[amybradley2006]

Hi everyone. I have lots of questions. First of all I am a married mom to 3. I have family in Baton Rouge, so we would like to relocate there from Michigan. There are hardly any jobs in Michigan and my husband is a builder making 13.00 an hour with no benefits or anything. I am a nurse in a hospital making 13.23 an hour on 3rd shift 24 hours a week.(LPN). It is important for me to live in a safe community, so my kids can make friends and play outside. Also I have all of my pre-reqs done here I am just waiting to get back into the RN class at the community college here. So where would I want to go in Baton Rouge for the RN portion? So if anyone could help me with this info I would greatly appreciate it.

[dsoginer]

I have some information. If anyone else could fill in...Baton Rouge is a very nice place being the state capital and home to LSU. There is some crime but on the whole for a city its size it is not bad. Mostly thug on thug type.

There are a few schools in BR that have RN, just not sure how LPN to RN fits in them but here is a list

Our Lady of the Lake -google it -there is a main campus in BR and satelite schools in NO

LSU school of nursing

here is a web site http://www.nursingschools.com/cities...-programs.html

If you and your husband moved to NO, he would have so much business he would not be able to keep up. We are still rebuilding after the Hurricane 2 yrs ago. Almost every house in NO needed or needs to be rebuilt. Nurses in this area are paid a premium also. I am not exactly sure what LPN's make but I have heard it is around $16-18 an hour and RN's are being started at a base pay of around $23-25 an hour. There is incentive pay to sign on; and the gov't has programs to pay nurses extra to work here. We are hurting for nurses so there are accelerated nursing programs all over the city.

Rent is high here though, due to the limited space availible.

Good luck

[amybradley2006]

Thank you for that bit of information. Do you live in new orleans? Also what about the school districts? What part of new orleans would you recommend living in with kids? Thanks alot, I need information so bad and I do not know where to turn.

[dsoginer]

I am from an area about 75 miles from NO but keep an apartment in NO
for work days. New Orleans is not the safest place to live but there are areas that are better than others. In the uptown area around the universities it is fairly safe, then there are the suburbs around NO, Metarie and Kenner. There are a lot of magnet and parochial schools in NO and since all the schools in NO were flooded during Katrina, they are building schools better than before and more care is being taken to make the schools better. As with Baton Rouge most of the problems are thug on thug; once in a while a tourist in the wrong place will have problems. Goggling NO will give you a lot of info and if you go to Craigs List New Orleans, you can get an idea of what rent is going for and what is availible.
Any more questions let me know.

[Hospice Nurse LPN]

Southeastern in Hammond has LPN to RN bridge (BSN) and Baton Rouge Community College is beginning a bridge program (AD). You may also want to look at communities around Baton Rouge. Baker, Central, and Zachary aren't part of the EBR school system (which is falling apart). Zachary has also been #1 school in the state for the past 2 year. Central also has excellent schools and are in their 1st year out of the EBR school system.
Good luck!

[Gottago]

Originally Posted by Hospice Nurse LPN

Southeastern in Hammond has LPN to RN bridge (BSN) and Baton Rouge Community College is beginning a bridge program (AD). You may also want to look at communities around Baton Rouge. Baker, Central, and Zachary aren't part of the EBR school system (which is falling apart). Zachary has also been #1 school in the state for the past 2 year. Central also has excellent schools and are in their 1st year out of the EBR school system.
Good luck!

I agree. Avoid the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School system. Zachary, just north of Baton Rouge, has traditionally had a good school program, and it, along with Central, has a "small town/community-support feeling".