Moving to Northwest Oregon

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Hi all!

My husband is in the military and we have gotten notice that we are being transferred to Northwest Oregon (Astoria area) and I am wondering if anyone knows what the job market is like up there? I am a new grad with no RN experience (have two years M.A. experience though). I have been following a few threads related to the "new grad flood" in the Portland area (California is EXACTLY the same!) and am terrified that I will get up there and be trapped in a tiny town with no jobs for new grads which would devastate me! I am a mother of three (7, 3, and 6mo) who has worked very hard through nursing school to graduate with honors and my BSN. I don't want moving to Northwest Oregon to ruin it all for me! Please if you have any idea of what the market is for new grads in Northwest Oregon I would love to know. I have been looking in Astoria, Seaside, Tillamook, and some southwest Washington hospitals. The area is so small there isn't a lot to choose from (I've basically have been open to anything an hour or less away from the Astroia area). Thank you!

Specializes in HH, Med/surg- liver & kidney transplant, ortho, ++.

To the OP,

I graduated from the nursing program in Astoria. It is a very small program. A lot of the people in my class ended up with jobs at either Prov Seaside Hospital or Columbia Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Astoria. We did all of our clinicals at these 2 hospitals. I have a feeling they will be hiring some of the students because they already know the staff and the charting system. I wish you the best of luck though. Do check their website out though, they do have openings every now and then. Even Seaside. Seaside cross-trains their RNs for the different units to utilized their nursing staff. If you have any questions PM me. I was at Seaside my first year of nursing school and CMH my second.

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Like I mentioned in my post........my friend works for Providence and she was hired as a new grad just recently for nights and makes almost 100G a year.

She was NOT an LPN before getting her RN. She applied right before graduation and phoned the HR office every Monday am to be a pest. Well, they finally got sick of her calling and asked her to come in for an interview and she got the job.

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How about you send in resumes minus the TWENTY YEARS of experience then get back to us on how successful you are. :uhoh3:

Like I mentioned in my post........my friend works for Providence and she was hired as a new grad just recently for nights and makes almost 100G a year.

She was NOT an LPN before getting her RN. She applied right before graduation and phoned the HR office every Monday am to be a pest. Well, they finally got sick of her calling and asked her to come in for an interview and she got the job.

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Well I am very happy for you but honestly your experience is the difference. You are right there are a ton of jobs for RN's with experience. There is currently an over abundance of new grads and extremely difficult, I apply and apply but once they know I don't have 2 yrs or more I'm off the list.

Again, congrats and enjoy Oregon, I've lived here my entire life and love it. :)

Thank you. I "hope" I love the NW. It is a beautiful area.

Someone told me the other day that many new grads have to go to other states to get the experience before being considered for employment in Portland. Why do they have so many nursing schools and saturate the market with new grads if there are no jobs? Does none of these schools do studies that dictate the market?

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I will have to disagree with the posters on here but in my experience, there are tons of jobs.

We are moving to Portland in a few months and I am flying out to interview with several potential employers in a few weeks.

There are over 1000 jobs for RN's on indeed.com and I applied to some randomely that fit my criteria and WHOOSH........I had almost instant replies.

The money is awesome, the benefits they are offering are unheard of here in the Midwest and they stated they are in "critical need" for nurses. They even offered a sign on bonus and relocation allowance grant.

The one that has impressed me the most has been Providence. I have been an RN for two years but an LPN for 20 with an extensive history in hospital work.

I had no problems finding work/people to interview me at all.

My friend works at Providence also and she makes over 100,000 a year as a night shift nurse in the ICU. She was hired as a brand new grad about 6 months ago.

True, most places do prefer nurses with more experience and I have heard that it is difficult to get work as a new grad but I also heard that WA ( right across the bridge) is hiring new grads like crazy. I also did a search for there as well and found, litererally hundreds of jobs.

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Good for you for having such a positive attitude but I respectfully disagree with you. I have lived and worked in OR for the past 5+yrs at a hospital in the Prov System and do not make 100k a year. Not even close! We used to have a new grad program but it has been cancelled due to budget cuts and we have not hired any new grads (or anyone at all for that matter) in over a year. Your friend getting a job in the ICU right out of school 6mos ago- making that kind of money- must have some miraculous good luck because, to me, the job and the salary sound a little too good to be true.

To the OP- I agree with the idea of checking into a outpt dialysis center if you don't have any luck at Prov Seaside or the other little hospital in Astoria. Honestly, Portland and Vancouver would be a very rough commute so if there is anything on the coast, I would take it. I hope something either opens up for you there or maybe your husband will get transferred again to somewhere with a little more opportunity. Good Luck.

