San Francisco- best hospitals for oncology nurses

[ShelbyMaser]

Hello! My husband has a job offer in San Francisco, so I am currently researching what nursing is like in the SF area. Currently, I'm a Pitt BSN graduate (with Nursing Assistant+Internship experience) working on an Oncology unit for 3.5 years. I absolutely love my job, the staff I work with, management, the pay, etc. I know this is rare in the field, and as such, I'm pretty hesitant to leave, but am excited for the prospect of living in a beautiful city such as SF and seeing what else is out there. From what I understand, the San Francisco market is already highly saturated. Are jobs difficult for nursing as a whole, or just difficult for fresh new grads? What are the best hospitals to look Oncology nursing jobs? I know my first step is to transfer my RN license to CA (which we will do after making the final decision to move). Any and every input would be highly useful! Thank you!

[gunrock]

I wouldn't wait till you decide to move to start transferring your license. The process can take months (for me it took 2 months, and my wife took about 3.5months). If there's a strong possibility you might move id start the process now.

As far as oncology hospitals (that's not my field) but UCSF is one of the major academic hospital in SF, they will also be opening a brand new campus. The new campus will also house their oncology services (both out patient and in patient). It's scheduled to open early 2015.

Good luck and take a look around, east coast vs west coast nursing (from my experience) has been very different, not necessarily worse, just different.

[ShelbyMaser]

Thanks for the input! My husband ended up accepting the job offer (yay!!) and the same day I started my PA to CA license application. Just waiting for the fingerprint card. Any idea how soon I can get the temporary license? I plan on staying at my current job until I (hopefully) receive a job offer so there is no financial gap in our living expenses. I guess I'm just trying to get an idea of what the odds of an RN of 3.5 years has at getting a job in a SF hospital.

I wouldn't wait till you decide to move to start transferring your license. The process can take months (for me it took 2 months, and my wife took about 3.5months). If there's a strong possibility you might move id start the process now.

As far as oncology hospitals (that's not my field) but UCSF is one of the major academic hospital in SF, they will also be opening a brand new campus. The new campus will also house their oncology services (both out patient and in patient). It's scheduled to open early 2015.

Good luck and take a look around, east coast vs west coast nursing (from my experience) has been very different, not necessarily worse, just different.