How hard to find a RN position in Bay area?

smile123 · Jun 13, 2007

Hi friends:
I am thinking to take my 10 years old daughter to move to bay area to live. With 3 years expeience, not for sure if I can find a good RN position in the area. Any clues? Anyone can recommend some good hospitals?
SF,San Jose, Fremont ....etc. Where has good elementary schools and hopspitals? Thanks! Your suggestions can help a lot! I appreciate it very much.
John

Yes, with 3 years of hospital experience, you will not have any trouble finding a job in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can do a search via Google to find good elementary schools and from there you can do a city search with hospitals. What you want to consider is the commute and housing. How far are you willing to commute to get to work? How much are you willing to spend for the rent/mortgage?

I happen to live down the Peninsula, near Stanford Hospital and El Camino Hospital (Palo Alto and Mtn View), which both have excellent schools nearby. If you want to live in San Francisco, there are is UC San Francisco, Pacific Medical Center, and other community hospitals. Kaiser has branches all over. Do a search on the neighborhood or cities you're interested in. You can PM me if you want to talk further. Good luck!

TazziRN, RN · Jun 13, 2007

Fremont has good grade schools but the only hospital is Washington Hospital. It's good but not spectacular. The only other hospitals in the area are Kaiser facilities. I hate Kaiser.

SJ: Santa Clara Valley Med Center, San Jose Regional, and Good Samaritan are all good. Nearby Palo Alto has Stanford Medical Center. Up the road in SF is UCSF and CMPC, but it's horribly expensive to live there. Seton Medical Center is in Daly City.

East Bay: Highland in Oakland is wild, but if you're an adrenaline junkie it's great. John Muir in Concord.

There are smaller hospitals a bit farther south, in Gilroy and in Monterey County. PM me if you want more info, if that's not too far south for you.

John123 · Jun 13, 2007

Thanks guys for email. I am thinking to live in San Jose or Campbell area, then find a job nearby. If it is far, I don't mind to get on BART.

I tried to apply Kaiser in San Jose. They hardly have any full time positions. Why? hard to land RN job in the area? Any hospitals you guys can recommend? Thanks a lot! John

caliotter3 · Jun 13, 2007

RN, and for that matter, LVN jobs are hard to land in that area because everybody wants to be there. People get established and there is low turnover. All that is readily available are part time or hard to fill positions that are not taken because no one can pay their living expenses on part time work.

kneRN · Jun 13, 2007

Thanks guys for email. I am thinking to live in San Jose or Campbell area, then find a job nearby. If it is far, I don't mind to get on BART.
I tried to apply Kaiser in San Jose. They hardly have any full time positions. Why? hard to land RN job in the area? Any hospitals you guys can recommend? Thanks a lot! John

I just relocated to Santa Clara and am having a difficult time trying to find a pediatric RN job. I have seen a lot of F/T ICU and L&D positions, though.

caliotter3 · Jun 13, 2007

kneRN

Try Maxim Healthcare on Winchester Blvd. They have a lot of peds cases and you might be able to get hooked up with a new case for a lot of hours. Pay is not great but it could tide you over until you find something permanent. Good luck to both of you in finding work around there.

smile123 · Jun 14, 2007

Thanks guys for email. I am thinking to live in San Jose or Campbell area, then find a job nearby. If it is far, I don't mind to get on BART.
I tried to apply Kaiser in San Jose. They hardly have any full time positions. Why? hard to land RN job in the area? Any hospitals you guys can recommend? Thanks a lot! John

Hi John,

Here is what a lot of nurses in the Bay Area do. They take a part time job at one hospital (3 days a week) and then do per diem work at another (1 or 2 days/wk). They get paid a lot more per diem because they don't get benefits. But they don't need the benefits because they already have the part time job. BTW, if you work 32 or 36 hours in a week, that's considered "full time" for benefits. Some places say if you work 50% time, you'll qualify for benefits.

Also look at Kaiser Santa Clara, O'Connor Hospital San Jose, Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Gatos. BART does not go down to Santa Clara from the east side of the bay. However, you can take Muni (bus) or Caltrain to certain areas from the Peninsula to/from San Jose. PM me if you want more info. Good luck!

John123 · Jun 15, 2007

Thank you smile123 and others for the good replies. I will apply some part time jobs in San Jose area. Get benefits, then get another part time job. Anyone can recommend a good apartment in San Jose, Campbell or Santa Clara? Thanks A again! John

John123 · Jun 15, 2007

Hi Guys:

How far to drive from Fremont to Redwood City? Any public transportation available? Thanks! John

BerkeleyMom · Jun 16, 2007

I am very pleased with our school district, the Albany School District, and it is also very highly ranked if that is important to you. The community is wonderful as well and is mainly composed of young families with an investment in their community, schools, and environment.

Another highly ranked school district is Piedmont (Oak hills) but the cost of living is quite a bit higher. If you want to learn about these & surrounding neighborhoods, I highly recommend Berkeley Parent's Network--it is a free community resource that is wonderful--you can read about these things on the website (previous posts) and you can join and get frequent emails of posts, and you may ask all of these questions there too.

As far as finding a nursing job, well that may be the eaisest part!

norcalRNstudent · Jun 16, 2007

John,

I know that the BART starts in Freemont, but I'm not too familiar with the stops it makes...you can check out http://www.bart.gov to see the stops and connections- it has a feature that you can use to coordinate public trans.

Good LUck!