Moving to Los Angeles, thoughts on best hospital to work for as an RN?

[RNcairo]

TL;DR version: what hospitals do you recommend working at for an ICU nurse in the WeHo/Bev Hills area (although I'm willing to travel somewhat for a better position until I'm able to move closer to the hospital)? 1 year experience in surgical ICU. Partner works in Universal city/studio city so don't want to be far from that either.

Hello all. I'm new here and very impressed with the community on the site. I wasn't aware there was so much to allnurses or I would have joined much sooner! I know this type of question has been asked plenty of times before, but I haven't had much luck finding much current relevancy when searching through previous topics. So with that said:

What have been your experiences working as an RN in Los Angeles? I'm from North Carolina so I have limited knowledge of the hospitals there. I was thinking Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, or possibly one of the Kaiser hospitals. My experience is in surgical ICU. We get a lot of cardiac surgeries, such as CABGs, valve replacements; vascular surgeries (AAA, etc); thoracotomies; and general medical ICU patients, such as sepsis, and ARDS. Therefore I'm fairly well rounded with my ICU knowledge. I have one year of experience so I feel like I'm fairly marketable.

I called Cedars Sinai to ask a few questions about working there and the nurse recruiter was very pushy about getting me to apply, get references, and schedule interviews. I was not prepared for that! So I've sort of been pushed over the edge in regards to getting the ball rolling. I'm fairly flexible about when I move (in the next few months), so I have some time to research the best place to work.

I will be living in the Beverly Hills adjacent area, so obviously Cedars is a big plus, but I've heard very mixed things about working there - ie bad leadership, etc. Plus considering how pushy the recruiter was when I mentioned I haven't even told people at work I'm leaving, does that mean there's an issue there - such as the hospital burning through nurses?

UCLA looks like a great place to work so I'll definitely apply there. My experience with Kaiser (very limited as far as job search goes) is their site is very convoluted - couldn't find where the RN jobs were. Need to spend more time there.

Any advice regarding the pay in the area? I see UCLA has ~$35/hr as the minimum for their positions. Haven't noticed other places and their payscales, but I have heard LA nurses make much less.

Thanks all!

[xanbella, BSN, RN]

Thank you for your input!

Well, simply put, I want to move to a new an exciting area still in California. I grew up in the SF bay area, went to school in Sacramento, and currently working in the San Joaquin Valley--I love NorCal but something in me is really excited about the idea of living in sunny LA. I've been visiting the area often for multiple reasons and now I'm really starting to consider it.

To answer your second question, SF itself is great! I couldn't tell you much about living/working in SF though. My only information would be from what my friend who works at SF General has told me. I think he said he started at around $65/hour as a new grad with rent being about the same as what you have mentioned living near UCLA. Only difference is I feel like there are many more good options if you decide to live outside of SF to save money. To work in the bay area, I hear, is awesome--great pay, happening cities with affordable decent areas to live.. I'm a little claustrophobic to live in SF so I prefer something like Berkeley or Oakland.. San Jose even.

I work in San Joaquin valley which is 40 min away from the farthest east bay area city. The pay is also good with the cost of living being cheaper as with any city farther from the coast... Which is my main concern with moving to LA in the first place. From the posts I've seen on here from a few years ago, I would be taking a significant pay cut with no change (& if anything an increase in) cost of living... I was hoping things have changed a little and I wouldn't have to make too much of a budget adjustment by moving down there.

I've always wanted to work at a teaching hospital, especially having done most of my clinical rotations at UCD Medical Center. I will definitely look into UCLA!