Traveling to Kaiser in Sacramento

[Kiwhipple RN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Hello! I am doing my first travel nurse assignment through American Mobile and am going to Sacramento, CA where I am from. I will be working at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in the Telemetry unit. I was wondering if anyone has any advice on what I should do for health insurance? I am not sure if I will for sure stay with the same travel agency on my next assignment but just want to have options. I was also wondering if Kaiser’s nurses place IV’s themselves? I am coming from Mayo Clinic where we do not place our own IV’s or place our own Foley catheters. Also, do the nurses where navy blue scrubs? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

[Swellz]

Can't speak to working with Kaiser, but I changed travel companies with every contract, so I understand the insurance concern. I started out changing insurance with every contract (and crossing my fingers if I lapsed in between, figuring I'd buy Cobra retroactively if I needed to). The option that worked best for my husband and I was buying short term health insurance. It's essentially bare bones coverage for cheap - no primary care or pharmacy, but covers hospital stays after a deductible. It was cheap and as I am generally healthy and don't need frequent MD visits or lab draws or meds, it worked for us. I didn't need to worry about changing when I changed companies, but there were timeframe limitations from the ACA, so I had to re-purchase it every 3 months or so. I never needed it more than 6 months at a time though, as my circumstances changed. I think you can get short term dental as well, but I never bought it.

[jerseycitygirlem]

hi there! how was your mayo PCU experience? I saw your older posts. I am supposed to start in February and feel like I should do it but it is lower pay that cali or nyc (I live in jersey city). was it worth it for a year?