Month-to-month flexibility, lower cost, and 20 minutes from St. Charles Medical Center. Here's what makes RV living the smarter choice for healthcare workers in Central Oregon.
If you're a travel nurse heading to an assignment in Redmond or Bend, Oregon, housing is probably the first thing you figured out — and one of the most frustrating. Short-term apartment leases don't align with 13-week contracts. Furnished housing through staffing agencies is often overpriced and underdelivers. Hotels are expensive and isolating after the first week. More and more travel nurses in Central Oregon are finding a better answer: their own RV at a monthly park 20 minutes from the hospital, on their terms, at a fraction of the cost.
Travel nursing comes with a lot of advantages — competitive pay, location flexibility, the chance to experience different healthcare systems and communities. Housing is rarely one of those advantages. The mismatch between the 13-week contract length and the standard 30- or 60-day minimum lease creates a persistent problem that most travel nurses end up solving imperfectly every single assignment.
Agency-provided housing solves the paperwork but often at inflated cost and with little control over where you end up or what condition the place is in. Finding your own furnished short-term rental in a market like Bend or Redmond — where housing is tight and expensive — means competing with long-term renters and paying a premium for the flexibility you need. And signing a 6-month lease to cover a 13-week assignment is money left on the table.
For nurses who already own an RV, or who are open to the lifestyle, full hook-up monthly RV sites solve most of this cleanly. For those who don't own an RV yet, the math often makes buying one — or renting one short-term — worth considering after a couple of assignments.
Here's a straightforward comparison for a typical 13-week assignment near Redmond, Oregon.
The difference — $3,600 to $5,600 over a 13-week assignment — is significant. For nurses using a housing stipend, keeping more of that stipend as tax-free income by housing yourself below the stipend amount is a strategy many travel nurses use to build savings aggressively during assignments. RV living can make that math work significantly better.
Tax note: We're not tax advisors, and travel nurse tax situations are complex. But many travel nurses work with a CPA familiar with travel healthcare to optimize their stipend structure. Housing yourself below your stipend amount is a common strategy — the lower your actual housing cost, the more of your stipend you keep. Consult a travel nurse tax specialist for your specific situation.
Copper Ridge RV Resort is located in Terrebonne on Crooked River Ranch, about 20 minutes from St. Charles Medical Center in Redmond via Hwy 97. It's a straightforward mostly-highway drive with no significant traffic issues — manageable for early morning or overnight shifts in either direction.
Summit Health clinics in Redmond are similarly close. For nurses working at St. Charles Bend, the drive is about 40 minutes south — farther but still workable depending on your shift schedule.
Commute tip: The Hwy 97 corridor between Terrebonne and Redmond is one of the smoother commutes in Central Oregon. No stoplights between the ranch entrance and the Redmond city limits. Early morning and evening shifts are the easiest — daytime has more tourist traffic in summer.
This is the core advantage that apartment hunting and agency housing can't fully replicate. At Copper Ridge, all sites are month-to-month. Your lease starts when you arrive and ends when your contract does. No penalties, no subletting headaches, no scrambling to fill a remaining lease month.
For travel nurses who extend contracts — which happens frequently in Central Oregon given how many healthcare workers enjoy the area — staying on at the park is as simple as continuing to pay month-to-month. For those whose contracts end and who want to move on, checkout is straightforward.
Several of our current and past residents have done multiple consecutive assignments at St. Charles Redmond specifically because the housing situation at Copper Ridge made life easy enough to stay. Central Oregon as a travel nurse destination is genuinely appealing — Smith Rock, outdoor recreation, a thriving food and brewery scene in Bend, and a community that's not so large it feels overwhelming.
Copper Ridge provides the site, utilities, and facilities — you bring your RV. If you already own one, you're set. If you're considering buying, a used travel trailer or fifth wheel in good condition is often available in the $15,000–$40,000 range and pays for itself in housing savings over two or three assignments. RV rental for a 13-week period is also an option through platforms like RVshare or Outdoorsy, though costs vary.
Pull in, connect water, sewer, and electric at the site, and you're home. Our on-site manager is available to help with any setup questions. Most nurses who've done RV living before have a routine that takes 30 minutes or less. First-timers typically have the basics sorted within an hour of arrival.
If you do any remote charting or telehealth work, you'll want a dedicated internet connection. Starlink works excellently at our location — speeds of 50–200 Mbps, no data caps. T-Mobile Home Internet is also solid here at lower cost. Cell signal is adequate for basic use but not reliable enough for video calls on its own without a booster.
Well-behaved, leashed pets are welcome at Copper Ridge. Many of our travel nurse residents bring dogs. We have a designated pet area at the back of the park. The surrounding area — canyon trails, Smith Rock, open high desert — is excellent for active dogs.
Call us to check site availability. We'll tell you what's open, walk you through the setup, and get you confirmed quickly. Month-to-month, $800/mo all utilities included, 20 minutes from St. Charles Redmond.
Call (541) 362-3333Central Oregon has a way of surprising travel nurses who arrive expecting a temporary stop. The combination of outdoor recreation — Smith Rock, the Cascades, the Deschutes River, Lake Billy Chinook — with a genuine small city in Bend and a calm, spacious high-desert setting turns a 13-week assignment into something a lot of people extend, repeat, or reference when talking about the best assignment they've done.
The travel nurse community at Copper Ridge has included people on their first assignment who extended twice, nurses who've done three separate contracts at St. Charles, and a few who eventually made Central Oregon their home base permanently. If you're looking for a destination assignment that delivers both professionally and in terms of quality of life, Redmond and Bend are worth knowing about.
Month-to-month RV sites 20 minutes from St. Charles Medical Center. $800/mo, all utilities included, pets welcome.
Call (541) 362-3333