merner1012

My bf and I are both hopefully starting 4/18 as well. Nervous about starting, it's been about 8 years since school for us but we need to get it done. RN to BSN for now. Waiting for the last transcripts to get reviewed and we're good I think. Nice to have a forum here though with others!

The area is great, but the hospital is not doing well. They've lost 75-80+ staff RNs over the last year or so mostly to Kaiser down the road in Vallejo, who pays them about at least double what their staff makes. The staff morale is not good. Travelers/agency usually get the worst assignments, they're not terrible but certainly not fair. They will cancel you the max amount of hours they can as soon as possible (usually used by putting you on standby). They also have in their orientation packet that they DO NOT pay call-back rate when they put you on standby for a few hours then bring you in for admissions or to be a break nurse (not sure how this is allowed since they don't give you this information until after you've signed a contract and physically gotten to the hospital- this is a big issue for me currently). I would not recommend his hospital to anyone. I've had many patients who are great and so appreciative of their care, but I would not ever want anyone I know or love, or myself, to be taken care of in this hospital. Some supervisors are agency/travelers as well, and things are done differently depending on who is working- lots of inconsistency throughout the hospital. MD's are hit or miss, but most are overburdened with patients and it's obvious. Like I said, it's not terrible, I'm sure there are worse situations, but I would not recommend it if possible. St Joseph system is apparently going into a merger with Providence as well. They use Meditech charting system, have Pyxis machines on the units and Alaris pump systems. Some tele units are "better" than others. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Both my boyfriend and I are originally PA RN's as well. California cashed our checks on the same day, 3/23/15. My boyfriend used PA's new electronic verification to send to California. I used my current Oregon license on Nursys instead of the PA to see if it would make a difference. He received his permanent license and I received only a temporary at the beginning of May. We have friends from PA as well and they told us that I would have to send in PA because it was the original state of licensure (have not verified this because no one answers my calls to California, nor my MULTIPLE e-mails). So I recent PA electronic verification on 6/10/15 to California, and sent more e-mails, and I'm still only issued a temporary license as of today. However, my boyfriend has an ADN and I have a diploma RN, so I'm a little curious to see if this has something to do with it, hopefully not. It takes time, yes, but just get on the Breeze website and watch your status. There's another thread on here titled "Timeline for endorsing RN license to CA", check out that forum- LOTS of good info and probably some people with the same timeline as you. Good luck!![h=1][/h]

I haven't heard of any reimbursement for cars, but like the other responder said- you can negotiate for money for that but it will come out of your pay somewhere else. The highest I've heard from other travelers traveling from east coast to west coast is about $1000 total. Shipping your car is pretty expensive too. With two drivers, we drove from Pittsburgh to Portland in 3 days, and managed to stay at decent hotels that weren't super expensive. Granted, we only got $600 for travel money, but between the gas mileage and hotels you just have to figure out if it works for you. We just bit the bullet and said we'll just make the best of it and go from there. Good luck!

I've been traveling with Cross Country now since December 2014 with my boyfriend and so far it's been a pretty positive experience. It definitely helps to have a good recruiter that communicates well with you and is able to break things down to you as a new traveler as well. Going with a bigger company at first is probably the way to go. Get an assignment or two in with them, see what other companies have to offer, and you can always switch recruiters too. Getting the first assignment in and taking that leap is the biggest step (at least for me it was), once you get that done you can navigate from there! Check with other travelers wherever you work and keep checking back here too... Best of luck!

No letter that I know of, but I'm waiting on my mail to be looked through. They send everything to my home address in Pennsylvania and I'm working in Oregon. I'm hoping there's not an issue since I have only a diploma RN, but my boyfriend (who travels with me) has his ASN and got his permanent license right off the bat with no temporary (even though he paid for it, and we sent in all of our information together at the same time). Guess I'll have to wait and see!

So my temporary license was issued on 5/7/15, but my status on Breeze still shows "Pending" and "Open". I've emailed and called multiple times without any luck, although I wasn't expecting much to begin with. My temporary license expires in November, so I thought maybe I should send in my original states license verification because a friend had recommended it (they apparently had to do this as well). My original state sent verification electronically on 6/10/15, and still nothing has changed! Anyone else had their temporary license just sit for awhile like this? Any info would be appreciated!

Nice... Good to know and thank you!

