Salem/Eugene, Oregon

Lived in Eugene, OR for a year, wasn't for me. Sacred Heart Medical Center was GREAT and they're building a BRAND new hospital from the ground up that should open after this summer. If you love the outdoors and the "nature" lifestyle then this would be a great fit for you. Eugene is a medium size town that is close to everything: ocean, forest, ski, and Portland. If I had to choose between the 2 I would def pick Eugene and I had a blast with everyone on the surgical floor there.

You'd probably get more replies if you post under the Region tab rather than Forums. All the states are individually listed.

Moved to Oregon Nurses forum.

Salem Hospital has a great reputation, and their nurse salaries are among the highest in the Willamette Valley. If I had to choose between living in Salem or Eugene, though, I'd pick Eugene, as the city is generally cleaner, and there are more hospitals to choose from. (Salem has a terrible problem with gangs and drugs, especially meth, plus there's the state mental hospital and a prison right in the middle of town. I worked in the city for over a year and always felt insecure driving through there.) Eugene also has its issues, but it's home to some of the state's finest arts and entertainment, is environmentally friendly, and takes pride in being educated and progressive. Nice town.

Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

Salem Hospital with a "great reputation?" As a nurse and a former patient there I would seriously disagree with you! Salem Hospital is currently undergoing a mass exodus of staff due to management issues. The reason there pay is higher is because the cannot keep competent. I would look at Silverton Hosptial :yeah:or Santiam :yeah:if you choose the Salem area. As for Eugene if you are into the hippy drug culture that is the capital as far as I am concerned just one trip the the yearly "Country Fair" will explain what I mean. Gangs in Salem are no worse than anywhere else in the country. Meth is and always will be a problem anywhere you go but it is slowing down. Sacred Heart in Eugene is a nice facility and I have been impressed with their nurses. There is also McKenzie Willamette :yeah:in Springfield. If you want somewhere inbetween try Lebanon:yeah:, Albany :yeah:or Corvallis:yeah:. They are all owned by Samaratin Health services.

Anyone know if Salem Hospital takes many new graduates? The job market is saturated where I live, and I was planning to move back to Oregon in a couple of years anyway, so I'm looking at possibly doing it sooner--but I want to make sure I move somewhere where a job is basically a sure thing.

Go to the Salem Hospital website, they have new grad RN program. They focus on transitioning from student to RN. Last time I checked they had some openings in the summer for new grads. Good luck! The pay starts out at 28.00 per hour.

As for Eugene if you are into the hippy drug culture that is the capital as far as I am concerned just one trip the the yearly "Country Fair" will explain what I mean.

Actually, the Oregon Country Fair is a world-class event, and is drug and alcohol free. It is about art in various forms, and as a nonprofit organization, has a philanthropic mission. It does not occur in Eugene, but actually west of Eugene, in a town called Veneta.

http://www.oregoncountryfair.org/index.php

Eugene is a left-leaning college town, but if you're more to the conservative side, its sister city across the river, Springfield, a blue collar town, has more of a conservative slant.

There are two hospitals in the area, Sacred Heart Medical Center, and McKenzie Willamette hospital.

Sacred Heart is owned by PeaceHealth, which is run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. They are building a new hospital that is slated to open in August of 2008:

http://www.peacehealth.org/

McKenzie Willamette is owned by Community Health Systems. They are in the process of finding a site for their new hospital:

http://www.chs.net/

Salem Hospital with a "great reputation?" As a nurse and a former patient there I would seriously disagree with you! Salem Hospital is currently undergoing a mass exodus of staff due to management issues. The reason there pay is higher is because the cannot keep competent. I would look at Silverton Hosptial :yeah:or Santiam :yeah:if you choose the Salem area. As for Eugene if you are into the hippy drug culture that is the capital as far as I am concerned just one trip the the yearly "Country Fair" will explain what I mean. Gangs in Salem are no worse than anywhere else in the country. Meth is and always will be a problem anywhere you go but it is slowing down. Sacred Heart in Eugene is a nice facility and I have been impressed with their nurses. There is also McKenzie Willamette :yeah:in Springfield. If you want somewhere inbetween try Lebanon:yeah:, Albany :yeah:or Corvallis:yeah:. They are all owned by Samaratin Health services.

