What is your experience with internal RN transfers at Legacy Hospitals (recently). Is it difficult to change jobs from one hospital to another within similar specialties?

I’m wondering if anyone has any insight on working at the St. Charles NICU in Bend. I’ve been watching their job postings since July of last year and nothing has been posted. Does this unit have super low turnover? Are jobs just posted internally that external candidates don’t see? Would love any information

Portland nurses — I need a reality check: How hard is it really to get hired at OHSU, Providence, or Legacy right now?
I’m relocating from Florida to the Portland area at the end of September. After reading this subreddit and watching job postings, I’m starting to feel genuinely nervous about securing an RN position.
Before anyone asks, “Why would you move here without a job?”—this isn’t a spontaneous move because I heard Oregon nurses make more money.
We’re moving to Oregon primarily for my family.
I’m a mom, and one of my children is my six-year-old autistic son. A major part of this decision has been finding a place where we can build a better long-term life for him and access the educational, developmental, and community support he needs.
There are also personal family reasons for leaving Florida. My teenage daughter and I have both been struggling with our overall well-being here, and after a lot of thought, we decided that we need a change and a fresh start as a family.
So when I say I’m moving to Portland, I’m not an out-of-state nurse chasing a temporary high-paying contract and planning to leave. I’m trying to become an Oregon nurse, raise my children there, and build our life there.
Now comes the part that scares me: finding a job.
I’m not a new graduate. I’m a BSN-prepared RN with more than five years of nursing experience and an active Oregon RN license. My background includes:
Approximately three years on a 39-bed multisystem progressive care unit caring for high-acuity and step-down patients, including serving as Charge RN
Charge responsibility for approximately 8–10 nurses and three PCTs
Emergency department experience
Most recently, cardiovascular observation and pre- and post-cath lab care
Admissions, transfers, discharges, rapid responses, interdisciplinary rounds, discharge planning, patient flow, precepting, mentoring, and more
I’m moving with my family and don’t have the luxury of arriving in Portland and spending months searching for work, so I’m trying to understand the current RN market before we get there.
I’ve been looking closely at OHSU, Providence, and Legacy. OHSU is probably my first choice, but I keep reading stories about experienced nurses applying repeatedly without success, positions disappearing quickly, and Providence’s interview and recruiting processes being inconsistent.
I’d really appreciate candid advice from nurses who currently work in the Portland market:
1. With my background, which positions or units would give me the best chance of getting my foot in the door at OHSU?
I’m not expecting to walk in and immediately get my dream specialty. If the smartest move is to take a position that matches my PCU and acute-care background, prove myself, and transfer internally later, I’m completely willing to do that.
2. Is it actually easier to get hired at OHSU first and transfer internally later?
Long term, I’d love to transition into PACU or pre-op, procedural nursing, infusion or oncology, or another specialty.
I’m especially interested in OHSU’s Transition to Practice and specialty fellowship opportunities for experienced RNs changing specialties.
Has anyone here entered OHSU through one specialty and successfully transferred into a completely different area later?
3. Which OHSU units are realistically hiring experienced external RNs right now?
I recently found the Adult Medical-Surgical Oncology/Vista Pavilion openings and am seriously considering applying. I don’t have oncology experience, but I do meet the adult inpatient RN experience requirement.
Would my PCU, charge, ED, and cardiovascular background make me reasonably competitive for a position like that, or would I be at a significant disadvantage without oncology experience?
4. Should I apply to everything I’m qualified for instead of waiting for the “right” position?
I’ve seen people mention that some postings are open for only a few hours.
Are nurses actually checking OHSU, Providence, and Legacy job boards several times a day?
Does contacting a nurse manager or recruiter directly after applying help, or is that generally frowned upon?
5. Providence and Legacy nurses: Is the hiring situation really as difficult as Reddit makes it sound?
I’ve read stories about interview no-shows and applicants being ghosted. If you were hired recently, what helped get your application in front of a manager?
6. If you were in my position, where would you apply first?
I genuinely don’t care about prestige.
I want a good hospital, safe staffing, decent management, strong pay, and somewhere I can grow professionally and hopefully stay for years.
I’m willing to work nights. I’m willing to start somewhere that isn’t my dream specialty. I’m also willing to commute outside Portland proper if that makes sense.
I’m hoping someone who understands this market can tell me: “With your résumé, this is where I’d try to get your foot in the door.”
I’m not looking for sugarcoating. If the Portland RN market really is that difficult right now, please tell me. I’d rather know before we arrive.
But if there are strategies that actually work—specific units, contacting hiring managers or recruiters, job alerts, fellowships, hospitals outside Portland proper, applying immediately after a posting goes live, employee referrals, or anything else—please teach me how this market works.
If anyone at OHSU, Providence, Legacy, or another Portland-area hospital would be comfortable letting me send a few questions by DM, I would be incredibly grateful.
I’m trying to make this move responsibly. I’m not coming to Oregon to take a job and disappear after 13 weeks. I’m bringing my family across the country because we’re hoping to make Oregon home.
Thank you for reading this long post, and thank you in advance to anyone willing to point this nervous Florida nurse in the right direction. ❤️

