Live on the east coast, but work on the west coast?

[Spoiled1]

Hi all,

I am an ICU nurse on the east coast (NC). Some of the travelers on my unit are claiming that it's possible to work contract per diem jobs in California for 10 days a month. Then you're off for 20 days and make a lot of $$ doing so. I would still live on the east coast, but just fly out to California to work once a month for 10 days. I am not sure how all of this would work because they made it sound like you're per diem with a hospital, not with an agency. I've heard that you can make $10k/month doing something like this!! Is anyone familiar with hospitals that do this? I would be interested in the Northern California area. Thanks!

[dcolonrn]

I wanted to resurrect this thread since I had some questions that would apply. I'm currently working full time in a Sacramento ICU and am doing just fine financially. However, I've been interested in the possibility of moving back to Chicago but finding some sort of employment discussed here where I would fly back in to Northern California (Sacramento or the Bay Area) to work say 10 shifts straight and fly back to Chicago. The wages there are half of what they are here in NorCal. This would give me the roughly three weeks off every month. I do something similar now where I work 6 straight and have 8 off every pay period but couldn't be flying in and out twice a month since that would negate the wage difference. Anybody know any places in the region where I could make something like this happen? I stumbled across a person in an wage article on Stanford that said this:

"I fly in from Texas, work 6 x 16 hr shifts in a row get paid $15,000 and fly home, not at Stanford but an area hospital. I just milk the overtime and early shift start penalties they pay"

It was an anonymous post but the numbers do add up based on my experience with the salaries around here. Curious if anyone who knows about anything like this could point me in the right direction. Thanks!

[BluntForceTrauma]

I wonder how long ago that post was...usually if they are doing that, they are per diem. Those hours may or may not be guaranteed especially overtime.

[NedRN]

I read that very same post - I think it was in a local newspaper online, perhaps the San Jose Mercury. The person was disparaging the high wages of California nurses and their impudence at striking, even while taking advantage of the high union pay personally that such strategies enable. Bit of a BSer. If it was 16 hour shifts, well, the numbers may work out. But I can't imagine a manager allowing 10 16 hour shifts. So take that agenda drive post with a huge grain of salt!

As a staff nurse in the area, you are in a perfect position to look for such jobs. They are rare, take a while to get, and probably preference would go to travelers who have proven their worth. It seemed like San Jose 8 years ago was a hot spot for a number of people doing that, but I know it has been done at quite a number of Bay Area hospitals. Think of how appealing such a position would be when you think about competing for such a job or just getting lucky - it will be hard to get. No longer are their staffing ratio deadlines to meet.