The Nursing Student's Guide to San Diego Education and Careers

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By C.J. Gustafson, Nursing Schools.com Contributing Writer

The city of San Diego lies in the southwest corner of California, 120 miles (193 km) south of the city of Los Angeles and 20 miles (32 km) north of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo is thought to be the first European to visit the area. In September of 1542, he landed in what is now San Diego Bay and claimed the area for Spain. He named the site San Miguel, in honor of St. Michael the ArchAngel, but subsequently Sebastian Vizcaino arrived in the bay in November of 1602 and renamed it San Diego for San Diego de Alcala (St. Didicus).

San Diego, California The San Diego area remained largely unoccupied by Europeans until 1769 when Father Junipero Serra established the Mission San Diego de Alcala, one of four missions existing in the San Diego area today and a primary link in his chain of 21 missions that later extended to Northern California.

Rapid Growth & Expansion
In 1774, the area's first colonists arrived from a mission in Baja California. Another major group arrived in 1777. By the end of 1830, the area had a population of approximately 600 residents. In 1826, Jedediah Smith opened an overland route to San Diego from the Salt Lake Valley, and many more settlers soon followed. San Diego was incorporated as a city in 1850, and fueled by gold fever and the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad, the population had exploded to over 35,000 residents by 1887.

In the early 1900s, the U.S. military began stationing troops in San Diego, and increased the numbers as World War I began. This military presence grew over the years, spurred on by World War II and emerging defense-related industries, and soon became one of the most definitive aspects of San Diego's culture until defense spending cuts in recent decades scaled back some military operations.

Big City Life
Today, San Diego is California's second largest city and the seventh largest in the United States, with a population of well over one million residents and nearly two million in the surrounding metropolitan area that makes up much of San Diego County. The area includes dozens of smaller cities such as Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, Encinitas, Escondido, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, National City, Oceanside, San Marcos, Santee, and Solana Beach.

San Diego has a diverse environment, with 70 miles of beaches, lush areas with thick foliage, rugged mountain regions, and nearby desert. This diversity combined with a comfortable climate year-round allows for nearly every type of outdoor recreation including surfing, boating, fishing, hiking, camping, biking, climbing, off-roading and much more.

In addition, the area is known for its many family tourist attractions, including SeaWorld San Diego and Balboa Park, the "largest urban cultural park in the U.S.," which features gardens, art galleries, 15 museums, the Tony Award-winning The Globe Theatres, and the world-famous San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

Military & Medical Contribute To The Economy
The area still has a large military population, with approximately one-fifth of the entire U.S. Navy and Marine Corps fleet stationed within San Diego County. As this would indicate, military and defense industries are still an important part of the city's economy despite cuts in spending in the past decades.

However, as the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce explains, other industries are coming to the forefront. "In the years following the first declines in defense-related income, some industries in San Diego have remained stable with steady growth, while others, such as high technology, medical technology, and business services have come onto the forefront as major areas of potential economic growth."

San Diego has the third-largest concentration of biotech companies of all U.S. metropolitan areas, with nearly 500 companies collectively providing more than 32,000 biotech jobs. In addition the area is home to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, founded by Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine in 1955. Advances in health care and medicine continue to come from the Salk Institute, as well as the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation, the University of California San Diego, and Scripps Clinic.

San Diego, California Large Hospitals & Health Care Systems
University of California San Diego Medical Center is one of the area's largest employers, offering nursing students both training and employment opportunities. In addition to research facilities, Scripps also operates several hospitals in the San Diego area including Scripps Mercy Hospital, the largest in San Diego with 700 beds and over 3,000 employees.

Sharp HealthCare is another large medical system located in San Diego. They offer four acute-care hospitals, three specialty hospitals and three medical groups, a health plan and a full range of facilities and services. Altogether Sharp operates 1,847 beds and has more than 11,000 employees.

Kaiser Permanente, a nonprofit health plan with headquarters in Oakland, California, is touted as the largest HMO in the country. They operate several facilities in the San Diego area including Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center/Kaiser Foundation Hospital.

Other large hospitals in the area include the San Diego Naval Medical Center, and Children's Hospital and Health Care, which is the only designated pediatric trauma center in the region. There are many more hospitals as well as hundreds of clinics and other health care facilities that contribute to an outstanding job market for nurses and other health care professionals.

Many Schools To Choose From
Living in a big city also provides many choices when it comes to training and education. The San Diego area has over forty universities and colleges, many of which offer training in nursing and related fields. Three of the most well-known include San Diego State University's School of Nursing, University of San Diego's School of Nursing, and San Diego City College's Department of Nursing.

Students at these and other San Diego schools can study a wide variety of different nursing specialties including Critical Care Nursing, Forensic Nursing, Hospice Care Nursing, Midwifery, and Nursing Informatics. They can train to become a Nurse Practitioner, Registered Nurse (RN), or Legal Nurse. They can pursue a career as a researcher, health care administrator, or other related profession.

If one were to sum up the San Diego area in just a few phrases, they might be big city, great climate, nice beaches, large military population, and choices, choices, choices. If these characteristics are what you're looking for in a community, then San Diego may be the perfect place to pursue your career in nursing or a related field.

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