I am a nurse with a few opportunities to work in central california... I know the east coast of the USA very well though most nursing positions are in california at the moment How is Bakersfield? I can see it has a low crime rate, but what is the general flavour there? Thanks so much chantel x

isn't it a bit like Fresno?

Sorry

Im sorry do you know I had my heart set on NY and went to see some hospitals that the agency has contracts with in NJ and they were horrid so where is nice in California you see I cant go visit everywhere... very difficult thanks for your time xx

Chantel:

Do take time out to look up posts made by 'Rockgurl'; she is a nurse and was brought in to the US by an agency but broke her contract as she was unhappy with the terms and conditions. She has listed extensively her experience of going through the process of applying and moving to the US. She initially hoped to be posted to Connecticut - where her 'wife' lives - but was sent to Arizona! She is now happily living in CT but had to break her contract to do so. (Just go to the members list, look up her name and you can find previous posts by Rockgurl).

I should imagine that any job in the medical/teaching fields being offered to 'aliens' are going to be in grotty locations....after all the plum jobs would most likely be taken up by US citizens themselves!

another poster to look up is honeymommy...she just moved back to blighty from CA...

Thanks for your reply, but how can i look for particular Members

go to 'forum home' then scroll right down to the bottom and it will say 'members list' click on that then you're away, an easier way may be to send her a private message, she's very nice and I'm sure she wouldn't mind, to do that go to 'my profile' and then down the side select 'send new message'..

btw, I live in LA and have driven through bakersfield on the way to san francisco, lets just say its a bit 'rural', haven't been here long enough to tell you about anywhere else in california but I hope you find what you're looking for.

easiest way, top right, the search link, chose advanced search, and then put the user name in the user search box...
because you'll have loads to wade through if you go alphabetically through the members list...

thanks bob I didn't know you could do that either..

Do you have any offers for Sacramento? Now, not having been to either Fresno or Bakersfield, I cannot tell you whether it's better or worse or a bit of the same (it probably isn't any cooler ). However, it is the capital of CA and there are some parts that are really very nice.

Also, Sacramento is close to many nice places. Actually, being close to nice places that are not Sacramento is probably one of its chief attractions About an hour and a half to San Francisco, an hour to the Napa valley , an hour and a half to Lake Tahoe and the Sierras (why is there no skiing symbol on this site?), plus lots of places to go whitewater rafting (or just canooing if your chicken...).

There are several big hospitals: UC Davis Medical Center (has a big children's hospital, if that's what you're looking for, also a cancer center), as well as Sutter's, and there's probably a Kaiser Permanente as well.

HTH!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm pretty sure your mixed marriage wouldn't raise any eyebrows in Sacramento!

Are you purposely looking for the worst places to live or what?

Try Orange County. They've got a fantastic children's hospital (CHOC) and its a lot nicer than the other two places you've enquired about!

Guy from my work is from there, tells me it is more of an agricultural life down there but never been myself.

I think the best hospitals are University Teaching Hospitals, eg UCSF (http://www.ucsfhealth.org) in San Francisco (my workplace), UCSD (http://health.ucsd.edu/default.htm) in San Diego, Stanford hospital (http://www.stanfordhospital.com/) . Alternatively try one of the Kaiser hospitals (http://www.kaiser.com). I personally would avoid all community hospitals, any of the County General hospitals, any of the smaller cities (Fresno, Bakersfield etc) and Los Angeles! San Diego is very nice as is San Francisco. Alternatively Lake Tahoe has hospitals that are always advertising.

The pace of work in a Uni teaching hospital is slower than that of a large private hospital, say like Cedars-Sinai (http://www.csmc.edu) (my last workplace) which makes for a far easier working day.

Sorry the correct URL is http://www.kaiserpermanente.org/