VI RN's

You will be here for a long time so will have time to see everything. Be sure to go to beaches in St. John, they are beautiful. If you like to hike, hike the reef bay trail. On St. Thomas all the beaches are great, Magens, Secret Harbor, Sapphire, Coki Point. Just get out there and visit everything.

I am not a nurse. The travel nurses have a bit of an image problem with the locals because they get paid more money, car allowance, housing, etc. You might want to be careful in not mentioning those areas of your contract and concentrate on the work aspect. For example, I heard 2 young travelers complaining about how much they had been partying while they were here, how tired they were, how drunk they were yesterday, etc. Not a great PR job...Ask recommendations of the local nurses and be courteous. People at the hospital will be quite open with their advice!!! Good luck!

Debra, you will be living here so you will be able to see a lot of things... beach hop on days off, take island drives so you see the island and its different neighborhoods, island hop to St. John as Donna suggested, maybe St. Croix if you have a long weekend or take the ferry for the day. You can visit the BVI islands easily also. Take in some culture by attending maybe the Christmas steel pan shows or Christmas concerts - the university often holds these as well as others... you will leave before Carnival although St. Croix's carnival will be happening in Dec-Jan while you are on St. Thomas.

Definately heed East Ender's warning... it can be a miserale work environment if co-workers don't get along; people will be receptive and willing to befriend you and help with suggestions on things to do... but the point made is a sour one so try to avoid it.

All the best - and please do come back and post your opinions on your experience nursing in the VI quite a few people ask about it and your experience will help others.

--Islander

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my message. You're right...I'll be there for a while and hopefully will be able to take advantage of seeing the area. It sounds beautiful and I'm anxious to get going on planning my trip. Thanks, again, Donna!

My knowledge is not only limited to the islands but how this message board works, as well. I now see that I can respond with one message and know it will be visible to all. Thanks for your patience. Also, I'm grateful for the heads up and the tips you all have provided. I can see how young travelers might get a bad rap for themselves. My focus is not on partying, however. My partying days are well behind me, thank goodness. Priorities definitely change when you get older. I'm going there to work and hopefully will get out and experience the culture of the islands while I'm there. I'll definitely heed your warning and take advantage of the local nurses recommendations. Sounds like good advise. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and making some new friends while I'm there. It really doesn't matter whether they're nurses or not, though. Just good, decent people that share some of the same interests that I have would be nice. Sounds like there's plenty of things for me to do and see while I'm there and I'm really excited about my decision to make the move. And thanks, again...I appreciate you all taking the time to respond to my inquiry and for sharing your ideas with me. I'll let you know how it turns out once I get there...Wish me luck!!