I would strongly suspect you are right about the staffing problems. A nsg student I work with just got hired at this hospital. She is in CO and got hired after only doing a phone interview. She is all gung ho about moving there and her and her fiance' are already making offers on houses.

I told her she should wait and make sure the job works out first......in my experience the only hospitals who hire nurses, esp new grads that fast are the ones who are desperate and their are usually reasons behind that.

I am a current employee of Salem Hospital, hired as a new grad last year. I work at the Family Birth Center and absolutely love it. I would agree that they are short staffed but I think that they are just suffering from the general nursing shortage that most parts of the country are suffering from. There are only two nursing schools close to Salem, both ADN programs, and not many large towns to recruit nurses from. On the other hand, Portland has five BSN programs and at least three ADN programs that I can think of to pull from, plus a much larger population and many surrounding towns to recruit RNs from. I was working at St. Vincent's in Beaverton, a suberb of Portland, and nurses were getting called off at least once a pay period because of over staffing and budget issues. If you are interesting in making a lot of money and picking up extra shifts, then Salem is the place to go. I can pick up as many shifts as I want and get paid time&half plus 20% for each shift. I would rather have the opportunity to make more money, but not be required, than be called off twice a month from my regularly scheduled shift. There's my 2 cents! :)

I'm from Eugene (born and raised!) and love the Pacific Northwest. It's a really great comminuty. As for area hospitals, I prefer McKenzie-Willamette to Sacred Heart. I'm not a nurse (yet), but I am an active hospital volunteer (on the units) and have been a patient. I just like McKenzie-Willamette better. It's smaller, and friendlier, and many of the RNs and RTs I've talked to (who have worked in both places) prefer McKenzie-Willamette.

It has been interesting reading the conflicting viewpoints on Salem hospital. I just finished up nursing school and applied for their new nurse internship program. I got called back to arrange for a few interviews. I lived a few years in Portland, but don't know much about the Salem region and know nothing about the hospital, so I am both excited and concerned. I will give them a lot of credit since at least i heard something back. A lot of the Portland hospitals don't afford such a courtesy.

Since you just graduated last year futureRN07 (or anyone who has worked at Salem Hospital) what is your opinion of their orientation process? Has there really been a mass exodus?

I work at the salem hospital, as a CNA I am not a RN yet, however the Salem Hospital is a great place to work, we are building a whole new tower that should be done the spring of next year. The hospital employs 3000 people, it is privately owned. Great benefits, and opportunity's. For our med-surg floors, patient to RN ratio is usually 3-4, at times 5, but the hospital, is hiring to 100% instead of I think they said we are at like 70%-80% now or something, so that will make our patient ratio lower which will be awsome! Our doctors are great, the attitudes of employees are great everyone is always willing to help one another, its really nice to work with nurses that will help you instead of saying thats not my job, or they just get in there and do take care of business. I always see our nurses doing whatever they can to help eachother, if someone is behind they will get in there and do what needs to be done. It makes life much easier! and , the hospital is always doing some sort of activities for us, trying to make things fun, and keep the moral up.

Salem is a wonderful place to live, Iv been living here for 3 years now, we are only an hour-hour half from the coast,1 hour to Portland,Half hour to the casino, 20 min drive to the mountains, lots of outdoor things to do summer or winter. Its a good size town, but not to big, and not to small, lots of family and adult activities, and we have the state fair :) Keizer, is right next to Salem, they run into eachother, its a smaller town, nice place to live. If you are thinking about moving think about salem! check out the hospital website too. http://www.salemhospital.org/index.php