SICU at Renown in Reno - is my recruiter hiding something?

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Specializes in CVICU, SICU, PCU, ER.

I am looking at taking a travel position at Renown in Reno, but I have read good and bad things. I am an SICU nurse and will be moving my wife and two baby daughters with me, so I don't want to make a huge mistake that I will regret if the facility is as awful as some people have posted on this and other sites. Also, my travel company is trying to get around letting me speak to anyone currently on assignment there - is this normal (a privacy thing) or are they trying to hide something? Anyone have any input on Renown or Reno in general? This will be my first travel assignment more than a few hundred miles from home, so we are throwing ourselves out there!

Thanks for any input.

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Specializes in OR.

I moved to Reno 9 months ago and like it. I use the Renown system and have had good experiences all around (x-ray, vascular, urgent care, primary care). I work at another facility in town. Even though Reno is known for gambling it is very close to Tahoe and the city is big enough that you dont have to be exposed to the tourist, gambling parts unless you want to. Lots of great restaurants, shopping, etc.

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Many people come to Renown for traveling positions because of the ski season and the area. However, Renown, to my knowledge has phased out all of their travelers, unless they are rehiring them again. At this point I believe that SICU is actually overstaffed as they have many new graduates. This means that the experienced nurses actually get floated to the other ICUs.

Many changes have been taking place at Renown, mostly negative. The CICU is very understaffed, many times nurses have 3 pt assignments.

Renown hospitals hires a lot of new graduates, but somehow can't retain them.

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Specializes in ICU, psych, corrections.

I used to work in the ICU at Renown and left because I was tired of getting 3 patient assigments (there were some other reasons I left as well, some being way too many inexperienced RN's and management). I also know of a few RN's who still work in the ICU there and they do get floated to other critical care areas, such as CIC, on a regular basis. That RARELY happened when I worked there and now it seems to be a regular occurence.

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Specializes in SRNA.

That's unfortunate to hear. I worked in the Roseview ICU from 6/07 to 12/08 and I never had a 3 patient assignment and was never floated once.

In the wintertime, they do open another 6 bed ICU to handle increase in patient load - they typically see many more traumas through the winter sporting season - that they staff with existing ICU staff, which is why they hire travelers still in the fall.

They can't retain new grads because scheduling is awful and there's better opportunities and better working conditions elsewhere. It's not horrible there, but I'm so much happier since I moved back to my hometown in WA state.

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Specializes in Dialysis (All Modalities) , Ex-CVICU RN.

Travelers will float at Renown, especially during the day shift.. They opened up our old CIC in the Sierra tower (Station 41) as an ICU overflow. They are staffing them with travelers as far as I know. We get a lot of per diem that float from the Sierra ICU and Roseview ICU to help staff CIC.

As far as i'm concerned ... we welcome the travelers and floats to our unit. We make sure we get them as much help because I don't want to be tripled up.

TJ

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I concur with the above.

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