Center were the best. I think they were the most organized and modern of the facilities I've been at. Kapiolani is great for maternity and pediatrics. Kuakini Hospital is not so good -- old facility. Hawaii State Hospital (psych facility) is not so good either. Old facility + a whole bunch of episodes of patients escaping within the past year or so.