[lucy7979]

Hi, I'm new to travel nursing and am interested in traveling to the bay area Oakland, San Jose or San Fracisco area to work in an ICU in a trauma facility.
Does anyone know any good companies that contract up there or maybe facilities that you had a great experience at? any info would be greatly appreciated!

[maggiedanurse]

most companies come to the bay area. i suggest you review the travel company reviews on ultimate nurse and see which company is best for you. the reviews are from nurses not the companies rating themselves as another travel nurse website has. two highly rated companies on this site are rnnetwork and hrn. both companies have a very strong presence in the san francisco/bay area. san fran at present is the highest paying place for nurses. there are many level one trauma centers out here cuz most facilities are affliated with schools. i am at ucsf as a traveler. it is one of the top ten hospitals in the country and two (tied with harvard) for medical research and biomedical advancements. they do cancel travelers and get patients from san quentin also. so if those factors aren't what you are looking for you might want to stay away from ucsf. i work per diem at two different hospitals one in the tenderloin district and the other in haight ashbury. that's where i make my money.

[moonkitty1224]

Firstly, the key to not getting cancelled is only taking assignments that have guaranteed hours. Secondly, the big companies like RNNetwork (who i'm with again) are nice because you get great housing and they often hold the big contracts with the big hospitals (some hospitals limit who they deal with). But once I was out in CA, i took on assignments in the Bay area with STAT nursing which is on van ness avenue in SF. i'm not sure if i can post their website on here, so you can email me if you want it. but the recruiter i had was mark beal, very very thorough, on top of everything quickly. they even gave me an advance in pay when i wanted to switch from housing to subsidy to secure an apartment. My assignment was in Oakland, Alta Bates Summit facility which was fine. I did prn work at Marin General in Marin county which was absolutely a posh hospital. I wouldve done UCSF but i didnt want to do nights. Out of all companies, Ive stayed with RNN the most/longest. Good luck! and have fun!