Realgains

Here's my .02 :) MAKE THEM teach you to scrub all specialties! Talk to the manager and express this and she will give in. Then I highly recommend that after a year with that hospital move on to a hospital with minimal to NO techs. I have nothing against techs but it is best to be able to scrub a lot as well as circulate. The only places in the USA that have few or no techs are some places in California and parts of New England and a few places in Washington state. The University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle is huge and has only a few techs. They will put you through a SIX MONTH orientation as a newish OR nurse in which you learn to scrub just about everything. If you don't get comfortable with scrubbing early then you will never pursue it and you'll be stuck in OR's that have a 50/50 RN to tech ratio and that limits you a lot...and also makes your job a bit boring. No disrespect to those OR nurses that don't scrub...but they simply cannot get a job in many of the better OR's in the country...where working conditions are the best for nurses(unions)...where we get the most respect and the best pay and benefits...and that's Parts of New England, NW Washinton state, and parts of California.

I have 16 years in the OR...scrub and circ everything except hearts. Paper or computers ,I don't care. Any type of facilty really. Call sure.....half of ones base pay makes it okay. I like ortho the most I guess. Maybe someone can "cime in" that works in one of the bay area hospitals or has recently done a travel contract. By "San Francisco" I actually meant bay area.

Oh.....I see :) But she may know stuff about the SF OR's too....and it would be good to hear about that little town OR as well I think.

Questions for stevierae or anyone "in the know". I have some questions about OR nurisng in San Francisco for ya please. Have you worked at any of the Kaiser facilities?...if so how where they? What hospitals have you worked at and how did you like them?...how do they compair? I know that there are some hospitals in the bay area that pay time and one half for the last 4 hours of a regularly scheduled 12 hour shift....do you which hospitals have this benefit? I know Kaiser does not. Thanx a million! Eric personal e-mail addresses are not permitted for your safety