[Mirasol]

Hi folks, I am looking for some info. As you can see i am from CA. My family and i are interested in moving to the Southern area of IL. I just passed the NCLEX and i am looking into hospitlas in the southern area. Does anybody know what the starting salary is for an RN ?? Any info would be great. Any reccomnedations for hospitals/town would be great too!

Thanks!!

[mamason]

$17 to $19 an hour, day shift, with benefits. If you work nights, it would be more. Make sure you check out the nurse/pt ratios before you agree to a job around here. Some places aren't very good at staffing. There is not mandatory ratios like CA. Good Luck.

[mamason]

Oh...I forgot, you could also move closer to St. Louis on the Illinois side. There are many nice communities around here. Then, you could have the option of finding work in Missouri if you wish. It's only a 20-3- min drive from some areas. Missouri pays a little more.

Illinois communities:

Freeburg
Smithton
Milstadt
Columbia
Waterloo
Belleville
Mascoutah
O'Fallon
Edwardsville
Troy
Maryville

These are just some of the communities that are close within driving range to St. Louis. A lot of people make the commute to and from for work. We also have area hospitals that are hiring. You could do a search on the internet. Cost of living on the Illinois side of Mississippi is much less compared to Missouri. Hope this helps.

[schroeders_piano]

Live and work in Southern Illinois my whole life. Pay is not the greatest in the world, but it suffices. I would strongly advise against the hospital in Marion itself; it has more agency/travel nurses than it does regular staff. I know several agency nurses who worked one shift there and informed their agency they would never go back.

I will also advise you that Ameren has risen electric rate over 300% in the past 2 months. I work with people who are paying $500 or more a month in electric bills. PM if you want, I will give you the low down on the SO IL hospitals.

Schroeder

[Mirasol]

Thank you Mamason, i was actually browsing the web in the small communities outside of St. Louis. From what i can gather Waterloo has a good school system i will check out the other communities. My husband and i are actually flying out to St. Louis this month and we are going to look around in those areas on our way south. I had no idea the salaries were so low, and i will diffently look into ratios. Any more info would be great.

Our dream is to be able to buy a house with some land, i have 3 boys and they love to hunt and do all that boy stuff, but we just can't buy land here. I guess there is always a trade off. Thanks again and any info on hospitals that you recommned and small towns, like in the 15-25,000 would be great.

[Mirasol]

Schroeder, yikes!! $500.00 for electricity. Is that typical for all of Il. Is that for like the hot summer months?? The grass on the other side always has a few more weeds when you get a closer look. I would still like some info on any of the hospitlas that you can give me. And any advice on areas that you would recommend. Thanks Again!! It is so nice to be able to get real info from those who live in the area!

Mirasol

[teaka]

Hi there. I am also from Southern Illinois, only about an hour north of Marion and about an 45-50 minutes east of Belleville. There are a lot of nice, county communities here. The farther east you live from Belleville the lower the cost of property this also equals lower salaries, especially if you are a new nurse. Some places pay by how much experience you have. However, if you are willing to communt 45 minutes - 1 hour to work you can have the best of both situations. I several years experience and just took a job with a hospital based home health and am very satisfied with the salary. I do think around $17/hour sounds right though. You are just going to need to do a lot of research. Careerbuilder.com is a good place to start as is jobsearch.org

I personally am on a co-op power company so I have not experienced the drastic increase people are paying to Ameren. I know several people who were affected. We are all electric at my house ~ 1800 sq. ft. and our bills are usually around $300 in high usage times like cold winter and hot summer. I would be happy to share more info too if you want to send a private message.

[meownsmile]

With the cost of living in this area, RN's make decent wages and you will be very comfortable on what you make. As long as you arent a shopaholic or something. I think even with the electric/gas rates the way they are,(which may be changing soon for the good) you would find that central/southern Illinois has some very charming communites to live and raise a family.
Check with some community chamber of commerce offices, and call a realtor in the area. They can usually give you a very good picture of what there is to offer in their areas. Schools, churches,community groups and activities, recreational areas and facilities etc. And believe me it does differ those 30 miles between communities sometimes.

[Mirasol]

Thanks to all of you for the info. I really appreciate it. Any great places to live that you think are worth looking into I would love to hear from you, even places to avoid! Thanks again!

[mamason]

Our electric bill last month was $379.00. I live in a 3 bedroom home. Not very big. Come to find out that the power company "over" estimated our last month's bill. This month it is only $180.00. SO, the cost went up, but, not as much as we thought. It's doable.
Waterloo is a great little town. Taxes are a little high in that area. But, you get what you pay for. Lots of land and lots of country. You would have access to I-255 and it would be a quick trip to Missouri if you wanted to work over there. They tend to pay more. But, could still have the country atmosphere. There are other small surrounding towns in that area. RedBud, Hecker, Prairie De Rocher, Milstadt, Columbia, Freeburg, Smithton, New Athens. The farther east you go, the cheaper the land. The wages are probably less around here, but, the cost of living is very reasonable compared to other places in the country. No major hospitals in that exact area. But, they do have RedBud Regional Center. I don't think they take critically ill patients. Those are usually shipped across the river. They also built a brand new urgi care center in Waterloo. I think you may benefit from working in St. Louis if you plan to move to this area. There are gobs of hospitals to choose from over there.The major one is Barnes. It's #8 in the country.A big machine.Lots of specialties. Both my parents went there for surgery and recieved excellent care. I hope this helps.