NICU Relocation Help

i am contemplating moving to either spokane or seattle/tacoma. i would love feedback on nicu units in either location. i am an otrn, (old tired rn) and don't necessarily want any more adrenaline rushes. i want to self schedule, work perdiem, 7p-7a, with low maintenance coworkers. is that too much to ask? i would love your feedback on hospitals in either area. thank you.

i lied in spokane for 15 yeas. just to forwarn you, spokane is an economically depressed area. the pay here is awful and the hospitals treat you like $hit!!

also, the hospitals here are having financial difficulties. deaconess 2 years cut non union employee salaries by 9 %. the nurses, at the time were not unionized, but the techs, therapists, etc were. since then, the nurses finally voted last month to unionize and other department did. since then, they gave some of it back, but only after there was an exodus of lower seniority employees. they are once again having money problems and it was announced in the papres that they will be laying off workers in the next couple of weeks.

sacred heart has just announced that it, too, will be laying off employees in the next couple of weeks because of money problems. but not before they decided to build a new childrens hospital for multi- millions. also, the nurses hsut voted on teir contract a couple of months ago, and got $hit. the pay increase was negated by the huge increas in medical benefits, the same story 3 years ago. the techs that unionized 2 years ago received seattle/tacoma area wages with an immediate pay increase of about 20% (nurses got 5% with the huge increase in medical benefits). the sacred heart techs and therapists, and nurses and techs at deaconess and valley hospital, (empire health) unionized with 1199, not the worthless washington state nurses association.

the moral of the story is, stay away from spokane and go to seattle, tacoma, olympia, or tri cities.

linda gusch, rn, bsn, ccrn

spokane, washington

Try Tacoma General Hospital in Tacoma.....Big NICU there. NO personal experience from working there, however. Sorry. Look in Tacoma or north for a NICU job.....

There are NO level-III places in Olympia, so don't waste time looking there. Both hospitals only have level-II nurseries, not NICU's.

University of Washington Medical Center has self scheduling on most units or all. I am not certain if its on all. I know that we have a NICU anyway. Its a terrific place to work. The other NICU's in the area are at Evergreen hospital in kirkland and overlake. There are others too in this area.