St Mary's Long beach vs Kaiser Manteca

NedRN · Nov 14, 2015

Welcome to Allnurses!

I like Kaiser, but I will recommend that you don't take it for a couple of reasons. Kaiser gets a bad rap among travelers for really only one reason: floating. This is true of most Kaisers. The underlying reason is that travelers work 12 hour shifts and staff work 8 hour shifts. If you do the math, it is easy to see why travelers can float every 4 hours. On top of learning a new culture, patient population, charting, I don't think you need to be floated every 4 hours on top of that!

California has a large population of Spanish only speakers. If you speak decent medical Spanish, not an issue. You will have to deal with it, and while Spanish is not required, I suspect that Manteca in the Central Valley (lots of agriculture) will have a higher percentage of Spanish only speakers. I've never worked in the Central Valley because it is just not personally appealing. Pay for travelers is excellent though in the Central Valley with relatively low housing costs for California (which means more take home money if you take the housing stipends). Very hot in the summertime. The major plus is that it not too far from some national parks.

The final reason is location. Long Beach! Beaches, temperate climate, and not that far from Venice Beach and Santa Monica (bike path 90% of the way that I've done several times). Hollywood, Beverly Hills and so on a bit further. Disneyland is close, as is of course the Queen Mary. Long Beach itself is rather industrial, but you won't see much of that between the hospital and your likely housing, just when you go north along the coast.

For a first assignment, I'd also take the agency's provided housing so all you have to do is adjust to the hospital and enjoy the location. Chase the money after your first assignment.

I am that I am · Nov 14, 2015

"Chase the money after your first assignment"- Very wise saying, i'll remember that.

NedRN · Nov 14, 2015

Or even "chase the money after your first year". That allows for a lot more fun!

When I started traveling in 1995, there was only a couple bucks an hour difference between assignments anywhere in the country for the large agency I was working for. So I had a great time for my first four years working in great locations from Maine to Florida to San Francisco and the Bay area to Colorado. Great times! I still managed to save most of what I made (could save none at my low paid staff job in the south in an expensive city), so the hourly rate seemed unimportant. Money seems more of a primary reason to travel than the lifestyle now, but it should be about the lifestyle and professional benefits of working at multiple hospitals than the money.

But folks don't want to hear that thus I temper my recommendations. Having a successful first assignment is important for several reasons, it gets traveler experience on your work history (some hospitals will not even take nurses who have not traveled), it will help you understand your own abilities to adapt to new working environments to determine if you want to continue or help determine what appropriate future assignments would be, it will begin to give you the knowledge on how to find the best agencies/recruiters for you and maximize your career and compensation, and a successful assignment is always better than one from hell that makes you give up the idea of travel without a fair trial.

I admit I travel mostly for the money now, but it is a lot less fun.