TinkerBelle_81

Nicki Laughs, I plan to do the same thing but only temporarily. I don't think I can stand driving in 100+ degree weather. I plan to eventually work in an inpatient hospice facility or even a hospital. I have been told Vegas nnurses get paid lower although I don't know how low. California is too expensive and has too much nurses already.

I see people do it a lot. For one company I work for, most of their nurses are part time nurses and work for other hospice companies. The DON and owners of the company know about it. In the bigger hospice i work for, i know part timers who have full time jobs at Kaiser hospice. Management is also aware. I do not see why this would be a problem unless if you're a marketer then that would be conflict of interest. Besides, what i do during my off is none of their business unless if affects my job. If they pay me more then I won't need a 2nd job.

MusicNurseCarrlee, thanks for your response. Is the rate of RNs in Vegas lower than in CA? I'm currently being paid $35/hr for my full time job with 2 yrs experience in hospice plus mileage (although i know some companies pay more). I have also heard nursing in Vegas is harder (more patient load in hospitals, board of nursing is stricter). How true is this in your experience?

yup i'm an CA now. LVNs are also having a hard time looking for jobs. Most hospitals now do not have LVNs. So most LVNs work in skilled nursing facilities (nursing homes) or hospice or home health. I worked in a nursing home before and i HATED it. As an LVN there, u will have at least 30 patients, you will give them ALL their oral/IM/SQ/Gtube meds, do blood sugar checks, report any change in condition to the MD, carry out orders, attend to families' calls/questions, do your charting, etc. Believe me, with this type of job u will barely have time to sit or have a break. These nurses also work overtime and do not get paid for their overtime. For home health or hospice, you will need to drive around a lot to go to patient's homes or facilities. I believe you will need some nursing home experience with this because u will be alone in the field and independent.

Highhope, I'm also from Lanting. I took the NCLEX in the philippines june 2008. I am now a nurse here in CA. I have other batchmates who recently submitted their applications to take the NCLEX that have also been denied due to the same reason. I think they are becoming much stricter now when it comes to international nurses. There are already a LOT of american nurses without jobs, mostly new grads, so I think their priority now is for american nurses to have jobs first.

I have been an RN with hospice only as experience. I do admissions only for one company and for the other company, I do suppervisory visits every 2 weeks and recertifications. The other company functions a bit different from other hospice companies. the LVN sees the patient 2x/week, I do suppervisory every 2 weeks and if there is any change, we will report to someone in the office who will do everything (ask order, order med, inform family etc). So my job there is easy. If there is a change in condition, they normally send someone else and not me. I feel that I am losing my nursing skills with this type of job. Are there also other options for me if I get tired of doing this or if i need to move somewhere? I know it is almost impossible to get a hospital job these days w/o hospital experience. I have also worked in a skilled nursing facility before for a few months only because I hated it.

It all depends on the company you work for. I work for 2 different hospice companies. The bigger company (400 patients) have more complex patients. They do IVs (for few days), IV antibiotics, PCAs (via SQ, PICC, port-a-cath, IV), once in a while they would have someone with chest tube that needs to be drained prn, they had 1 or 2 patients on TPN (yes TPN, for a few days), and once they had a patient on a vent. I believe they used those more as marketing strategies which i do not agree with. I only do admissions for them. Having no hospital experience with poor nursing skills, I don't think I would want to do case management for a company with complicated patients. The smaller company I work for (50+patients) have 95% board and care patients. In my experience those patients are much more easier, mostly just wound care plus you don't have to deal with very anxious family members who do not know what to do and panic a lot. For some reason, for most board and care patients, their families are more accepting about their situations and do not ask for IVs or any of those.

Hello all. I'm a pinay RN who came here to California in 2009 because of my husband's petition. I don't mean to be pessimistic but I would discourage people from coming here to California (im not sure of other states). There is an over supply of nurses. Lots of new grads here cannot find jobs, even nurses with experience have a hard time looking for jobs. The work is much more stressful than working in the Philippines (you're more independent, families are more educated with more questions, they are more demanding, MDs are jerks, laws are much stricter,etc). There is lots of overtime. In some places, RNs work over time but they don't get paid. The starting pay is normalls $30/hr in Cali. But heck, expect 25% of that to go to taxes and other deductions. Standard of living is VERY high. Expect at least $1k for a small 1 bedroom apartment plus you need to buy a car (at least $300/month). If you have one job, not much will be left to buy things u want. So if I were to turn back time, I would have chosen another country. Maybe the grass is greener somewhere else.

Hello all. I'm a hospice nurse in Southern California who is seriously considering moving to Vegas. I've only been an RN for 2 years (hospice only experience). One of the companies I work for has a branch in Vegas but I am also looking for other options. Are there lots of hospice companies there? Are there opening for RNs that are NOT hospice? It is extremely hot there and driving around is not my ideal job. My husband works for the VA hospital (non-nursing)in Long Beach and has applied for positions in the new VA hospital in Vegas(that will be opening). The positions he applied for pay more than what he is being paid for in Long Beach. If he gets accepted, we will be moving. The reason for this is because of the lower cost of living in Vegas. We want to purchase our first house but So Cal is too expensive. I will need to work 2 jobs for the rest of my life for a house here. A house in So Cal means paying at least $2000/month in mortgage/property taxes. In Vegas, we can put $70k in down payment for a decent house in a good neighborhood and our monthly mortgage/property taxes will be much smaller. Any inputs on this? I'm still so confused because people keep saying the job market in Vegas is very bad. I don't know if this includes health care too.

I only had 2 months experience in a skilled nursing home before being a hospice nurse. I only do admissions in my full time hospice work, so most of it is assessment and paperwork. I was thinking of doing case management but i am worried that i do not have much nursing experience and skills to be a case manager. Even with admissions, if i get a more complicated pt (someone w/ chest tube, port a cath), i easily feel uncomfortable. I had a pt whose chest tube had to be drained PRN and i asked our manager to send someone else to drain the chest tube because i don;t have experience. i also had pts who needed an IV to be started via peripheral and port a cath and i again asked the manager to send someone else. i feel that they have to have a skills lab or some form of training on these things for new nurses. i know someone who has been a hospice nurse for more than 20 yrs and she is not comfortable with starting IVs too.

I got 2 jobs as a hospice RN For my full time job i only get paid 50 cents per mile For my part time job i get paid per diem - only $40 per patient i see. This is awful. They should really increase our rate if not, i will be looking into other areas of nursing where i don't have to drive and not get paid enough!

yes i emailed them. unfortunately, they didn't reply. i have tried emailing them before about other inquiries but they NEVER reply. i am sooo frustrated with the CA BON as they never answer any of my questions!

I took and passed the NCLEX in june 2008 but i only applied and got my actual CA RN license in nov. 2009. Does this make me exempted from the continuing education requirement? my license will expire june 30 2011 and still don't have any continuing education hours coz i just found out about this recently. in the website, to be exempted, you have to have taken the nclex within 2 years. i took mine 3 yrs ago. i just need some clarification on this.