Sacramento Area Nurses

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Hello guys,

I've been doing some research in the Sacramento area and its sorroundings for possibly relocating to the area. I have been an ER nurse for 3 years (currently traveling for 1 year). I wanted to get an idea of which hospitals are good to work for and what is the salary like hourly. Do hospitals in the area pay time and a half after 8 hours? Which ones hire for 8 hours only?

Thank you

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

The only one that hires for 8 hours is kaiser. Everyone else i think is 12 hours and straight time. Options are:

Kaiser system two locations in Sacramento and one in Roseville -pays the best

Sutter system in Sacramento and Roseville

Mercy in Sacramento and Folsom, probably around 60 an hour base for Sutter and Mercy

UC Davis they're the lowest pay in region and definitely the most challenging ER in terms of staffing and help. Great to learn a lot though. Pay is probably 55ish hourly base

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Why does it seem like UC Davis ER is always hiring staff? What's the issue there?

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.
Why does it seem like UC Davis ER is always hiring staff? What's the issue there?

Lowest paying in the region and difficult work environment with staffing issues, safety issues and very strong personalities. You learn a ton there but all the bad outweighs the good for most eventually.

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Lowest paying in the region and difficult work environment with staffing issues, safety issues and very strong personalities. You learn a ton there but all the bad outweighs the good for most eventually.

That's too bad. Do you think they are actively working to fix these problems?

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

I wouldn't know currently, I haven't worked for them in 3 years. You can PM if you have more questions í ½í¸Š

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Specializes in ED.

No. It's only gotten worse. Someone who works there presently said, "Oh, we changed the culture that was bad. We hired a new director." In other words, and this is from others who have been there recently as travelers and as staff who ran screaming from them...this new director is very "data driven" and a micromanager. She dictated that "things will change" and she actually expects that since she said so, the "culture" will change.

The core staff have all been elevated to positions off the floor, aka bedside. There are people in internal triage who are no higher than CNII yet will not be forced to do bedside. The night shift is routinely understaffed to the point (even with mucho traveler help) that state and union mandated lunches/breaks are in danger at all times.

"Strong personalities". that's an understatement from what I've heard. Dayshift = high school and Nightshift = shark tank. Gossip, back biting, deliberate sabotage and bullying abound.

The safety issue. I tried to follow the "flow" of this place when listening to several people describe it. The hallways are actual "pods". Non monitored, one RN per 4 beds, no privacy...pts have been lying in these hall beds for 3-4 days at a time. Not some drunk or homeless person either. One girl told me that her GI bleeder was set out in the hallway, no monitor, one IV pulled out of this guy's arm which dangled on the floor dripping an infusion, nobody stopped to even notice...and the next day when she showed up, the guy was still there. Same IV dangling from his arm, infusion dry and empty bag still hanging there with a beeping pump.

I was told that this is routine, every day stuff. The hallways are lined with people at all times. They lie there for days and days.

The "flow" is that they play musical chairs with pts/gurneys. One RN told me that she just had everyone assessed and stable....when internal triage decided, without so much as a word to her, that they were pulling every single pt out, separating them to other "pods" and she was landing 4 new pts all at once, two EMS critically unstable.

Someone here described it as hellish. I said that to my traveler pal, who is finishing her 13 there and has vowed she'd rather live unemployed under a bridge rather than work one shift past her contract at UCD...and she said that is putting it nicely. The "core" staff are babied and elevated to positions of low-no stress and authority, while newbies and travelers and less well liked staff are shat upon and driven into the ground.

Management only cares about numbers there. That's it. It's a big joke that UCD is a Level 1 trauma center when everyone in NorCal knows that Mercy San Juan and Kaiser South Sac are the places to go, and the trauma team at UCD can barely function bc of the micromanaging of some of the CNIIIs.

There is some rule that you can't even "qualify" for a resus assignment until you've been hazed for 9 months and even then you have to apply for permission to take a course and do modules and then if the CNIII in charge doesnt like you, you will wait years to get into their "resus" assignments. What decent trauma RN would go there with that kind of crap going on.

Then I heard about how it's all med surg nurses and ICU nurses in the general pods. Nobody is a real life ER trained RN. THey hire med surg or pull med surg from the units because they hold so many med surg pts. the icu RNs get anything "complicated" with more than a drip or two or maybe an art line.

this is from four or five travelers, two of whom spent a year there, and two staffers who left within the past six months. not one malcontent, but a whole slew of people with the same story.

personally i have seen places like this and during one guy's orientation with their educator, this woman actually said, "We used to have a reputation for hiring anyone with a pulse. It's kinda different now, because we have a new director"

Does that clear things up? And yes. they have the lowest pay. add in the mandatory 10% forced retirement "contribution" that you can't opt out of, the $120/mo union dues, the $50/mo forced parking fee...and you're not taking home a few bucks less, you're taking home 50% less than anyone else in Norcal. And don't even go into the idea that you might get overtime. I heard that they will let the shift go 3-4 RNs short (and no ancillary staff, if you are curious. so you do your own stocking, EKGs, transporting, fingersticks, casting, etc) before they'll call anyone in that might be in danger of working >40.

i wouldnt work there if my life depended on it, from what I'm hearing. Level 1 doesn't mean crap. it's an academic bunch of paperwork and translates to exactly nothing, especially in this case.

go to San Juan or Kaiser South if you want trauma. If you want great working conditions and free benefits, Sutter is the way to go. If you're really smart, you will be a traveler and tell the HR dept of these places to stuff it.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

Sounds like it got a little worse since I left. í ½í¸‚. That place gave me PTSD.

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Despite these issues, is UC Davis still the busiest in terms of trauma? I'm an ICU nurse so I'm not as concerned about ED work conditions, ha

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Specializes in ED.

No. Mercy San Juan, Kaiser South sac and Sutter are not just busier but also see the "actual" traumas.

I don't think you understand the conditions of UC Davis if you are interested in doing trauma. Please read about it again. You won't see trauma for a minimum of a year by policy and if you happen to be one of the many that seem to challenge the trauma cn3 in any way (apparently you have to be an utter sycophant and know nothing so he looks good)....you will never, ever be trained and if you manage it after a few years, you would still have to get assigned. There are no rotations thru the resus room. It's charge discretion.

You seem desperate for trauma experience. Not sure why. But if you are that desperate that you would allow yourself to be turned into med surg nurse for tow or three years while genuflecting at the feet of someone who may never ever allow you to learn trauma....then why not just go be a med surg nurse and be done with it.

There are actual trauma units that don't have level 1 designation. I am thinking this is what you are after. Learn what the difference between level 1 and 2 actually is and then decide whether you want an actual trauma experience or you just want to pad your resume with a level 1 designation.

Because trauma nurses know well trained when they see it. If you just want to fake it so you can get into CRNA or NP ....then I think you might possibly fit in well at Davis.

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I'm not sure if you misunderstood my post because of the huge chip on your shoulder, but I am not an ED nurse I am an ICU nurse. i do not care about the politics of the ED at UC Davis at all. I have been a trauma ICU nurse for going on three years and I am just trying to get a feel for the Sacramento area before I move there. I just wanted to know if they still get plenty of sick trauma patients so i can take care of them in the ICU because that's what I enjoy doing. get over yourself

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Lowest paying in the region and difficult work environment with staffing issues, safety issues and very strong personalities. You learn a ton there but all the bad outweighs the good for most eventually.

I noticed Mercy San Juan has a LOT of openings for their ER too. Is it really bad there as well?

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