Rainier is a gut punch. The Olympics have that Elrond’s last house quality. And the mist!

Ya it’s gorgeous. This is why housing costs so much. Everyone wants to bask in it.

Exactly. A tablet is a disposable income extra.

This looks like there’s a lot of noise aside from actual roads. Also, what happened to Long Beach peninsula?

My lights are just on whenever I drive. Key, lights, go. Why not? Less divided attention while driving which is already a divided attention task.

Seriously though. This is only one tiny piece of the problem with the I5 from Tacoma to Vancouver. That shit has some scary assholes weaving their lane worse than a Wisconsin drunk. Watched one tailgating in the left lane recently, weaving hard over the line, onto the shoulder, and back again.

Or the fuckers who try to pace you as their lead car while they read their phones clutched in both hands on the drivers wheel.

You’re right, it’s dumb, but that doesn’t mean dumb shits didn’t try it. A dude showed up at a pizza place, armed, looking for a nonexistent basement full of trafficked kids, for starters.

For whatever reason it seems better between Longview and Vancouver. Longview to Tacoma, or Gig Harbor, or Seattle, holy fuck. I'm amazed any of us leave that zone alive. And I've driven in Chicago, occasionally during rush hour.

Jesus Christ, the I5 between Gig Harbor and Longview already has an inexplicably large amount of accidents.

People appear to brighten up a bit between Longview and Vancouver but still.

Practice more?

I would quit the morning after they gave me 7-8. I can travel to OR and do 5. Or do a Midwest PCU I like, that likes me back, with 4.

7-8 isn’t safe.

Part of the issue is working conditions. Violence. Hospitals really should do weapons screenings at the door. Few if any want to. It will take a state mandate.

Ratios. Oregon is golden. California is golden. Washington is flailing.

The language needs to be stated correctly. There isn’t a nursing shortage. There’s a shortage of nurses willing to work bedside.

Sure, OR takes 9-10% in state income tax. But I’ll happily pay it on those contracts for the better, safer working conditions.

The other issue is many contracts pay less than staff so there’s no reason to go. Especially out here. Stipends for Seattle Metro / west side if the sound do NOT cover rentals and the taxed pay isn’t worth it.

Travelers get health insurance. 401k is payed by the agency.

Mandate ratios. The state doesn’t run the hospital. They pass a regulation that says nurses can’t have more than x patients, now go figure out how to do that.

FFS. They had the fucking answer and they fucking tabled and killed it in the fucking state senate.

Two things will draw in nurses and make WA a nursing Mecca.

1. Pass HB1868 and the nurses will simply materialize. There is no nursing shortage, especially here, with all of the many nursing schools churning out grads each year.

What there is, is a shortage of nurses willing to work bedside. New grads who nope right out fairly quickly thinking they made a mistake. Vets going on hiatus or traveling. Retiring early. Taking that desk job. Working in insurance. Etc.

2. Zero LEGAL tolerance for violence or sexually inappropriate behavior toward health care workers. Hospitals will never do this. Never. It might upset patients and family. Also, the current state of pressing charges means your home address will be on the report. The aggressor gets a copy. Encourages everyone to press charges, amiright? (I’m not talking about TBIs and Alzheimer’s, I’m talking patients and family who are of sound mind but choose to be assholes).

You politically savvy folks could get some ballot measures going that could fix this shit right up. Clearly our present lawmakers aren’t doing shit. Maybe playing cards with the clueless senator who thinks that is what we do all day.

Does anyone, really? Let’s hope she keeps her height.

Weird. Every contract I’ve taken there has had a great set up, and I only see it when they’re hiring travelers. Mileage varies by hospital ofc. Granted, I work the floor, not ED. ED is very separate from the rest of the hospital, they even have their own charting which the rest of us can’t usually access (for data entry).

And HB1868 would’ve blown away Oregon staffing numbers, even adding CNA ratios. WA senate caved to the hospital lobby and killed it. I believe it would’ve given ED RNs 3? or less, but I’d have to look it up again.

Good ratios attract staff who can (have and will) choose to stop working bedside when ratios suck. And yet here we are with a dead bill.

Hospital administration spent decades creating this beast. Now everyone is reaping what they sowed.

Honestly, if you d

Washington is a borderline shitshow. The rest of the west coast is locked down into solidly safe care but WA is flailing.

We NEED HB1868 resurrected. House passed it. Senate killed it.

I say this as an actively working bedside nurse. One who travels. One who says fuck no to WA contracts now. Create the staffing/patient safety (they’re one and the same) and the nurses will follow.

Even the WSNA isn’t making it happen. They’re trying, but failing.

Hospitals will never make it happen on their own. We need legislation to fix this shit.