Salem/Corvallis Nursing

[cheergirl33]

Hi everyone! I am a seasoned ED nurse with 8 years of experience thinking about relocating from Florida to Oregon, particularly the Salem or Corvallis areas. I wanted to see if anyone could offer any insight into nursing in these 2 places. I know Salem has Salem Health, but they do not have a union. Corvallis has Good Samaritan which does have a union, but the city itself has less stuff to do it seems. I will also be finished with my Masters in Nursing Education by the time I relocate and possibly looking at teaching part time along with remaining at the bedside. Any feedback would be more than appreciated!!!!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

You'd probably be better off by coming to Salem. There are different health systems here that might fit your needs, e.g. Legacy Health, Salem Health, and Kaiser Permanente. My son works for Legacy as an RN case manager and makes $78K/year. No union, but I think there is one for non-exempt employees (hourly). I don't know for sure though...you'd want to research it. Corvallis is a nice university town but opportunities are somewhat limited, even though they have a regional medical center. There is also a community college in Albany where you could teach (that's where I graduated from).

Good luck with finding your nursing niche in Oregon. It's really lovely here, but you'll have to get used to grey skies and LOTS of rain. The winters are long and cool, and there's a lot of seasonal affective disorder. But our summers are perfection, with high temps averaging 82 degrees and comfortable nights, and autumn is beautiful with trees of red, gold, and orange situated among the evergreens. :-)