Kateyes7- Pay was (obviously) a good bit higher than here in Oregon, I want to say around $35/hr base pay(for CPMC), and the housing we were quoted at about $2650/month for each of us individually. I'm not sure about Napa though, I think we may end up staying Oregon for another assignment because we like the area, but who knows. The hospital in Napa, Queen of the Valley, has some good reviews, and honestly the area would be great. If I hear anything I'll let you know and if you hear anything I'd be interested to hear as well! Thanks, and good luck!

Just looking for some info on traveling to the Bay area or northern cali for our next assignment. My boyfriend and I travel together (ICU and tele/MS). Our recruiter has told us about CPMC-Pacific in san fran, and also some hospitals in Concord and Napa. We looked at Eureka, CA but the pay is lower than what we make now in Oregon. Curious if anyone can offer some insight on some of the hospitals and the areas as well. Not sure if we'd take the housing or find our own- I've done some research but I just don't know the areas well enough (plus we have two cats so it's a little tough with furnished housing). I think we're more inclined to stay out of San Fran and maybe just visit there, instead of live. Any input would be greatly appreciated from anyone who knows the areas or has worked there! Thank you!

California got my information in the Breeze system on 3/23/15, and just as of today 5/7/15, I was issued a temporary license! My original license state was PA, but I'm also working in Oregon now so I just used the OR license on Nursys for verification. Worked great! I was so worried that I paid the extra $50 for the temporary and then wouldn't get it in time. Plus I used all paper application and fingerprint cards as well. Good luck everybody!

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it!

Yeah we're not impressed with the recruiter so we may be either getting a new one with CC, or signing with a different company all together. It's not been a bad experience, but our recruiter can't even keep our information straight, simple stuff too. Well, at least I know now that others have gotten more and I'll hopefully be able to bargain for some more travel stipend, or just walk away. Thanks!

icuRNmaggie- Just curious about the travel stipend you got with Cross Country because I travel with them now with my boyfriend and we both only got $300 each way for the travel, and we went 2,500 miles... Is the $500 normally what you've been getting? It's a little frustrating to me to hear this since we both literally just drove across the country! Not sure if it's kosher to even be asking about the money part, but if you could answer that would be great! Thanks!

Just curious, is Shadyside still doing care plans? They did when I went there, but these PBL things sound a whole lot like a care plan and then using the sim lab to act it out?

Thank you both for the replies, I really appreciate it! I'm assuming to hear about the job offer this coming week, but in the mean time I also interviewed at Providence Park for a neuro progressive care job (which is basically what I've been working in) and I feel the same about this job also- the recruiter called the next morning and said they're "very interested" and wanted to get the references checked asap. So now I'm stuck between working something that I know well at a new place (new hospital too) and opening the door to the ER (more "urban" according to the unit director). Oh how I love making hard decisions!!

I know of specific patients that are NOT allowed to have an IV at all- per the MD! And yes, this does happen a lot I'm sure. I work in neurosurg and we had a young patient on our unit for MONTHS because a post-op crani infection, we couldn't place him without insurance and he had a long history of doing everything and anything. Turns out, since he was there for so long, they eventually made him non-monitored so he could leave and smoke, not like being monitored was going to stop him. We find out about the day before he leaves or the day that he left, that the whole time he's been going 3 blocks down to the college town pretty much every night, WITH HIS PICC, and drinking at the bars. We weren't surprised but still, these things happen. God only knows what he was doing with his PICC, but I can only imagine!

Hi everybody! I'm relocating to MI and I have about 1.5 years in neuroscience/neurosurg and I'm pretty sure I have a job offer coming to me at Providence ER. BUT, I currently work at a HUGE health system that's a Level 1 trauma center, etc., and I'm worried that if I take the ER job (which isn't even a Level 2 trauma center) that I won't be getting the experience that I really want to keep moving my career forward. I have multiple applications in with Henry Ford that are closer to what I want to do (neuro ICU, neuroscience, and ER) but they're just sitting there as "under review by hiring manager" which I assume is the unit director? I'm just not sure if I should take this ER job at Providence and risk getting called for another that I want more and that I feel will be a better fit for me based on my experience. Plus, I don't know much about either hospital system. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Providence hospital in Southfield just expanded their ER, they have 6 new positions (night shift I think) from what I'm told. Not sure about the pay or anything else...

