[Drexelgrad07]

Hey everyone!

I live in Philadelphia but I want to move to Denver once I'm done nursing school in Aug. 07. Does anyone have any recommendations on really good hospitals to interview at? I want to work in Med-Surge. Also, does anyone know anything about the neighborhoods in Denver? I would prefer to be as close to the mountains as possible, and would like to live in an area that isn't strictly family oriented since I'm 25 y/o.

Can anyone help??????

Thanks!

[nightingale]

I have worked Agency at Denver Health (and many other facilities there); I would recommend applying there. They can be hard to pin down to get and interview.

I am familiar with the Lakewood area of Denver. Nice neighborhoods, easy access to freeway and most of area. It is close to the mountains going west towards Vail. I am sure you will find a lot of nice apartments in the area.

[Drexelgrad07]

Thanks so much. I have heard of Lakewood. I was reading some of the other posts about salaries, and the starting salaries are a little disappointing. Here in Philly you can start at $27 - $30/hr. I take it this is unusual in CO???????

[nightingale]

I regularly "hear" starting salaried here are poor. Supposedly, because of the beauty of Colorado, the wages for Nurses are low. We shall have to hear from someone in the area about that for new Nurse salaries. Read through these Colorado Nurse posts and see what you can regarding this topic. Hopefully, we shall hear from someone who is a new Nurse.

I have been subcontracting and some direct contracting here in Colorado. That is something that raises your salary, increases your pay out expenses, and to me, IMHO, increases your independence.

Once you have gained experience, it is my understanding, that PRN Nursing is in the area of $ 30.00 per hour. This will not provide benefits etc. I have heard, at Denver Health, that PRN scheduling can go as high as $ 40.00 per hour with a specialty (I am familiar with Oncology) and working nights with minimum two weekends per month.

Any new Nurses care to share their salary info and investigative information on other facilities regarding new grad salaries?

[RNin'08]

Exempla has some very nice facilities in and around the Denver area, the newest of which is in Lafayette (very near the Flatirons, foothills) not a far drive from the mountains or the city. It's a nice area and growing pretty quickly. Most of the feedback I've gotten from local hospitals says starting pay for med/surge is around $24/hr plus shift diffs if you work nights/weekends. HTH

RNin'08
~my reality check bounced~

[jannieannie79]

Am I missing something here?
New Grads making more/hr than me?
I have been in nursing for 4 years and an RN for 2.
Even with my third year raise next month, sounds like a new grad will be making 2$ more/hr than I.
Not sure what my hosp start pay is, but Denver Health is 23.84 base pay for new grad.
I like where I work, but it seems so unfair.
I had no idea how the pay scales were here when I relocated.
I just knew it was better than where I came from, and DOUBLE that from what I was making as a tech prior to graduation.
So, wondering if I should risk the move, or risk taking this up with HR/my admin.?
When I say risk, I have built several professional relationships.

[hope3456]

Yeah, this has been discussed on some of the other posts, but I would suggest being a little bit careful about coming out to Denver as a new grad RN. If you had exerience(RN) that would be a different story, but there are alot of nsg schools in the front range area and many of them have increased admissions in the past couple years. And hospitals can only take in so many new grads at a time.

From my experience, 'acute care' facilities only hire new grads 1 or 2 times per year, so contact some of the hospitals and ask them when they will be hiring 'new grads.' When I graduated in May '05 I considered moving to denver, and did just this. I emailed nsg recruiters, and most of them responded that they had 'already completed their new grad hiring for the year.'

I'm not saying you wont be able to find a job or that I'm the expert, but that is what my experience was.

Oh, and Denver Health, a tech I work with, who just graduated from nsg school, applied there and she said it was a couple months b/f she heard back from them to even get an interview. Then she was told that they wouldn't be hiring for another couple months. Strange, considering all the job postings they have.

Well good luck in whatever you decide to do.

[hope3456]

I'm not sure if this is against the rules, but check out exemplajobs.com. Click on 'new graduate RN' - it shows which exempla facilities are hiring (new grads) and gives further information. Apparently, different facilities hire at different times of the year.

Oh, and as a new grad rn in the northern front range area, I started at 22.50/hr&shift diff.

[BensMom]

University Hospital starts interviewing in Jan or Feb for new grad positions that start in July. They will arrange a tour of the hospital in advance of application if you contact their HR department. I'm not sure what their starting salary is, but their new grad program sounds really good. There are details on their website if you look under their nursing job postings. I just got a job as a nurse-intern which is supposed to help during the interview process for their new grad positions.

[Nursonegreat]

i was a traveler in denver and did one at st anthony central...dont highly recommend it...i did a 6 mo stay at st joe's and it was good, located in the city...and i worked at swedish medical in englewood which i also lived. swedish is a huge hospital and i worked a few different floors over 3 yrs+. would highly highly recommend it. they pay does not relate to the actual cost of living.my last yr there was not a traveler, i think i made about 20/hr (4 yrs ago) and was paying like 800 for a very small apt in an average town. where as here in buffalo i make more and pay less for housing. but denver is so beautiful....its all about supply and demand.