Hello, Floridians! :>) Questions, if you're willing...?

[NICU_Nurse]

Hey, all! I hate to be typing the same ole', same ole' here, but I have some questions and would LOVE YOU FOREVER if you could take the time to answer them!

My family lives in Florida and they are encouraging us big-time to move down there. This is sort of a now-or-never situation; it's either going to be happening or we're staying put, period. Naturally, I'm a bit anxious about this, especially considering I just started a new job, but I'm having a serious emotional breakdown here! I miss my family to bits but I love it here and have never lived anywhere else.

In the spirit of adventure, I've agreed to discuss this realistically with my husband so we can decide one way or the other.

Okay, ready for details yet?

First of all, I've been a nurse for two years in the NICU. I'd like to stay within this unit if possible, but would consider other units if and only if I had no other choices.

We're looking at three larger cities: Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa. I have driven through all three and seen bits of them on vacations, but never really experienced these cities in a real way, and time does not allow us to go down and leisurely take a peek at them. We're having to depend on word of mouth and internet info/brochures from the Chamber of Commerces, etc. to make our decision.

We're looking at moving either in or near (within, say, a forty minute commute in high traffic) to a larger city so that not only will there likely be more hospitals, but my husband will have more of an opportunity for employment (he's flexible, so this decision really resides on me finding a job in a good hospital with a decent rate of pay).

I would be interested in hearing WHATEVER you have to say about these cities, good or bad, or whatever cities are nearby that you might know of. I can't afford luxury housing or anything, so we're looking in the range of a small rental home or apartment for somewhere in the neighborhood of $600/mo (don't even know if this is possible; let me know!).

Here are the questions:

1) What is the NICU situation? I have found some hospitals with Level III NICU's (Wolfson in Jacksonville, Arnold Palmer and what's the other one...? Orlando Regional? Florida Hospital? Can't remember off the top of my head...in Orlando. All Children's in Tampa.) that seem to be quite large and are, I'm assuming, considered regional facilities that transport in a large number of their patients. Are there others that you know of? I know that not all of you are pedi/infant nurses, but anything you know of would be helpful. I'm doing this blind!

2) Working night shift NICU in a regional NICU here I'm making 23 dollars/hr including base pay and night diff. What are your night diffs like? Anyone know anything about the payscales in the hospitals I mentioned above? I know that I'll be making less, and I understand that the cost of living is lower in many areas of Florida than where I'm currently living. I'm just wondering how much less! Are we talking a dip below 20/hr? Answer this if you can, don't worry about it if you can't. I'm sure I'll find out when I get in touch with the recruiters! I'm not interested in contracts or relocation assistance; I want to be free to move if it sucks.

3) What are these cities like? My mother was suggesting smaller towns, like...I may get this wrong, so don't laugh...Plant City if we're moving to Tampa? Places like that. Sort of out of the city but within commuting distance, places where we can get a better quality of life. I've lived in the city all of my life and need some open space and clean air. My husband, on the other hand, is a surfer, born and raised in Cali. He's craving a city within driving distance to some really beautiful beaches, and we'd both like places that have places nearby that aren't suburbanized to hell (I'd like to live outside of Old Navy Town, if that makes any sense! Keep your Starbucks and give me an open sky any day of the week. There's so much concrete here it makes me physically ill!). I am more than willing to commute, as I said, for culture and entertainment, as well as work.

I was down in Deland/Daytona Beach in December, and when we stopped and asked for directions, the girl at the counter kept saying over and over, "Why would you want to go to Jacksonville? It's HUGE! It's so BIG!" like it was Manhattan or something. Now, I've seen moderately sized cities; I grew up in a town of about 2 million+ for the entire metro area. My town was smaller than Atlanta, which, to me, was so big it scared me to drive through it!!! I've heard the same thing about Orlando. Everybody says, "Don't move there! The traffic will make you weep! It's big and gross! The highway caves in and your car will drop into a sinkhole!" etc. etc.

Can someone PUH-LEEEEEEZE give me some real info here?

I know that everyone's busy and all; please take your time in answering. I have read every single post on here, and have taken all things that I possibly could that have been said into consideration, but not many people are talking about these areas (aside from Tampa, in another discussion).

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really, really appreciate it!

