ashthomps

Hi! I'm from Savannah and worked at Memorial Heath for 3 yrs. They have a great level III NICU. It's acutally part of Backus Children's Hospital, but associated with Memorial Health- it's actually all the same thing! They're VERY busy and you should bring your running shoes w/ you, but I learned a lot and loved my time there. I miss it! It's about a 50 bed unit and they do just about everything. Some heart stuff they have to ship to Altanta. If you apply, I'm almost positive they'll hire you! The have pretty heavy patient loads, but it's a fun group and the time goes fast. Hope that helps!

My friend and I both came to CA wanting to travel at the same hospital and we're both NICU nurses!!! But I had travel experience and she didn't, so we're not together, but we're close enough to each other that we get to see each other all the time. My advice is to not look for the same hospital, but to to look at different areas. There are plenty of positions in CA b/c they're so short staffed and they have nurse/pt ratios to adhere to. Just hang in there and something will come up! If not at the same hospital then I'm sure you two will find something in the same area!

I just got my CA license the 1st of January. I did the walk through in Sacramento and have to say that's the way to go. They've recently moved and are way behind on opening their mail! When I got there I heard the guy that works there telling another traveler that they were just opening mail that they recieved from December 21st! And I got there December 30th. Make sure you give them AT LEAST 6 weeks to process everything.

I'm on my second assignment and loving it, but I've heard from other travelers that these companies make a lot of money off of us and they also get finders fees?? I was just wondering if anybody had the inside track on what the companies really make and if they can really pull strings and make things happen for us but they're just trying to make as much money off of us as they can? Does that make sense? Before I took this second assignment I told my recruiter that the pay just wasn't enough and she came back with 50 cents more an hour and I was wondering what I left on the table. But I talked with a traveler in the unit I was going to and she loved it there, so I decided to sign a contract. Then I was told that the apartment that I wanted (that this traveler is in with the same company I'm with) was "out of their budget" by $345, so I had to chose another apartment. THEN when I get to my new assignment, this same traveler told me that she was extending her contract but first going home and that not only would she be back in the same apartment complex, but she was being put in a bigger unit! So I'm a little ticked off and confused. I just want to know what's REALLY going on b/c I don't know if I'll ever get the full story from my travel agency.