[paladin69]

Hi American neighbours :-)

Im a deputy charge nurse in a very busy endoscopy unit in a central London Hosptial - we have 4 procedure rooms and 16 recovery bays, we perform about 35 - 40 procedures per day including UGI, Colon, banding, pegs, nj insertions, ercp, eus + fna, Bronchs + stent insertions under GA, rectal lasering, polyp removals, emergency bleeds, paed patients under GA,s ... er... plus a few other bits and pieces, we usually have 1 rgn and 1 assistant in standard rooms, for ercp/bronc sometimes 2 rgn depending on staff.

As you can imagine its a bit busy and staffing is chronicly bad,, and im fed up, as managment dont listen and moral is really low and sooner rather than later something is gonna go wrong and whos gonna get the blame?? guess who!

Im therefore looking to change where i live and work, and the US looks promising, id love it if I could get info from anyone willing about pay scales, benefits, standards of living, average house prices and no of bedrooms etc, i dont know if your all aware but the housing market in the UK is overheating to the extent that key workers like nurses/ drs/ ambulance crew/ police find it totally impossible to buy property, the most id hope for would be a 1 bed flat, very basic, and thats with buying with my partners salary as well.

Hope to hear from you all soon :-)

Long live Uncle Sam !

Alec

[tinkagain]

Depends on which part of the US you live in. When I lived in Houston, TX, nurses in the outpatient surgical setting were paid about $25 per hour. Housing there was cheap and I bought a 4 bedroom beautiful home for $120,000. That was two years ago and the market is about the same.
I moved to California last year and can only afford a tiny apartment for $2000 a month! Small houses/flats/condos cost $350,000 and up! Ridiculous, but California is a nice place to live. They pay around $50-55 per hour in California.
Working and living conditions are excellent in both states.
The climate in Houston is intolerable for some people due to the heat and humidity. I absolutely loved it. California is sunny and dry, and in the San Francisco area, not too hot.
I hope this is helpful. Good luck to you.