[paacollins]

I moved to NC from SE Florida 16 years ago and I loved it. I still like it but things have changed a lot. I live in a rural community about 30 minutes NW of Winston-Salem. The manufacturing industry has been hard hit here and the jobs have gone overseas. There are so many people out of work and houses for sale on every street. It is so sad to see people devote 30 years to a company and then have no job. Nurses are still in hot demand, however, and starting pay in Winston is $20.45 an hour. That is way more than most jobs here pay. Staffing ratios aren't also great because there still aren't enough nurses. Both the Winston hospitals have tons of jobs available.

The weather in this are has also changed a lot. When I first moved here we would get several snows each winter, each totalling from 2 to 8 inches. Now we are lucky if we get two dustings a season. We also have long, hot, dry summers when it used to rain a lot and keep things green. Droughts have been common the last few years. It also used to hit the mid 90s for a few weeks in July and August but other than that the summers were a comfortable 80s. I'd turn off my air a lot at night. It has been much hotter the last few years. The humidity can get bad but nothing like south Florida was.

NC isn't my favorite place anymore but it still has a lot to offer. I'm 4 1/2 hours from the beach, less than 2 hours from the mountains, there are loads of nursing jobs, and housing is affordable. A huge plus is people are here are very friendly and always ready to help when someone is in need. NC isn't a bad place to live at all.

[LittleWing21]

As someone who just took a job and will be relocating to NC soon, I'd like to thank you (paacollins) for saying some nice things about it!!! I feel like I keep reading the negative...which scares me a bit. But I try to remember that nothing is perfect!!

[dreamon]

Originally Posted by awpanda_99

I am currently living in Las Vegas, and working F/T making $32/hour with 3 yrs experience in ER. I contacted Duke in NC, and they quoted $21.55/hour!
Don't tell me the COL is THAT much lower in NC than NV!! I was looking online at housing and can't find anything reasonable for less than $250,000 - there's no way I could afford that making $21/hour!!

Any suggestions on other hospitals that may pay more? Other states that are nice with good school districts??

Any help would be greatly appreciated - we are looking to move May 2009, but are still open to suggestions to locations!

Thanks,
Amanda

Amanda why are you leaving Las Vegas? It's on one of my possible relocation cities after I get a few years experience.