Nursing in Boston

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Specializes in Cardiology.

After working as a telemetry for a year and a half, I am ready to relocate to Boston.

Upon graduation, I knew it be a very slim chance of being hired as a new grad so I waited to gain experience at another more local hospital....now I feel like I am ready to take my chances.

I was wondering if anyone had tips when applying to different major hospitals in the city? I feel like my telemetry experience gives me a leg up, but not sure if I should be looking at specific hospitals and positions to increase my chances of getting my foot in the door. I saw some hospitals consider clinical nurse I as 0-1 years experience and clinical II as 1-3 years, not sure if I should consider myself as a clinical nurse II with 18 months experience.

Also, I was curious if anyone could share with me what the nurse to patient ratio is in the ICU vs a regular floor nurse (intermediate step down-unit).

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ICU usually 1:1 or 1:2 depending on how stable the patients are.

Step down : 1:3

regular floor telemetry : day shift 1:4 or 1:5 , nights more

All the major teaching hospitals in Boston are very busy, high acuity on med/surg tele floors.

Parking is not easy if you have to commute by car. Longwood area a variety of garages and employees can sign up and shuttle from there to the hospital. There are also parking spaces outside of longwood area that have a shuttle. MGH : no onsite parking for day shifts but good T connection.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

Thanks Nutella I didn't realize how tight parking is, I've been at Boston children's for clinical a and they had a parking agreement with Simmons college. Hopefully the T doesn't stop again because of snow like last year [emoji12]

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Parking is an issue. Having said that - all the hospitals usually email and inform staff of special arrangements in case there is a snow storm, other dangerously bad weather, or major events in the area like Fenway stuff....

Once you work in one of the hospitals you will get the hang of it. I had to pay for parking in one of the fenway garages but the shuttle to the hospital was for free. Most places also offer reduced T passes.

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Specializes in Pedi.
Thanks Nutella I didn't realize how tight parking is, I've been at Boston children's for clinical a and they had a parking agreement with Simmons college. Hopefully the T doesn't stop again because of snow like last year [emoji12]

And that parking costs $274 a month. Most of the hospitals have agreements with garages in the area, but they are mad expensive. If you're going to work as an inpatient nurse, you'd be much better off taking the T unless you're going to work permanent nights, in which case you can usually get free parking.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

I got an interview for full time. I'm leaning towards moving into the city rather than commuting. I'm going to start looking around to see which neighborhoods would be easiest and not ridiculously expensive

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Specializes in Pedi.
I got an interview for full time. I'm leaning towards moving into the city rather than commuting. I'm going to start looking around to see which neighborhoods would be easiest and not ridiculously expensive

Allston/Brighton, Mission Hill, JP, Roslindale are all easy access on the T to the Longwood area. The South End and Fenway/Kenmore are walking distance but more expensive. Allston/Brighton has a TON of college kids though. I lived there for 4 years after college but once I turned 27 I knew I needed to get the hell out of College Town, USA.

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Specializes in Cardiology.

KelRN215, do you normally go through a real estate agent or through websites to find apartments in the city?

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Specializes in Pedi.
KelRN215, do you normally go through a real estate agent or through websites to find apartments in the city?

Honestly I only rented an apartment in the city once and I found the agent I went through on Craigslist. I have owned my home for the last 5 years because I can own a 3 bedroom single family house for less than what I could rent a 1 bedroom apartment for.

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Specializes in Cardiology.
Honestly I only rented an apartment in the city once and I found the agent I went through on Craigslist. I have owned my home for the last 5 years because I can own a 3 bedroom single family house for less than what I could rent a 1 bedroom apartment for.

Yes I agree. My original plan after working a couple years was buying a home since rent seems more like throwing money out the window.

I thought about commuting into the city to stick to my plan but I'm concerned with traffic on the highway and MBTA sometimes has a lot of issues. So I figure staying in the city would be best.

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Yes I agree. My original plan after working a couple years was buying a home since rent seems more like throwing money out the window.

I thought about commuting into the city to stick to my plan but I'm concerned with traffic on the highway and MBTA sometimes has a lot of issues. So I figure staying in the city would be best.

Also, check out the information boards in the hospitals - people are often looking for a room mate to share a place...

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