Joe33

From what I remember, the teas is extremely basic. All of the math is from elementary school decimals, rounding, percentages, etc. I don't think I studied at all and got 98 or 99th percentile. If you've taken and did decently on the SATs you probably don't need to study to be honest.

My plan is to retire when I'm 40 or 45. By then I should have $300-500k in the bank. I may work 6 months a year after that for a year or two and then see if it's sustainable for the long run. I'll likely retire overseas or in Mexico.

One of the biggest expenses is housing. I would cut that down by living with roommates (search craigslist for rooms to rent). Second, I would make sure you can get the most lucrative travel contracts you can find. That's means Hawaii, New York, Northern California, etc. You should be getting minimum $40/hr if not $50/hr or more. If you move to Northern California most nursing jobs will give you at least $40-50 an hr and any hospital job should give you $55+ per hour. If you rent a room on Craigslist and work in Northern California, assuming your room is rented for $1,000 and your other expenses are $1,500 monthly, you should be able to save bucketloads of money. ($40-$50,000+ yearly, or certainly at least $3,000 monthly)

The above entry is for Northern ca, I found on the nursesunited website when I googled it. The address is nursesunited.org/assets/PDF/Kaiser_contract.pdf. Southern ca contract I found by googling the following words: kaiser contract Southern California payscale and it was the fifth entry down, squarespace pdf. For southern ca, for 2017, it is 52.50/hr for staff nurse 2 with 2 years of exp, 59.70 for staff nurse 2with 5 years, 65.88 for staff nurse 2 with 10 years, and 71.02 for staff nurse 2with 25 years of experience.

LVNs can make over $50 an hr as ADONs or weekend supervisors or evening supervisor after working at a SNF/subacute for a while. Starting rate for SNFs in the Bay Area for LVNs is around $26-$28. As an ADON if a SNF you should be able to get around $40+ with just a few years of experience, with a $1-2 increase per year perhaps.

Your idea is possible in SF or a city nearby. I lived in my car for almost 3 months while living in the South Bay. At the time I was working in a SNF for only $33/hr + overtime, and I was saving almost $4,000 a month. A white maintenance looking van is much easier to live in than a hatchback (my car). You can buy a 24 hr gym membership and shower there. There were at least 10-20 people living at the 24hr fitness parking lot that I went to the most. I rotated 24hr fitness locations for variety. The point is, it's doable. San Francisco has more mild weather than the South Bay, also, so it's easier to do year round. Sleeping in my car was only difficult if it was under 45 degrees or so outside. Over 50 degrees was very comfortable. I tinted my windows with limo tint for privacy. Also, check out van living or car dwelling posts on reddit and videos on YouTube. It is doable and was a lot of fun while it lasted! (I ended up taking a hospice position where I was forced to store too many supplies and paperwork in my car to make it feasible)

It is best to apply to SNFs as a new grad and not hospitals. It can be difficult to get a hospital job in California with even 1-2 years of experience. To get a SNF position, just drive to any SNFs that are in your area that may interest you and walk in and tell them you are interested in applying. You will likely get an interview the same day you turn in your application.

I do not work at Kaiser but their RN payscale is online. I couldn't find their 2018 numbers but in 2017 an RN staff nurse 2 with 2 years of experience was making $67/hr. Staff nurse 2 with 5 years is $75/hr. Staff nurse 2 with 31years of experience is $81/hr. Evenings is 11%, nights 17.5%, weekends 10%.

What about MDS nurse in a nursing home? There is no patient care involved. You are basically coding the patients for payments in the back office.

When you say "for personal and medical reasons" it doesn't sound forthcoming enough. It sounds vague. It sound so better if you say something like "I took some time off to relax." I took over 3 years off to travel the world, and it was extremely easy to come back and work in nursing with the gap in my resume.

If you work in a hospital in the Bay Area, you will make more than $50 an hr most likely, even as a new grad. Your best chances of employment if you have no experience is working in a nursing home. It's very easy to walk into many nursing homes and get interviews on the spot, even as a new grad. The pay for new RNs is around $30/hr. It is worth it for at least 6 months to a year to get valuable experience.

My advice: ace the interview. Take the job. Quit your old job. Working at a SNF is not going to look that good on your resume and is not very good experience for an RN. Stay per diem at the SNF if you can. Opportunities like this are rare. You practically won the nursing lottery. I would take the hospital job in a heartbeat.

I would guess that he can easily find a job down there with his experience. Nursing home jobs are pretty easy to get compared with hospital jobs.

I applied to Swedish many months ago (June or May or April) and just got a call this week for an interview. I have almost 1 year of experience in med-surg tele and floating to other med-surg floors. So don't give up hope! I would suggest calling to let them know you are interested.

Is it ethically wrong to interview at a Seattle hospital if I plan on moving out-of-state in a few months? I do want the extra interview experience. I am a 2010 grad and have been working at a hospital in the area for about a year now (and in a nursing home for over 2 years). I just feel so happy and special to be selected for an interview in this job market. I applied in May or June, when I wasn't sure if I wanted to move.