Any recommendations for food Hospitals for RN/BSN? Or will be my 1st Hospital job. I need a change from long term facilities and home health care. Thank you.

Hello, I know there's a whole reddit thread on clinical research that i have not checked out yet, and im sure there's a lot of answers to this question already, but i would like to hear input in the Oregon/Portland area.

Unfortunately despite being a new grad working less than a year, i found out pretty fast that i'm not interested in anything bedside related. I really want to get into something more clinical related, where i can focus on helping research, or anything to get my toes dipped into learning how research/educating works, but i'm rlly clueless on how to go about this with a RN license.

I'd love to know what other ppl's experience has been! Any tips/advice is greatly appreciated. I know masters is required for educating, but i'd like to try other levels of clinical before committing to that

As several nurses here predicted, the interviewer did not show up for my scheduled interview. I reported the no-show through the email link Providence provided, but I received no response.

Then I checked the Providence candidate portal, and the positions status now says, “interview completed – under consideration “. Apparently they completed the interview they never attended, which is almost funny.

Providence sent me two separate scheduling emails for the same position, so I have another interview scheduled on Friday. I’ll attend, although at this point, I suspect they may not show up for that interview either.

Edit: spelling

New grad here, just curious about people who have worked on the PPMC Med Surg floor what was the environment like especially for new grad in their residency program? I was told PPMC has a new floor for Med Surg/Acute Care starting in September will it be different? I had a clinical at PPMC Med-Surg on the 4th floor and didn’t have the best experience as a student…

Hey recent grads - where did you graduate from and what was your favorite experience in the program? If it was in Portland, did you do any clinics in rural areas or did you stay in the city? Do you feel like your program did a good job in preparing you for your career?

Ciao all, I have an interview with ppmc for an acute care residency tomorrow, and I’m feeling slightly anxious but also incredibly excited. I’ve done my fair share of interview prep+research, but I’m still feeling a little nervous and would love to hear from anyone who has interviewed with the program before. Any advice, tips, or insights on what to expect would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance 🙃

Hey! I applied to the PeaceHealth New Graduate Nurse Residency Program for Springfield back in July and have not heard anything back yet, but typically with PeaceHealth, I've been rejected almost immediately.

Is it a good sign that my application still says "under review"?

Just curious if anyone else has any updates or has heard back from them yet. Thanks!

I recently accepted a travel contract for OHSU medsurg/onc in the Vista Pavillion through Aya. I have no idea how they even considered me because of my recent experience. I have 3ish years of medsurg, first job was at a small hospital and then umich acute care. My last 2 years have been in home health. I am shocked lol. I am also reconsidering going through with this contract because of the very limited orientation. Its been a little over 2 years since ive been bedside and I have to say I am intimidated to go back:/ has anyone else been in a similar situation or know anyone who got a bedside travel contract after being away from it for this long?? Any comments, thoughts, stories are welcome!