I recently got my license in MI as endorsement from another state. MI sent me a letter saying they had received my application and gave me a "client number" of sorts that I could log into online and see the progress of my application, fingerprints, etc. I would assume they do this for everyone? It took about 2-3 weeks from when I sent my application in (but I'm out of state though) and then was able to log in online and see that they were waiting for my fingerprints and then my license verification; then, I was granted my license and was able to see my license info online. Hopefully this helps!

In response, I'm sorry you had a poor experience at Shadyside and just fyi, no I'm not some "well-off" student in ANY way. I went to Shadyside all on my own dime through loans. And, I'm not super smart but I also worked my ass off, staying up until 1am or 2am on any given night just researching and working on anything I could, probably like you said you did. I went to Penn State after high school and then CCAC and had a horrible experience at CCAC and one of my parents went to CCACs nursing program while I was at Shadyside and the difference was night and day for the two of us- that's why I say the things I do about CCAC. I have just never heard of someone having such a bad experience at Shadyside. Not all the times I had were rosy there, just like like life, there's bad moments too, maybe I just lucked out with instructors that gave a damn? Oh well, I'm not looking for a fight in anything I just don't want to scare people off, I want them to make their own decision. And as for the NCLEX pass rates, I passed on my first try and I'm truly an "average" student and didn't even benchmark the HESI, and to be honest I didn't care- I wanted to see where I was at without being super prepared for it. Regardless, I passed my boards the first time and I've only known of two people of almost 100 that I graduated with that didn't pass their boards. Anyways, I'm sorry you had a bad experience there because there really are instructors there that care. Like I said, I'm not looking for a fight about Shadyside, I just wanted to get my good experience out there for people to hear about instead of them seeing just negative comments (people usually comment on bad things and experiences and not positive ones). I hope you had a better experience at CCAC and best of luck to you.

To the above poster, you're way off base. I went to Shadyside and I have close friends and family members that went to CCAC at the same time that I was at Shadyside. The clinical experience you will get at Shaydside (and Mercy for that matter) is much better than CCAC. You get more clinical hours at the time of graduation than any other diploma school in the area. My instructors were wonderful and beyond knowledgeable about everything that they taught. I know that the instructors are at least 95% (if not more) the same now as when I was there and they were great. They want you to learn the right way and they push you to learn too. There was NEVER an issue with an instructor being "too lazy or unmotivated" the entire time I was there. I have never encountered an instructor that was "nasty, unfair or irresponsible" at Shadyside, just because some instructors push you to push yourself and some can't handle it doesn't mean they're any of those descriptions. Shadyside has the recognitions they do because of the amazing people that work there and the nurses they produce, not from some "connections". This is not some school that is a "corporate machine" and I can tell you from personal experience that CCAC's administration is far worse than anything I have ever experienced. Everyone's experience is individual and maybe the person who posted above me just doesn't do well in an environment like Shadyside which is fine, but don't bad mouth something that you didn't complete, it's "irresponsible". Sorry to anyone that I offended but I can tell you that of all of my friends and family members that went to CCAC for nursing (which is a perfectly fine nursing program) they all had less experience, clinicals and knowledge than I did while we were both in school and now working. Hope this helps!

McRN, I started out at shadyside with having the tuition forgiveness and then decided to get off of it because I had so many grants to cover the costs and didn't want to be stuck with only working for Upmc at some job I may not be happy with. I had a job offer before I graduated w/ the unit I transitioned on and actually turned it down (along w/3 other SN's who transitioned there- it was NOT a good floor to work on). I did find another job doing rehab nursing, hut hated it, then got hired on a great unit with Upmc. It was about 6 months after I graduated that I got hired w/Upmc bc they weren't hiring for so long. You will find a job with the hospitals although it may take longer than you want but yoh may just have to wait it out a little. Also, go with your gut feelings about a job offer and unit. I'm not sure if shadyside is still offering the tuition forgiveness (I hear rumours they're not?) but you may get stuck at a job you truly aren't happy with is my only problem with it, which can make two years much longer than you think. Hope this helps, but it's a pretty personal decision!

I actually just finished working at a LTC facility- found it to be an experience but also NOT what I want to do with my career, I'm just dying to get into a hospital and I'm so frustrated! Thank you though for the suggestion!

I've literally applied to every UPMC job posting since February 2010, and I have never gotten any responses from them... is this because I am a new grad? (June 2010) I know plenty of the people I graduated with got jobs before graduation and within 2 months afterwards... I just don't know where all the jobs went!! I live much closer to St. Clair, which I would LOVE to work at, but they have even fewer job listings and it's much harder to get a job there versus UPMC!