Portland, OR Good Sam PCU unit

stevierae · Apr 13, 2005

I am a relatively new nurse moving to portland and wondered if anyone has worked at Good Sam's down town in the progressive cardiac care unit. Cardiac is way out of my comfort zone and wondered how intense it would be. I already interviewed with the manager but was wanting some real nursing input. PLEASE help, thanks all.

Good Sam is a really cool hospital, and in a really trendy, artsy part of town. They have very, very good equipment---state of the art infusion pumps, monitors, etc. I worked registry there in the O.R. years ago. I don't know anything about the cardiac care units; sorry. I always felt that the surgeons that I worked with there were very, very patient oriented--they were awsome patient advocates. It's one of the hospitals through which general surgical residents from OHSU rotate through, but I am not sure if cardiac surgery residents come through there. When I was there, they only had anesthesiologists--no CRNAs. I believe this is still the case. I do not believe anesthesiology residents rotate through Good Sam, either.

Make sure that you aren't expected to float back and forth between Good Sam and Emanuel. They are sister Legacy Hospitals. It used to really irritate me to come in to Good Sam, and have them say, "Don't even take your coat off---you're working at Emanuel today." Maybe they only did this to registry--management often treated us like stepchildren. Emanuel is a big trauma center. They do have a shuttle bus that will take you there, and back, but it can be a pain, waiting for it, or if you are stuck there after the designated shuttle hours end for the day.

The Portland Streecar runs right by Good Sam. When the cherry and plum trees are in bloom in the spring, NW 23rd is just beautiful. I really enjoy going over to that part of town. There are beautiful homes, as well as microbreweries, trendy restaurants, galleries, coffee places, and lofts. Whenever I have guests come to town, they love to go to NW 23rd. There is a really good restaurant called Wildwood within walking distance of Good Sam.

Why not take a travel assignment there first? Good Sam has been using travelers as long as I can rembember. You can live here and let the travel company supply your housing or housing allowance (tax free) while you familiarize yourself with the whole Portland area before deciding where you want to live (and work) permanently.

One thing about Good Sam---many of the nurses there are very young; most of them have BSNs; many are pretty cutthroat and very open with the fact that they are climbing the management ladder as fast as they can--many, if not most, of the charge nurses are also very young new BSNs. They also tend to have an attitude about this, and many sort of look down their noses at non-BSN nurses. It doesn't bother me---I've been a nurse for over 25 years, and have no desire to be in management--let them have it. I am confident in my skills, experience, and knowledge base, so no one ever bothered me--I didn't need their approval (I am a non-BSN nurse.) However, I have heard that some can be rough on new RNs, particularly non-BSN new RNs. But, if you are confident and let them KNOW that you are confident, not a know it all, and willing to learn, while also being assertive and not putting up with any nonsense, you should have no problem.