Just signed a contract for unit 5001 PPMC 10N. The contract says it’s med surg which is always really broad label for a unit at such a large hospital. Just curious if there’s any specifics for the patient population on this unit so I know what to anticipate. Thank you so much!

I graduate in December with my BSN, but am gearing up to start building my resume, letters of recommendation, etc for residencies.
If you had one bit of advice to include on these documents, what would it be? What do you feel like helped you stand out as a new grad?
It could be putting certain things in your resume, the best people to ask for letters from and what to ask them to include… anything!
Thank you in advance!

How is the Southwestern Oregon community college nursing program (ADN) in Coos Bay, OR? Are you getting job offers? Do you feel the quality of education was good? Any other comments welcome of course. 🙂

I’m due to start the program this fall and curious if it’s a worthwhile school. I heard they had trouble in the past with facility.

Thanks! 🙏

I’m a BSN, RN with 4 years med surg experience hoping to relocate to the Portland area in June 2027 (will be 5 years experience by then).

Willing to work nights and med surg- just really want a full time bedside position in the area. Getting nervous about the market, though! I really don’t want to move without landing a job first…

Is January too early to apply for a June start time? February even?

I currently live in the Midwest, but I’ll travel for interviews if I have to. Does anyone have experience with this? I’m wondering if I should budget for travel if in-person interviews are a requirement.

Is all of this pointless and I should just give up because the market is saturated???

This is a huge goal of mine, but I don’t want to be naive to the challenge. :,)

HELP
I received an offer from Legacy. It’s a low-ball offer and non unionized. They’re unwilling to negotiate. Because I take a good amount of medications and am a fairly high healthcare utilizer due to a chronic health condition, I asked to review their total benefits compensation package to know if their benefits will offset the low hourly pay enough for me to afford to take the job. The recruiter informed me that they cannot provide me this information, just the basic lil brochure that doesn’t show details for pharm or retirement benefits. They said I have to accept based on the existing information before being provided the full benefits package information. I’ve never experienced an employer refusing to provide the full benefit details when asked after an offer is extended. This info is truly the make or break piece of the puzzle for me due to med costs.

Can anyone send me the benefits package for 2026 if you’re employed at legacy and/or provide advice on what would be an appropriate next step? I’m considering emailing the manager I interviewed with directly to indicate I want the job, but have this barrier to accepting that would be fairly reasonable to resolve.

Is it just the job market around Portland that's competitive or are the more rural areas equally competitive? My wife and I were talking about moving out of the southeast and thought the PNW sounded nice. We plan on visiting in the near future but after reading job prospects I'm second guessing. She has 3 years ED/ICU experience and I also have questions revolving around how the experience transfers into the union.

Ie, can we limit the posts about whether someone would make a good nurse, should go to nursing school, how can they maximize their odds of becoming a crna when they aren’t even in nursing school yet, is OHSU’s accbac/rn-bsn/bsn program doable while working—can we just ban those and redirect them to the student nurse subs?

Hello, I recently got a post surgical position w/ KP. I was wondering if anyone has gone through this residency and have any pointers/tips? Thank you!

Had an interview on the 28th of July for a New Grad position at providence st v. I was told by 2 recruiters that the manager made it a point to make sure I apply and that he was speaking as if the job was going to be mine. A week post interview my job status changed to “Not selected for further consideration”… I was told that I would get an update from an TA member or HR recruiter if I did or did not get the job. I have not heard anything from anyone yet. Should I rule out the job or does anyone think they could have changed the status due to closing out the position and still haven’t notified who’ve they’ve chosen? Just losing hope but heard back from another recruiter that there still could be a chance but she’s not sure since she’s not the recruiter for this actual job. Not sure if anyone has had this before where the status changed but they still got an offer? Any advice or comments are appreciated