May be traveling to Seattle, WA

V-Neck T-Shirt · Mar 27, 2015

I loved working as a traveler at Harborview (part of the U of W) system. They're very traveler-friendly. I don't know much about Swedish.

TexasRN6 · Mar 27, 2015

I'm starting at Virginia Mason at the end of April! I've heard good things about it so far. No luck on finding housing yet, though.

jme4ya25 · Mar 27, 2015

I'm starting at Tacoma general beginning of May. I heard good things, but don't know much else. It's my first assignment.

GuEsT78 · Mar 29, 2015

I moved away from Seattle not quite two years ago, so I'll offer some location advice.

I suggest that you make your first choice between Seattle and Tacoma before thinking of hospitals. They are very different and far enough apart that living and working in one means you're not likely to visit the other often.

Metro Seattle is a major city and suburbs with a high-tech twist. As a rough guide, think of San Francisco with 6 months of drizzle rather than sun. Amazon and Microsoft are headquartered there. Boeing assembles most of its planes there. Adobe and Google have a major presence. Wages are high and so is the cost of living. The last is why I left. My writer's budget was not quite enough.

It's great for everything outdoors except for swimming. (The water is too cold.) There's boating on Puget Sound and Lake Washington, along with hiking and skiing in the Cascade Mountains. It's not NYC, but there's about as many cultural events as Atlanta. The winters are mild, with only one or two snows that the city handles badly. But it's constantly cloudy with drizzle but rarely rain. The rain is so light, I almost never curtailed my walks for it. Some people find the short and grey winter days depressing. On the other hand, Seattle has about the best weather in the country in July and August. It's sunny and cool while the rest of the country swelters. If romance is on your to-do list though, keep in mind that, while that high-tech means an abundance of well-paid bachelors, women complain that they tilt toward the geeky.

For Tacoma think Kansas City or a similarly blue-collar town but again with drizzle. You still have access to the outdoor activities but far less high culture. On the other hand, it is smaller and the cost of housing is far less.

Now for the hospitals I know about. I had surgery in 2012 at Swedish and was quite impressed with the standard of care. The pre-op nurse who cared for me told she'd worked there for over 40 years, which hints at a low turnover. It's long been the high-status hospital in the city and the place to have your baby or to have heart surgery. It's quite well-managed and keeps up with technology.

All the city's major hospitals are teaching hospitals, but University Hospital is the premier teaching and research hospital. You can literally walk from the hospital to the classrooms and offices of the medical and nursing schools without going out-of-doors. They're one long string of connected buildings at the south end of the university campus. It'd be a great place to work if you want to pursue additional training.

You didn't mention Harborview, but if you're into high stress, it's certain the place to be. That's where most serious medical emergencies go. Everyone I've known who has worked there has admitted to me that the adrenaline rush is one reason they're there.

There's also the huge Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center if that interests you. There's the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance that spans multiple hospitals and applies Fred Hutch research. And in you want to try pediatrics, there's Seattle Children's, which is the 7th-top-rated children's hospital in the country and where I worked for over two years. Lots of adorable kiddies there. I'm now on my third book about that experience.

Most of the city's hospitals are on or near Capitol Hill, which is just east of downtown, so much so that cab drivers call it Pill Hill. You might also check out the more suburban hospitals, including Northwest in north Seattle, Evergreen on the Eastside, and Valley Medical (south of Seattle). If economics is a factor in your choice, Seattle northward and the Eastside (meaning east of Lake Washington) are more affluent. To the south, including Tacoma, it's more working class and blue collar isn't do as well there as high-tech. There are exceptions, but that's the broad pattern.

Oh, and I'd wait for the job before looking for long-term housing. Rush hour traffic in Seattle is dreadful and getting worse. More people but not only no more roads, the roads themselves are getting the 'traffic calming' treatment. The one past my apartment went from four lanes to only two. The excuse was to add bike lanes, but the real rationale is the city trying to force people onto buses. Eight months out of the year, Seattle isn't a good city for biking to work.

I'm no doubt biased since I lived in Seattle, but if you're into traveling and working in interesting places, Seattle is well worth a stay. It's not quite like any other city where I've lived. Tacoma, on the other hand, has no real attractions that would not apply to almost any other mid-sized city in the country (other than those outdoor activities it shares with Seattle).

Hope that helps. I now live a 90-minute drive from Atlanta, and I suspect that Seattle will be enough like big city Atlanta that you'll be comfortable but also different enough that you'll like the change.

Good luck job hunting!

--Michael W. Perry

MsConstrued · Mar 29, 2015

I'm at Swedish right now and I can't wait for the next two months to be finished. They don't treat travelers very well. They float you between all of their hospitals (traffic here is horrendous so I spend over an hour each way when they do this) and float you every four hours if they need to during the shift. They don't care what's in your contract, when you point that out they say that's the way it is and if you don't like it you can leave.

