SaraPedRN

I am currently on my first assignment with CCTC, and have been satisfied with the assignment so far. My recruiter is excellent. I have had no issues with her service at all. The only thing that I was a little miffed about was what I was and was not reimbursed for. Since this is my first travelling experience, I'm not sure how it is with other companies. CCTC did not reimburse all of the fees that it took to get my California license. They only paid for the application fee. The total fees came out to almost $200 and I was only paid for $80 of it. The only other issue I had was they were wanting to require me to take a certification course that my nurse manager told me wasn't required. The cost was $250 and I would have had to travel 1 hour each way. I did end up getting that resolved to my satisfaction. Otherwise, good experience so far!

Hello! I have only been a nurse for 2 years, but I will try to offer you a bit of advice. Certain aspects of nursing you have to have a stomach for, that is for sure. In nursing school, I almost passed out when starting my first IV. That was the only time though. Unless you are a VERY squeemish person, once you get familiar with all that goes on in a hospital, it might not bother you as much as you think. Plus, the rewards usually outweight the gross-out factor. I don't know much as far as pay scales go for Respiratory Therapists and Radiology Techs. Respiratory Therapy - You are right, be prepared to deal with mucous, mucous, and more mucous. If this is something that you can't handle respiratory might not be for you either. In the PICU, our respiratory therapists are responsible for administering respiratory treatments, help managing the kids on ventilators, lots of suctioning, some tracheostomy care. We work pretty close with our RT's. At the last hospital I worked at, I made a few trips to the ER to help with trauma kids. The RT's there worked closely with the doctor's during intubations. Nurses help with all of the above as well. Radiology Techs - I appologize that I don't know more about this dicipline. The most contact I have with them is when they come around each morning to get the chest x-ray's on the kids. Radiology Techs have minimal patient contact in our unit. There might be more down in their department, but it is much less close-patient contact than nursing or respiratory therapy. Nursing is a challenging and demanding profession. We hear frequently about the "nursing shortage", and I ran into a lot of people in my nursing school that were just in it for the money. They didn't last long. If you do decide to go into nursing, make sure you are going for the right reasons, and be prepared to study, study, and study some more. If you love to learn and continue learning everyday, nursing is a great career. I can't speak much about the other 2 professions you are considering because I have gone through neither of those programs. Best of luck with your choice! Maybe some other forum members have more extensive advice :)

I'm not familiar with the location of the street. If it is indeed in West Hollywood, the places that I have been there have been nice and very un-sleezy. I know a couple people that live in the West Hollywood area and they all seem to enjoy it. There are a lot of nice little shops, and there is a lot to do. Best of luck!