Psych Nursing in Portland, OR

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Specializes in Mental Health.

Hello everyone!

I'm about to be a new graduate RN (ADN) - I'm moving to Portland, OR and looking for psychiatric nursing positions. I have 4+ years of experience as a mental health technician. I've already contacted one hospital there and got a bite - they told me to go ahead and apply but I can't get hired until I have the actual OR RN (which is what I expected). I've worked for that company before and they seemed very interested in me.

My question: does anyone know anything about the psych inpatient facilities up there and the pros and cons of each?

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Specializes in Emergency Room, CEN, TCRN.

check out the VA?

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The psychiatric hospital system in the Portland Metro area has recently undergone significant changes. At the beginning of 2017, the Psych units of the hospitals all closed down (with the exception of the providence hospital system), and Kaiser, Legacy, Portland Adventist, etc all joined together in a collaborative effort to make a new hospital- the Unity Center for Behavioral Health. For nursing, Legacy is managing the hiring. From the outside (with plenty of connections inside), there are quite a few kinks being ironed out as would be expected with a new hospital, but ultimately it should be a pretty sweet system for providing comprehensive psych services.

I work at one of the local Telecares, at an inpatient subacute psychiatric facility (and hey! we're hiring!), and many of our clients now come from Unity (although we do take people from all over the state as we are the only PAITS program in Oregon). Unity has taken on Telecare's RCCS (Recovery Centered Clinical System) as their model of care, which is something I stand by wholeheartedly, it is a great model of care. It will be interesting to see how this translates to a more acute environment as time goes on. There are PLENTY of non-hospital psychiatric nursing jobs in the area as well.

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Hi studentmomma, I came across your comment and would like to know if where you work is still hiring? I am relocating to Portland from New Orleans this fall and plan to start applying to jobs soon. I would really appreciate any additional insight you have to offer!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

How married are you to Portland? Would you consider other towns in Oregon?

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I am certainly open to nearby towns that are in a 30 minute range or so. I am enrolled in an online DNP program and our university has many affiliated clinical sites in Portland so I would like to work relatively close by. Where are you located, klone? I appreciate the response!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Definitely not within even a couple hours of Portland. Nevermind!

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Hi Megan,

Apologies for the delayed reply, I rarely venture onto this site. Yes, Telecare is hiring for a few different RN positions in the Portland area facilities. I am not certain of the terms of service for this site so I hesitate to post a link, but Telecare ads run on Indeed if you are interested in seeing what is currently available.

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