The upside is all the units I've worked on are very nice to me and are always willing to help me out so I don't feel like an outsider, just when it comes to floating. You also have to pay for your own parking downtown which is ridiculous.

NedRN · Mar 29, 2015

Eight months out of the year, Seattle isn't a good city for biking to work.

A personal opinion to be sure, and one no doubt shared by many not from the Northwest. I'm sure you must have noticed plenty of cyclists riding in the drizzle (there are even more in Portland). I did assignments at Swedish and the old Providence hospital in the winter and bicycled every day. As is usual at most assignments, I wouldn't even know where to park my car should I drive to work. No parking fees or traffic hassles for me!

The rain is so light most of the time that most Seattle residents ignore it. They are very outdoorsy in my experience.

wanderlust99 · Mar 29, 2015

If you are there in April, go to the Skagit Valley tulip festival. That was the highlight of my miserable rain filled 3 months in Seattle:)

GuEsT78 · Mar 29, 2015

A personal opinion to be sure, and one no doubt shared by many not from the Northwest. I'm sure you must have noticed plenty of cyclists riding in the drizzle (there are even more in Portland). I did assignments at Swedish and the old Providence hospital in the winter and bicycled every day. As is usual at most assignments, I wouldn't even know where to park my car should I drive to work. No parking fees or traffic hassles for me!
The rain is so light most of the time that most Seattle residents ignore it. They are very outdoorsy in my experience.

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Take into account that I biked to and from Seattle's Wallingford to South Lake Union in all sorts of weathers for about a year and a half and that was before it was trendy. Young and healthy, I saw just how dangerous it was to mix bikes with traffic and Seattle's drizzle only compounded the risk.

I was almost side-swipped by one of Seattle's stretch buses in a way that could have hurled me under its wheels. Wet, my bike's brakes failed on a steep hill. I had to stand on one petal and brake with a foot to even slow down. On one occasion in heavy arterial traffic that made maneuvering impossible I had to panic brake and go flying over my handlebars to avoid slamming into a car on a side street that'd moved into where these assigned bike lanes are. Fortunately I landed on my back, padded with a pack, rather than on my head, which might have led to paralysis. I know all too well what it means to bike on heavily trafficked streets.

About four years ago I attended the funeral of a young man, the son of someone I knew at the Seattle Art Museum, who tried to blast through a red light and instead slammed into van that had the right of way. Some people are not only young, they're young and foolish enough to bike where it's dangerous. That poor van driver has to bear the guilt of what happened for the rest of his life.

More recently, bussing to work downtown, I wondered why drivers, seemingly idiots, would almost pull out in front of a bus. Then I realized that their often distracted minds were tuned to look for cars. They simply did not see this huge bus bearing down on them. The same is true for bikes and motorcycles. People simply do not see them. People will pull out in front of them or run over them. That is the reality and no gushing about bikes will change that.

In my Greenwood neighborhood I also saw what I told friends was "the stupidest father in Seattle." Greenwood Ave is the four-lane neighborhood arterial I lived on that got turned into two lanes plus bike lanes. The father, believing the city's silly bike lane propaganda, had taken his two kids out for a ride and was well ahead of them. His daughter of about twelve was totally confused when it came time to turn left and was wandering around in the traffic lane rather than using that otherwise useless center lane. In rainy, drizzly, darkish day she would have been almost invisible. Fortunately this was the middle of a sunny day. The driver coming up behind her came to a complete stop just to be safe.

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I have no problem with making Seattle bike friendly. I've simply got enough sense and experience to know that blending arterial bike flow with bikes is insane even when those on bikes are young, healthy and alert. I've long been a champion of the city's bike paths and used them extensively. When I studied medical ethics at the University of Washington, I commuted to class on the Burke-Gilman. I'd be quite happy if Seattle abandoned bike lanes on arterials and built bike-friendly 'Greenways' on side streets. Everyone could use them, even children, in much greater safety.

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What I object to is the deception being practiced on Seattle citizens, one very bluntly explained to me by a civil engineer who works on highways. That's to choke up traffic on the city's already inadequate N-S arterials. I-5 lost lanes due to light rail. That's one of the two main arterials. The other is the state highway that in Seattle is called Aurora and the Viaduct (as it passes downtown). The tunnel that replaces the above ground Viaduct will have fewer lanes. Then look as the neighborhood arterials like mine get fewer lanes through various ploys including bike lanes and center dividers. Going north-south is Seattle is already terrible. It will be getting far worse.