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just a thought:

clatsop county - jail nurse - clatsop county department of public health - astoria, or

this position is a part time jail nurse, 22.5 hours per week. duties include a variety of professional nursing and routine medical services which are related to the health care of inmates held in the clatsop county jail, using independent judgment in the triage and assessment of medical, dental, and mental health problems of inmates. the jail nurse operates under the direction of the jail physicians(s), sheriff, jail commander, and the nursing supervisor of the department of public health, and works with jail health care staff, corrections staff, and outside providers in the provision of inmate health care.

qualifications: must have a diploma, associate or bachelor's degree from an accredited school of nursing. must have a rn license issued by the state of oregon, or the ability to be licensed at the time of appointment. background in public health, psychiatric, emergency, medical/surgical, and critical care nursing and chronic disease care and management are desireable.

salary: $24.87 - 30.24/hour

application process: for more information go to www.co.clatsop.or.us. obtain and submit completed clatsop county employment application form to the state of oregon employment department, 450 marine drive, suite 110, astoria, oregon 97103 (503)325-4821, fax (503) 325-2918. applications will be accepted until position is filled.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.
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Good for you for having such a positive attitude but I respectfully disagree with you. I have lived and worked in OR for the past 5+yrs at a hospital in the Prov System and do not make 100k a year. Not even close! We used to have a new grad program but it has been cancelled due to budget cuts and we have not hired any new grads (or anyone at all for that matter) in over a year. Your friend getting a job in the ICU right out of school 6mos ago- making that kind of money- must have some miraculous good luck because, to me, the job and the salary sound a little too good to be true.

To the OP- I agree with the idea of checking into a outpt dialysis center if you don't have any luck at Prov Seaside or the other little hospital in Astoria. Honestly, Portland and Vancouver would be a very rough commute so if there is anything on the coast, I would take it. I hope something either opens up for you there or maybe your husband will get transferred again to somewhere with a little more opportunity. Good Luck.

I say dont discourage the people coming to the area. It is obvious that they dont want fresh meat(grads) in the positions at the area hospitals, wouldnt it be nice to have some experienced RNs to fill those slots that are open at your hospitals?

I also dont think it is unreasonable. My first year out of nursing school making $25-28/hr I made $101k. If you take the call and get the overtime then you can easily do it. All of the jobs I looked at in the OR up in Oregon paid up to the $40/hr range for your years of experience(with CVOR experience). I ultimately have chosen to go with moving to Vail, CO this year but will likely move up to the PNW next year, either Seattle or Portland. I would say the job market looks fair in both markets, a little better in Seattle.

Supposedly Colorado is a hard area to relocate to also, I inquired at the hospital there and was interviewed by HR, Surgery Staff and the director of OR BEFORE I put in an application. I had to put in an application finally so that they could make me an offer for the position.

I will also say this. As a hiring manager in OR it is easy for me to interview someone and tell immediately if they are worth your time to oreint/retrain and get on the staff.... VERY hard to make the choice.... If you are desperate for a hunk of meat then fine, just pick one. If you want a really good staff pick then you need to take your time and weed out everyone. The prior coments go for hiring new grads for a periop program and experienced RNs. People that are not in management have a hard time relating to this and alot of things that go along with getting out of the normal nursing box of patient care. There are dollars and sense that have to go into making the decision to hire someone/train someone/orient someone new. I personally got out of management after 3 years of it because I was tired of the BS from CNOs at hospitals and tired of the retarted childish stuff that staff/children do in the workplace that I was ultimately responsible for. I would rather do 3 CABGs in a day than deal with a bunch of kids all day.

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Like I mentioned in my post........my friend works for Providence and she was hired as a new grad just recently for nights and makes almost 100G a year.

She was NOT an LPN before getting her RN. She applied right before graduation and phoned the HR office every Monday am to be a pest. Well, they finally got sick of her calling and asked her to come in for an interview and she got the job.

I'll have to call baloney sandwich on that one. A very good friend of mine, and retired PA, has been recruiting in the Pacific Northwest medical arena for several years now and knows all the players. I ran this testimonial by him and he laughed. He said it doesn't make sense on many fronts. First, a hospital in the PNW can pick up an experienced RN for less than that. Second, clearing that salary with the hospital administration given the 'no experience' just wouldn't happen. And third, there would be hell to pay with the other experienced nurses knowing a rookie was hired at that salary when they have friends with experience still looking. Is it entirely impossible? Perhaps not. Let's just say they not only won the Powerball, but also had diner with the Pope and slept in Lincoln's bedroom at the White House. In short, extremely rare (if true) and certainly nothing near the norm.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ER.

I am really surprised at all of the negativity on this thread. I have worked at the hospital in Astoria for 3 years and was hired as a new grad. Within the last two months we hired 2 new grads and 2 others with a couple years experience in SNF. Two of those nurses are ADNs and two are BSNs. We are a union hospital and don't "eat our young". We have a pretty darn good attitude when we have the opportunity to mold new nurses into productive and intelligent members of the team. There are difficulties finding jobs in any career at this time in our country, not just nursing. I do agree with those advocating for the dialysis nurse positions. There is a unit in Astoria, one in Ocean Beach, Washington (just over the bridge, a 15 min drive) and a unit in Longview Washington which is about an hour drive. The companies put you through all of the necessary training and they don't do a lot of advertising but do need nurses. If that doesn't interest you try the hospitals.

Let's lighten up a little, it's not all doom and gloom out there.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

With no experience and small community hospitals it may take a while to land a job. Good thing your an MA, I would focus on trying to land a job as an MA.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

The 100k a year for a night nurse in ICU is certainly plausible with night and weekend differential. If you average 39.00 an hour with differential. You would have to work 50 hours a week in order to gross 101,400.00. I just landed a job for providence and I am going to get paid very well. Of course a new grad could not make that just working 36 hours a week. But thise type of jobs are few... I consider myself blessed.

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