:kiss

[JenNJFLCA]

Pasco County is nice, but if you work downtown (at Tampa General for instance) that's a long commute (longer than 40 mins) during rush hour. Plant City is very country, but there are plenty of open skies there too. They're doing some major construction on the 275/4 merger (aka Malfunction Junction) so that can be a sticky commute. I live in a small apartment in South Tampa (the most expensive part of town) but I don't pay much and I also go the opposite way of traffic in the morning, so I love it. West Tampa and New Tampa are big traffic nightmares, so I don't recommend that!

I am a nursing student, so I can't tell you anything about jobs, but I hope I was of some help!

[NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN]

Thank you, all of you! I'm still confused, but that's normal for me.

[kmrmom42]

Originally posted by rmprn

I live in Central Florida, northeast of Orlando. I work Per Diem at a small community hospital

RMPRN,

I am interested in hearing more about where you work and live if you don't mind. The reason I ask is that I am moving to DeLand in November and in all probability will be working at Florida Hospital-DeLand on the OB unit. Any info you can share would be greatly appreciated! I am renting an apartment for 7 months and while I am renting I will be trying to decide if I want to stay in DeLand or move elsewhere. Once I decide where I want to go I plan to buy either a condo or a house. I am older, divorced, my kids are grown and I am looking for a lifestyle change.

I have a cousin in Ocala, one in Casselbury and a brother in Lakeland.

I can't wait to get down there!

Karen

[bonjovigirl]

I used to live in Hernando county. About 40 miles northish of Tampa. My parents are bugging me to go back as well. They put in a new highway recently, and when I went home to visit it took about 40 minutes to get to Tampa, but the commute might be worth it because the cost of living in Hernando is very nice, getting more expensive ( I hear) but still great. I do believe you'd want to work in tampa. Very quiet area, I hear from my friends that its getting a little more "youngish". my Best friend bought a 3 bedroom 2 bath house with an inground pool for around $90,000.

Tampa is a great city, alot to do. Near the beaches, I do agree with the above poster though that was praising St. Petersburg. If I ever moved back I'd wanna live down there.

[JUSTYSMOM]

I am not a nurse yet. However, a good friend of mine became an R.N. a year and a half ago.

We both live in Broward County (Ft Lauderdale, Sunrise, Pompano etc). She works in Delray Beach (Palm Beach County).

The opportunities for her have been endless! She has got it made! She currently brings home $4-$5 thousand a month (AFTER taxes). She is an OR nurse now. But she has done med/surg, telemetry and ortho.

When you think of South Florida, think of fast living, fast cars, fast money, TONS of people from the NE (Ny, Boston etc).

If your looking for small town appeal, DON'T think of South Florida.

Good luck!

[Heath82371]

l MUCH prefer jacksonville. In one sentence......in Jacksonville you do not get the 'snow birds.' Jacksonville has 4 seasons and great football. South florida is VERY expensive. I did not encounter many rednecks when I lived in Jax and I would say most of the crowd I saw when we were out were more of a yuppie crowd. Again Jacksonville is a young town as the average age in Jacksonville is 25-35.... Traffic can be bad but that is true in any large city. I did not see much crime and I generally felt safe. You can likely find a few apartments in the $600 range but if you are willing to spend a little more you could likely get a lot more. Our rent was $900 for a 2 bedroom townhouse.

[Shellsie]

I live near Gainesville, Fl and I must say that if you are looking for NICU Shands @UF has 3 NICU's-leveled for acuity. They fly in babies from all over to this hospital. You might want to check into it

[LilStudent]

I live in Apollo Beach, a small community just outside of Tampa. I love living in Tampa. It's not too large, not too small. We're only an hour away from Orlando/Disney World. :) Also, only an hour away from the beaches. We have lots of malls for shopping, a diverse nightlife, and great restaurants. Sorry if I sound like a travel brochure, but it's true.

A few bad things are traffic is pretty bad if you have to travel into Tampa for work in the mornings and rent can be pretty high. If you look around you can find apartments that are suitable to your budget. I'd recommend living in Brandon, Plant City, or Apollo Beach. It's cheaper.

