Sacramento Nurse Practitioner working conditions

[phosphorus]

I'm an NP in an FQHC. I had pegged some hopes on NHSC funding, but essentially all the area FQHCs have pretty low score and that seems like a long shot now. As far as I can tell for primary care many places pay around 115k with 2wks vacation, but a good number pay 130+ with 1 mo and excellent benefits (Sutter, UCD, Kaiser, Dignity). My workload is quite manageable (15-30 ppd avg.ing 20-24) and I like my job, but I also realize I'm probably getting shorted 20-30k and 2 wks vacation of what I could get.

Anyone local have good experiences in different systems?

-Anyone get NHSC grants? Communicare clinics?

-Hills physician?

-I believe Kaiser and Dignity limit your practice significantly, and I've heard Kaiser and Sutter have brutal workloads. Haven't met any midlevels from UCD but UCD and Kaiser are union for NPs which is nice.

[ToFNPandBeyond]

Bump!

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I'm familiar with the UC system just not UCD. The pay grades are in the public domain under the nursing union umbrella that represents all the UC owned hospitals. The union contract is currently still under negotiation as the current one is expired. I'm not active in the union and can't speak to why the delay but UC has been a good employer with lots of talented and highly skilled people across all disciplines.

Current Contract | UCnet (look for appendix section for the salary schedule for each hospital)

[phosphorus]

Kaiser treats you pretty well and pays excellent however they restrict NP practice in draconian and bizarre ways essentially because they are controlled by MDs and management trying to find ways around having to pay people for their work. NPs are basically assistants to MDs and spend much of their time answering patient emails. Colleagues tell me the same about Dignity and Sutter but they pay much less. Kaiser also gives strangely bad benefits for NPs until you build seniority. You start at 2 weeks vacation and no CME days or funds.

The best organized FQHCs tend to pay surprisingly low but have NHSC scores that might get you loan reimbursement. The chronically disorganized ones... pay remarkably well essentially because they're desperate. At this point pretty much all the urban clinics have very low hpsa scores so nhsc funding is a pipe dream.

[FullGlass, BSN, MSN, NP]

It is very hard to find an NP job in a larger city in a clinic with a high HPSA score unless you work in an inner city area. An option is to look a little ways outside of Sacramento. There are numerous clinics within a 30 minute drive of Sacramento in places like Placerville that have reasonably high HPSA scores. The best bet on finding a clinic with a high HPSA score is a more rural area that is within reasonable driving distance of a bigger city, say 30 minutes to 1 hour.