On Assignment: Travel Nursing in Oakland

Welcome to On Assignment, a new ScrubHood series where we hand the mic to real travel nurses and let them talk about what a contract actually looked like, day to day, on the ground, no filter. First up: Tiffany, who took two separate pediatric ER contracts at Children's of Oakland, adding up to about six months in the Bay Area.

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What was the assignment, and what pulled you to Oakland in the first place?

I worked at Children's of Oakland in the pediatric ER, and I worked there two separate times for a total of about six months. It was my first time in the Bay Area. The lure to the area was that there was actually a pediatric job available that was paying decently.

Where did you live, what did it cost, and how hard was it to find?

I ended up finding housing on Furnished Finders and on Airbnb. Both times, I chose it due to the fact that they were accepting dogs, and finding housing for a larger dog was pretty difficult. I stayed right outside downtown Oakland, and in a neighborhood near Berkeley. The first place cost $3,000 a month, which was a bit high, but it was the entire house, a duplex. The other place was $2,200 a month for a bedroom and a shared bathroom between three people, plus a shared common space. I liked the areas. There was a lot of diversity, and I could walk to a lot of places and catch BART.

How was getting around: commute, car, parking, cost of living?

Most places I needed to get to regularly only took me about ten minutes. I had a car and did try to drive during off peak times. Getting around Oakland wasn't too awful, but I avoided driving into San Francisco in the morning, not a great idea. Parking is kind of hard at times, and you definitely have to watch out for the street sweeper times so you don't get a ticket. I don't think the cost of living was too outrageous. The gas was a little higher, but it wasn't that big of a deal because I didn't drive very far to work, and a lot of times when I went into the city, I'd take BART.

What did a day off actually look like, and where did you go to decompress?

It kind of depended on how the night shift had gone. A lot of times I worked night shift, so I slept late into the day, and then we'd go out for dinner or drinks. I also lived with another travel nurse, so we ended up doing a lot of things together. We'd go into San Francisco at night and just walk around and find new things. We also really liked going on hikes around the area.

After a rough shift, I really liked to go to Muir Woods. It was kind of a drive, but it was nice in the morning because there weren't a lot of people there. It was just very quiet and serene, and you could kind of think about the day. That's probably the place that became mine. That's where I went pretty regularly. For the everyday stuff, I went to Trader Joe's a lot, and there was a place called Berkeley Bowl. There was also a Target pretty nearby.

Did you make friends locally, and how?

Yes. Mainly from work, but at one of the Airbnbs, two of the people living there were locals, so I met them and in turn met some of their friends.

If you had to sum up your time in Oakland, just one moment or experience that captures what it was like, what's the story?

A group of us travel nurses went to this local pizza place and got all dressed up for "Palentine's Day," since all of us were single. We just went to that pizza place and had wine and pizza, and then we kind of walked around downtown Oakland and took the sights in, and the people.

What did you do with the real time off, the trips that felt like actual travel?

We went to Tahoe a few times, and to Yosemite for a couple of days. Sometimes I'd just hear about a place at work and drive down there and stay the night. Tahoe and Yosemite are definitely worth it. Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge stands out in my mind for the Bay Area.

If another nurse had exactly one free weekend during an Oakland contract, I'd tell them to go up north, try to go to Sausalito and to Muir Woods, and then up to the Redwood Forest. There's an area up there called Santa Rosa, where the Russian River Brewery is, and the town is really cute.

Oakland has a reputation. How did it actually feel, day to day and at night?

My first day I was very scared because my house had bars on it, but I quickly learned that's just kind of how it is there. Once I settled in, I felt just fine. Actually, I felt like it was pretty safe compared to any other place that I had lived. Honestly, where I live now, I feel more nervous about going outside at night by myself than I ever did in Oakland.

What surprised you most, and what was harder than you thought it'd be?

I didn't expect to fall in love with it. I actually ended up loving living there, because you could go into the city, you could go to Tahoe, you could go down the coast and go to Carmel. There was just a lot of things you could do nearby. The harder part was working night shift, honestly, since I wasn't used to it.

Would you take another Oakland contract, and what's the one thing you'd tell a friend before they signed?

I would keep the setup. If I could do day shift, it would be better. And I would say definitely look at the housing opportunities before you take an assignment, because they can be a little difficult to find sometimes at a reasonable cost. I would just say that it was a very positive experience that I was not expecting.

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On Assignment is an ongoing ScrubHood series featuring real travel nurses talking about their contracts in their own words. Know a nurse with a story worth spotlighting? Interviews are lightly edited for length and clarity; quotes are reviewed by the nurse before publication.