Moving to Portland, need advice/help!

[jay95e]

My husband and I are moving to Portland in about a year from now, and have started looking into hospitals he might work at. We're moving from Alabama, and he will have about 2.5 years experience by the time we move. He's an RN, BSN and working in Cardiac Telemetry now. He is a Patient Safety Coach and Charge Nurse now, he's been patient safety coach for 3-4 months and charge nurse for about a month, but we're not moving for another year so he will have more experience with that by the time we move. Anyways I'm saying that because we've read that it is hard to get a job in Portland, do you think he'll have trouble finding a job? His nurse managers absolutely love him and he is moving up fast, they will give him a great reference. He's not set on being a charge nurse in Portland or anything, he mostly agreed to do it because he thought it would look good on his resumé. He would like to work in some type of cardiac telemetry or a cardiac step down unit. We've tried searching for hospitals in the area, but the maps are kind of confusing so we can't really tell what's an actual hospital and what's a smaller clinic or something, so other than OHSU and Legacy, are there any others that we should be looking into? Any other advice you have will be happily welcomed as well! He wants to secure his new job before moving, so does anyone know how people usually go about that? Will he be able to interview over the phone/video or will he have to fly up there for each interview? Also, is the pay pretty consistent across hospitals in the area, or is there a certain one/few we should avoid? Thanks so much!

[Cvepo]

Hi Jay! My husband and I (both nurses) are relocating in about a month. I have about 3 years, husband about 2 years of experience and we both got jobs with no issue. Portland is very tough market for new grads, but it was not too difficult for those with experience. OHSU, Legacy, and Providence are the 3 big health systems -- Providence has 2 large ones in the metro: Providence Portland in NE Portland and Providence St Vincent on the Portland/Beaverton border and then a few smaller hospitals in the surrounding suburbs. When my husband and I applied, we both had luck with OHSU and Providence; Legacy was a bit stingy with responses to job applications.

We applied for our Oregon licenses in March, applied late march, and got offers by April for a start in August. It was a bit far out, but having nursing experience, they were happy to work with us! We did all phone/video interviews, but made it a point to make a visit up a bit later to meet the managers in person after we got offers. They were all more than happy to do phone/Skype-style interviews!

Pay seemed pretty consistent. I'm at OHSU, husband is at Providence and pay is nearly comparable. They pay for the years experience you have already instead of starting you from the bottom in terms of pay! Both also offered relocation assistance as well!

Feel free to message me privately if you have more questions! I am more than happy to help

[jay95e]

Awesome, thank you SO much!! I'm so relieved to hear all this, I think you answered every question I had. I'll add you as a friend and if I have any more questions, I'll message you. Thank you again, I really appreciate your help.

[Collor]

I work for Legacy, but Providence, OHSU and Kaiser are also great health systems. The word on the street is Kaiser has awesome benefits. We lost a few great nurses to Kaiser.

[jay95e]

Thanks! I appreciate the info!

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

Is the pay consistent with cost of living?

[Collor]

I would say yes...however, Portland is having an explosion of construction/building. Prices are soaring for rents and buying homes.

[OliveOyl91, BSN, RN]

Kaiser is the place most people strive to end up at. Legacy, Adventist, Providence, OHSU, and right across the river in Vancouver, WA there is Legacy Salmon Creek and Peacehealth Southwest Medical Center. If you're willing to commute a little, the cost of living in the suburbs (Gresham, Troutdale, etc...) isn't quite as bad as Portland.