I mentioned earlier that the purpose is to drive people onto buses, even those who for age, health, or family issues need to use cars. But Seattle is also curtailing bus service and making it less convenient. A month after I left in the late summer of 2013, they were cutting or eliminating service on over 170 routes and changing routes such that people who have to make more transfers. Imagine waiting in the dark and rain if you're elderly, disabled, or an attractive young woman and you'll know what that means. These are not nice people.

The scheme is quite simple. So choke up Seattle traffic with various changes that it goes from having the 8th worst rush hour traffic in the country to the very worst. And buses are only a stop gap. After all, buses get stuck on the same streets as those choked-up cars. No, the ultimate goal is a fantasy that Seattle can become like Manhattan with its current light rail system expanded into something like Manhattan's subways. That is what is required, they think, to turn Seattle into a world-class city.

That will never happen for a host of reason, not least of which will be the fury that otherwise passive Seattle citizens display over any change that hurts their property values and nothing does that like a rail line.

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In addition to being a warning to the nurse whose planning to work in Seattle for a time, that covert policy has serious implications for health care. Ambulances must use those same choked up streets. Turn the 15 minutes it might take to get someone injured to Harborview's excellent ER to 45 minutes and that means patients dying. I can't understand why the city's medical community is not yelling bloody murder. And add to that the trouble the city's already inadequate roads will offer to hospital staff struggling to get to work after a major quake does its damage.

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Although that and the dreadful parking on Seattle's hospital-filled Capitol Hill why I always suggest to people moving to Seattle that they live close to where they worked. It can make a big difference in your work attitude.

When I worked nights at Seattle Children's I lived a mere 10 minutes walk away. I'd get off about 7:15 and that short walk let me unwind from all the stresses of caring for children with leukemia. Five minutes after I reached my dark and quiet basement apartment I was sound asleep.

In contrast, when I managed databases for a tiny slice of Fred Hutch's cancer research, I had to deal with the horrible parking on Capitol Hill and the blood-sucking fees that parking lots charged. I always started my day ticked off at that. And keep in mind that choking off parking is another slice of the Seattle elites' be-like-Manhattan agenda. The city actively encourages new apartment buildings to have fewer than one parking space per apartment and to charge for parking in addition to rent. Most people in Manhattan don't keep a car. Most people in Seattle are to be pressured not to do so either.

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I actually think there's a host of good reasons to live in Seattle, particularly the marvelous summers. But I hate the thought of this nurse having her enjoyment ruined by commuting or parking issues. Those she can avoid by being careful about where she works and lives. Since my previous posting, I wondered if she should look into hospitals away from Capital Hill, which lies at the center of Seattle's traffic and parking mess. Northwest Hospital might be the best choice. It's in residential area and only about five miles from downtown:

http://www.nwhospital.org/aboutus/mapsanddirections.asp

She might also want to look into the community hospitals that I mentioned in my prior posting. They're not little-town hospitals. Seattle's suburbs are cities in their own right. Their hospitals are as sophisticated as those near downtown and typically have fewer getting-to-work hassles.

Sorry this is so long. Remember that I'm a writer.

NedRN · Mar 29, 2015

I think traffic engineering and Seattle politics is perhaps a bit off topic. Suffice to say that adding capacity to roads only increases the distance people are going to be willing to drive for lower cost housing. Diminishing returns as the more you add, the more will come. It is a difficult problem as cheap gas means only a small percentage of commuters will rideshare or take public transport. Traffic calming on surface streets saves lives and improves property values, and drivers are the major beneficiary, not cyclists.

The dangers of cycling are basically perception. I have no problem mixing it up on four lane surface streets in downtown environments including Seattle and I am not young. Yes, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians are for practical purposes invisible to most motorists. Understand you are invisible even if you make eye contact with the motorist and act super defensively and risks are lower. Expect them to turn left or right in front of you and you will survive fine. Take control of a lane is necessary at times, hugging the right can cause issues.

MsConstrued · Apr 8, 2015

If you are there in April, go to the Skagit Valley tulip festival. That was the highlight of my miserable rain filled 3 months in Seattle:)

We just went last weekend, it was beautiful! I took a bike tour and had a great time even though I fell off my bike and thought I broke my hand LOL. Nothing will ever beat Hawaii for me, but I really like it here in Seattle. I hear the summer is going to be even better. My fiance just got a contract job here himself so I think we might end up staying!

wanderlust99 · Apr 18, 2015

We just went last weekend, it was beautiful! I took a bike tour and had a great time even though I fell off my bike and thought I broke my hand LOL. Nothing will ever beat Hawaii for me, but I really like it here in Seattle. I hear the summer is going to be even better. My fiance just got a contract job here himself so I think we might end up staying!

Good! It's so pretty. I took some photos I think I'm going to see if I can enlarge one and have it framed.