RN/NP on the move

I got your PM but decided to post a response here instead.

You need national certification to be licensed as a nurse practitioner in California. Only graduates of CA-approved NP programs are exempt from national certification. I understand you are trained as an ANP? You may find in-patient jobs as I've seen some ANP's in that position here. In the Bay Area however, all the ICU NP positions are dominated by ACNP's in the hospitals that have NP's in the ICU. It's a tough market to break into altogether. Send applications and make sure you finish the interview, get a job offer, get rolling on credentialing before looking for a place to live.

It is very expensive here and coming over and looking for a job will deplete your resources in no time unless your spouse already has a job here. You mentioned living in Cupertino in your PM. I'm not that familiar with the Silicon Valley area but I know that Stanford has some NP openings. That would be a good driving distance to live and work. We had a fellow once who grew up in Cupertino and attended their public schools and states that it is a fabulous district with lots of talented students fostered by a large concentration of Silicon Valley type parents. Apple supports that district with lots of donation (since they have headquarters there).

Read your PM again. Can't PM you back. You can try looking for a bedside RN job. With your experience, you can be attractive to employers. Your husband got a job in San Francisco? Umm, I think the commute from that job to Cupertino would be horrendous. Pick a city in between.

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With your years of experience, those salaries seem low. Are these union-represented hospitals? That agency pay for Stanford is BS. When I was looking for a job here, I already had both an RN and NP license in CA. It took about 2 months to get them. I also applied for a NPF (license to furnish or prescribe) and that took longer than the other two.

I took my time moving here. I got phone interviews in August, asked to fly to meet my prospective team, was offered the position, and went through credentialing while still living in the Midwest. I asked to start end of the year and by that time, I was fully credentialed by the hospital and have signed a lease on a place to live.

While your circumstances may not allow the luxury of waiting (since it's your husband who got a job here first), I would get the ball rolling now. I find that your options are limited when you don't have the full qualifications to practice in the state you're moving to. The job market is tough here. There are tons of people applying for the available jobs. People come with qualifications as good as yours.

The choice of where to live will center on what your priorities are. It sounds like a good school district is one of them in your case. Does traffic bother you? The freeway that connects San Francisco to Silicon Valley gets congested on rush hour but if that's something that doesn't annoy you, then it's OK.

The surrounding counties around SF has many housing options. Look in Marin County (downside: crossing the Golden Gate Bridge by car each time as there is no reliable public transport but they have good schools and excellent recreational spots).

Berkeley is across the Bay Bridge and has apparently a good school district and is accessible by public transportation (BART). Some cities in the peninsula are not bad (Burlingame comes to mind). Some East Bay cities are good but again you're going farther away from the city of SF.

Craigslist is the best way to look for housing here. Post in the California forum. I'm a transplant here so I'm in no way an expert in the area.

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