Stanford Univ. ICU assignment?? where to live..

meandragonbrett · Jan 18, 2012

Any of you guys know how travel nurses are treated in Kaiser hospital?

Like garbage

NedRN · Jan 22, 2012

Where did you decide to live? I just took an assignment in the childrens hospital and I am having THE MOST DIFFICULT time finding housing.. and I start in under 3 weeks! I live on the East Coast so I can't view the apartments and I'm going on a whim here, so any help you could offer would be great. Thanks!

Call Stanford U housing dept. They are closed to the public, but as a traveler, you are part of the Stanford community. The housing dept probably has your name already and will give you a log in to their housing board (you may have to call your manager first). There are a number of homeowners and apartment owners surrounding Stanford that only post listings there for house shares and rentals. I've found a number of great and affordable places every time I've worked there.

If you need a bit of time on site to find housing, there are a number of nearby small decent motels on El Camino to choose from around $50 a night.

By the way, your ID card also gives you full privileges at other Stanford facilities including several gyms, no extra cost. Also educational discounts on computers and software at the bookstore, including all Apple products.

What is a hassle at Stanford is parking. But the weather is great, and if you find a place nearby, bicycling to work is the best way to go.

goldengirl88 · Nov 1, 2012

who else has contracts with Stanford? BEcause my recruiter is with AMN and want to make sure i'll be taken care of /not taken advantage, she quoted me $32/hr. this will be my first travel assignment, havent chosen a hospital yet but Stanford sounds awesome! i have 2+ years ICU experience

meandragonbrett · Nov 1, 2012

AMN has an exclusive contract with Stanford. They supply LOTS of travelers at Stanford. That's not to say that you can't work a 3rd party contract through another agency though.

SDNURN · Nov 6, 2012

Does anybody out there do the commute from SF to Stanford? Wondering what it is like...

Do you drive or take Caltrain?

goldengirl88 · Nov 21, 2012

do you know which third party agencies? i would LOVE to work at stanford!

craizy_man · Apr 30, 2017

Pros:

the high acuity of specialty type of patients, especially neurosurgery. Stanford does specialty type surgeries that many hospitals across the country do not do, which allows you as a nurse to learn new things, and see things you otherwise wouldn't. They have specialty surgeries and referrals from head to toe.

Neuro-trauma is big because of the neuro specialty, if you love neuro, this is huge. However, other trauma not so much, think location. If you're looking for urban traumas you go to a more urban hospital (SFGH, Highland...) Stanford is located in palo alto where bicyclists get hit by prius's.

Patient ratios law abiding.

Extra nurses on the unit for help (good and bad), but really what other hospitals outside of california hires extra nurses on the unit, none. Stanfords budget is great.

Resident to assist, not all of them smart, but that's everywhere, but they're there, at all times really trying to do their best and engaged.

Multidisicplinary rounds including the nurse (depending on the service).

Protocols for everything, never leaving anyone to wonder much about what to do in a given situation or given drug. (good and bad).

The mandatory breaks throughout the day and the fact that there are resource nurses that cover your break and watch your patient. This doesn't happen across the country, I assure you, I've worked at many top hospitals but because of California ratio laws and stanfords insane budget, there are way more nurses on the unit then any other unit I've seen. Standards are high here for that.

Traveler friendly. Great for a short-time, enjoy what the bay area has to offer.

Cons:

When a secretary called in sick, an RN making 6 figures was answering the phones all day, because the nurse was extra for the day and stanford would rather have more nurses on hands for 'safety' then not. Budget, anyone? It was not good to see that nurse all day sit there while the rest of us were getting our behinds served to us with patient load. This is what the nurse did for 12 hours that day, I witnessed it.

Not utilizing nurses properly: See example above. Second example witnessed every shift: There are extra nurses on every shift, with travelers and some staff taking actual patient assignments. Instead of allocating assignments better, these extra nurses on the unit are there to 'help you'. My idea of help is for them to take some of those assignments off of our hands, plenty of rooms open to do that. But instead, these extra six-figure nurses walk around and help do basic tasks at the bedside that I don't really need help with, or I could just ask my nurse neighbor to assist with. I think we'd much rather them have take some of the entire patient care off of our hands instead of seeing them walking around the unit seeking to do something all day and being turned down most of the time. These are the extra nurses that break you throughout the day, what a great gig.

For an experienced nurse that may be burned out and no longer want to do too much thinking or perform autonomously, it's perfect. Stanford is regimental, a rigid structure in how every disease should be treated, how every problem should be solved at the bedside with family members, a protocol for everything, leaving little room for outside opinion on how things are done at other high ranking facilities. This makes you a robot, easier to control staff this way, its been a winning ticket for them. For a new nurse, or a new traveler, this is outstanding, and it provides you little risk at the bedside, you'll always have a guide or extra nurses on hand. For an experienced nurse, this of course backfires, unless you're able to let go of that.

There are more assistant managers to a unit then they really need, maybe like 5? I lost count. You feel like you're always being watched, someone is always looking into your charting. At least at other hospitals they do that but in an office away from the unit you work on, it feels more in your face here. If you don't check off a box on a piece of paper in morning report about something minuscule that has nothing to do with your patient care, you'll be notified by email and possibly one of them will approach you. Again, too many cooks in the kitchen with not enough to do.

Because of it's name, patients and families sometimes lead the care, sad really. Nothing new though, I've seen it all the big name hospitals which is probably why I'm burned out of these high end patient factories. Even though patients and their families would be reminded of how fruitless the path they want to take is, Stanford goes against its own evidence based practice that's constantly talked about to appease affluent patients and their families. Puts a strain on the experienced nurses and experienced staff wanting to actually do things properly, rather than being told what to do by those who have zero experience in healthcare.

I've noticed there are no single beds for ICU patients unless they're in isolation. If you're a nurse getting that patient assignment, it is 1:1, and you're in the room for 12 hours. Read that again, you sit in the room for 12 hours regardless of their acuity level, because they're in isolation. Is that fair to the other nurses on the unit busting their ass discharging and admitting patients? No. Does that patient need you in there to stare at them for 12 hours? No. Does that improve their care? Nope. Stanford says it's the service they provide, someones always watching the patient. If you think this decreases self-extubations, you're wrong, still happened. It also lowers team morale and teamwork, because you're not with you're team at all, until someones pops in to see if you need to turn your patient. 95% of the ICU patients share rooms. Think about that. Ventilators, head bolts, drains, screams, cries, deaths, families, a curtain doesn't block grief out too well. They're building a new hospital, but that was a shock to see at Stanford, given the name and especially coming from some hospitals without such popularity and budget that have their ICU rooms private and spacious.

I got to know my fellow nurses the least at this hospital because of their rule of staying in the patients room for you're entire shift. Some of them think this decreases cellphone use, or chitchat. what do you think the nurses are doing in the rooms? internet..cellphones...and those extra nurses on the unit I talked about earlier, they're not busy most of the day and chitchat's all they do.

They do have a tele-station to watch patients if you walk away from the room, they just choose not to use it.

Teamwork is 'team', not just a handful of nurses that are allowed to walk around and analyze and assist other nurses in a given situation. That's what I love about nursing, solving my own problems but also helping other nurses with interesting cases try to solve theirs too. If you're patients stable, there's not reason to be there for 12 hours staring at them.

Pay is good but cost of living is horrible. Some nurses stay at hotels and knock out their shifts in a row but live far away. Even if you get paid well, it's difficult to see the benefits when you can't really live nearby, avoid paying high taxes, tolls...etc..

Wolf at the Door, BSN · May 2, 2017

^^Thank you soooo much for your post.