I spoke with an HR representative at University Community Hospital and she told me that a new RN just out of school would start at about $17/hour. I'm not sure what it would be for someone with more experience. You can contact their Human Resources Department at this number: [phone] When I called I had to leave a message, but I was called back promptly by an incredibly nice HR Representative. She took time with me and answered all my questions about nursing rates of pay.

Good luck with your decision! If you do decide to move to the Tampa area or Orlando, I can give you lots of ideas on great places to go. I've explored both cities endlessly. If I didn't live in Tampa, I'd live in Orlando.

[NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Okay, this is where I'm at. Shands has the only really large Level III NICU in that area- is that correct? I've spoken to the HR people and they sent me a nice package of info, and while they didn't quote me a rate (I'm going to call back and speak to a specific rep when the time gets a bit closer), the diffs are fairly high (and certainly comparable to where I live now). I know that the housing there is affordable, and the city is appealing to me precisely because it isn't so large. So that's one choice. However, I'm worried about hubby getting a job (smaller city = less opportunities), and this is forcing me to look at Jacksonville as the second option.

Thank you for that info about Jacksonville! I'm checking out Wolfson Children's Hospital because most children's hospitals have regional transport services, and this is the type of place where jobs are most readily available for me (like Shands)- even if I can't get a job in the NICU, they may have other pedi jobs I might be interested in. I like that Jacksonville is a larger city, has more options for entertainment, more job opportunities for hubby, and now I know (thanks to you!) that they have more hospitals, which means more job opportunities for *me*. Thanks for the info about the bidding wars- that's interesting, and I totally follow your line of thinking there.

Basically what's leading me to the final decision will be the hospital- hubby's work is fluctuant, so we're depending on my income and need to maximize that as much as possible while still being happy. Difficult to do! :)

I like that Jacksonville is closer to the beaches, too- as I said, hubby's from California and is craving some sand and sea right now. In January I think I might be going down there for three or four days, if I can swing some affordable airfare, so I hope to take a day to see each city a little bit, with an interview/tour of some facilities (those are going to be VERY long days!) and get more of a feel for which one is best for us.

Orlando is a tough one for me. Honestly, every bone in my body is saying, ''NoNONONONO!!!" to Orlando. The ONLY things that are keeping Orlando on the list at this point are the fact that they have two major hospitals, tons of entertainment options, and probably more job opportunities for hubby. I asked him what he thought, and he said that if we moved to Orlando, he was going to do everything in his power not to work in downtown Orlando. I said, well, WHY would we move there, then? I mean, realistically, we're not going to Disney World every weekend, and if we wanted to, we could just drive there and spend the night if we lived in, say, Gainesville or Jacksonville. So I have to keep taking the entertainment out of the equation, which leaves me with a not-so-hot impression of Orlando: suburban nightmare (all the new housing tracts), sinkholes, traffic that makes you cry, etc. I apologize to ANYONE who lives in Orlando right now, because I'm sure you love it, but to someone coming from out of state, I'm having a hard time finding enough good factors to make me enthusiastic about it. :kiss No offense!

Hubby has nixed Tampa/St. Pete because of the distance between there and my family (he said it defies the point of moving there, which was to be closer to them).

I just want to thank you all again for being so sweet and answering these questions. You have no idea how stressful this is for me! I've only lived in one place my entire life and am nervous about the move, leaving my job here (which I like very much) and finding a new one, hubby finding work, finding housing , etc. My family is not being much help, as they are completely biased and just want us to live as close as possible (which I don't blame them for but it is less than helpful!). If I ever meet any of you I promise to cook you the best meal of your life AND charm you with my witty repartee. :) You can't beat that offer. Well, you probably could, but I'm poor. It's the best I can do right now.

[Shellsie]

yes shands has a large level III.....they have some kids with very rare disorders and diseases....i think you could be very happy there. i think the pay is very competitive, you should give it a try :)

[codeblue]

in orlando arnold palmer hospital is a good start. pay for 2yrs exp prob around 20.00 maybe 21.00 hr, with all the diffs etc. orlando in general is crowded, housing isnt bad, florida has no state tax, humidity is high, decent winters, 600.00 month apt is probably there, but not in the best of areas. 750.00 -850.00 is more reasonable for a decent apt. If possible do the travel assignment first see what u think. well thats it from orlando lol

[rmprn]

kmrmom, i sent you a PM!