traveling to Cali for 1st time. Kaiser???

[NYCRN82]

[color=#cc0033]hey guys!

i am a first time traveler who has worked in nyc as staff in an icu for 5 years and 2 before that in florida. i have started to work with talemed and i know that the majority of their assignments are with kaiser. i wanted to know what you guys have experienced there as travelers, if you have been.

an md who i worked with in nyc works there now as an intensivist. he told me that there is a lot of backstabbing, that if you do something wrong, you wont hear about it for 2 months and then you'll be spoken to by a nm, you have to really watch what you say, that it is very political.

this doesnt sit well with me; obviously all hospitals have their issues, but i spent the last 5 years in one of the toughest, largest hospitals in the city and i had a lot of autonomy. i was treated with respect and treated others with respect- issues were spoken about directly, there was rarely any "tattling" or going behind peoples backs (at least that i saw). [color=#cc0033]we even called docs by their first names! [color=#cc0033] i dont take kindly to being spoken down to by anyone or cattiness; i just dont get it. so any info on what to expect as far as the nursing culture in cali would be appreciated.

thanks guys!!! :thankya:

[wanderlust99]

Which Kaiser, what city? Do a search on Kaiser and you'll find more info. I've been in CA traveling for 4 years and have heard bad things about Kaiser for travelers. Mainly the floating, you will be floated sometimes every 4 hours to fit staffing needs. I've had this happen a few times at various hospitals, it can be tough. Also you may be floated to mostly medsurg/tele during your assignment...which isn't fun for most ICU nurses. Also I've just heard travelers aren't treated well in general by Kaiser facilities. There's so many more travel positions available in CA there's no reason to start off at a Kaiser IMO.

Otherwise the nursing culture in CA is not bad, it really depends on where you are working.

[KevinM Recruits]

Kasier has is ups and downs. First, it probably pays just a bit over average compared to all hospitals in the state. It also has nice clean facilites for the most part.

The down side, as has been mentioned here already, is there is a lot of floating.

Kasier would rather float an ICU nurse to SDU and maybe MS rather than bringing in an additional per diem nurse. This is a cost saving measure but also allows them to pay you just a bit over "average".

As far as how staff acts towards travellers its really doing to depend on your particular hospital.

[Cali]

Please read my response under the thread "Kaiser LA, San Jose, San Fran-who's been?" If you have additional/specific questions let me know. I just left Kaiser a short time ago.

[NYCRN82]

you guys are awesome, thx for the advice!

[meandragonbrett]

I wouldn't travel at Kaiser for all the money in the world.