Specialties Travel
Updated: Jun 21, 2022 Published Jun 15, 2022
MierKat
112 Posts
I am wondering if any Travel Nurses (or other nurses) have seen any hospitals that allow travel nurses to park their RVs in a hospital lot and/or a RV lot intended for patients? Especially @NedRN as you have been around the block a few times. This would be to avoid a commute but also because of cost and due to the lack of local RV campgrounds etc. Thanks.
Mainly thinking of rural hospitals - I know UCSF Hospital is not a likely candidate.
NedRN
1 Article; 5,782 Posts
I'm not an RVer but a good friend is. What I have seen personally is Eureka CA allowed him to hook up to electricity (meant primarily for patients), and it happened a few other places. But that means you have to leave perhaps once a week to dump and find a method to take on water. Same for parking on city streets, which he has done on a couple of assignments. Legal in many places, particularly California, but you still dread the police knocking on your door (I often car camp en route to assignment and it has happened to me many times). Parking in industrial areas is less problematic than residential areas.
A super cool place I saw to park an RV was Mammoth Lakes CA with a park only 50 yards or so away from the hospital. The town is surrounded by National Forests with free rough camping as well, commute into work by bicycle.
I also encouraged my friend to post ads on Craigslist (FB might be better these days) looking for a residence or industrial spot to park and hook up. At many houses, it is dead easy to do full hookups and less expensive than RV parks. He was reluctant but did try it once and hit pay dirt somewhere in the Central Valley with an absent owner who felt better with someone living there.
That is pretty all I can say about this topic. There could be a FB group of nurses travelers by RV who could point out RV friendly hospitals. Possibly some of the large RV standalone forums - look for the fulltimers subforums or Google for relevant posts.
Thanks @NedRN That Mammoth situation sounds great.
That's a great idea about looking for someone who wants a temporary parking/tenant on the property. I appreciate the help.
Anyone else have ideas?
Idaho_nurse
72 Posts
You just need to call the organization and ask them. However, I've never seen any that has full hook ups and usually only electricity. So as someone else stated, you would have to haul out to dump your black and grey water, and fill up with potable water.
Another option though, depending upon how large of a city your looking to go to, there could be rv parks close to the hospital. My current assignment, they have the electricity hook ups on campus, but there is another rv park with full amenities less than a mile away.
You can also speak to the nurse manager when you do your interview if they know a good and close in location for an RV. the locals are the best resource ever.