med surg experience wage in or aroung atl.

suture_self · Mar 3, 2008

I'm not sure about the Stockbridge / Mcdonough area, but I think you'll do fine if wages are your main concern. I just graduated in December and found a job as a med-surg nurse at Northside Hospital making $22.00/hour. That's not including shift differentials and incentive pay. If I were to work the 7p to 7a shift, then I would add an extra $3.00/hour to that rate. I'm guessing that with your experience you'll be able to make a least that much, if not more. Hope this helps.

yellow finch, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2008

I have read multilple post but none have directly answered questions I have, so I hope not to offend anyone if I dupilicate a question. I'm thinking of moving from ohio to atl area around stockbridge or mcdonough.I have 7 years med surg experience, our med surg included ortho general surgery chemo/oncology, and some telemetry monitoring. Currently making $26 and hour on 7p-7a shifts. how do the wages there compare.

Does the $26/hr include your night shift differential? Either way, you should do better here. I only have 3 years of experience and earn almost as much as you do as my base pay before differentials. I'm not in Stockbridge or McDonough, but those cities are suburbs of Atlanta like the one I live and work in. Some hospitals offer better differentials than others, but look around and find the right fit for your needs.

Hope this helps!

wife1mom3rn · Mar 7, 2008

Thank you, what area do you stay in. We have not made a definite choice as of today.

yellow finch, BSN, RN · Mar 9, 2008

I live in Acworth, GA and work at Kennestone Hospital. It's part of the WellStar system. Let me know if you want to look into working at one of their facilities. I'll be happy to fill you in on what I know.

wife1mom3rn · Mar 10, 2008

Thank You Yellow Finch,

any infomation would be great. My husband and I were just thinking to move around Cobb County area, for a shorter commute since he will most likely be working downtown Atlanta area. Maybe Smyrna or Marietta area. How is Wellstar system. Benefits, nurse to pt ratio, etc.

yellow finch, BSN, RN · Mar 12, 2008

Wellstar isn't too bad to work for. It's just about the same as any other place from what I hear from other nurses who've been around more than I. The only other hospital I worked for was Emory Univ. Hospital. While the pay and benefits were better, the work environment was horrible. According to at least a dozen other RNs who have either been on staff or as agency they say the same thing. Something about the Emory name changes the way people act. I don't know. I hope I never go back there to work. :stone

In any case, I have worked in a few departments within Kennestone Hospital. There are good places to work. If you have a certain area within med-surg you want to work in, I can tell you how those areas are like. I'm in one of the ICUs and know for certain we're hiring for night shift. My manager is awesome! And the coworkers are, on the whole, the best I've known.

Depending on the part of Cobb County you move to, either Cobb or Kennestone will be closer to you. Within Smyrna there's Emory Adventist. I don't know if it's anywhere near as bad as the downtown Emory, but it might be closer to you.

To be perfectly honest, WellStar's benefits aren't exactly outstanding. However, they offer close to what other systems present. There's medical, dental, eye care, Aflac, 403b, etc...

Nurse to pt. ratio really depends on the dept you work with. Generally, you have anywhere between 3-6 pts on day shift. Nights might have an additional 1 pt. Just know that the fewer patients you have, the less you can rely upon techs. They spread them out so that the nurse takes V/S, gives baths, ambulates, sets up meals... if you're on a floor that has 1:6 ratio, you'll more likely have a tech that does all that work. The ICUs obviously only assign 1:2.

Hope this isn't too hard to read. I've been in clinicals all day and then took the dogs for a hike. My brain is super tired. :yawn:

wife1mom3rn · Mar 26, 2008

I know its been awhile since you responded to me, thank you for the information. I havent been online in a while. The nurse to patient ratio sound okay to me. I work for catholic health partners in ohio and our ratio is 1:4or5 on days and 1:5 on nights and we do primary care, so we have no techs on nights. Our med surg is all inclusive. We get hips, knees, cholecystectomys, bowel resections, hyst, and some psych pts. So it can get pretty hectic, it will probably seem normal to me.