Decatur, Arab, Boaz Albertville

kbugrn · Apr 30, 2006

not sure if you still need info, Decatur is a nice area for a family Decatur General is a descent place to work, an older facility though, Arab, Albertville and Boaz are VERY small cities and "country" but good places for families, Boaz has a great outlet mall, don't know about any hospitals there though

KimmieNEAL · May 11, 2006

Those are all very small (country) little places. Sand Mountian (that is what the location of the last three has always been called) is a cluster of farming communities. I personally would not visit the only hospital that I know of there. I live in Gadsden, which is not as small as those places. We do have two hospitals and more options as far as job opportunities. Good luck in your search! By the way...just to give you an example; During my last few weeks of LPN classes we were given an assignment to go to various employers and get their rate of pay and various other benefit info. The one hospital (Marshall Medical) started LPN's off at a big $10/hour!!! :angryfire

Kim

military spouse · May 11, 2006

Those are all very small (country) little places. Sand Mountian (that is what the location of the last three has always been called) is a cluster of farming communities. I personally would not visit the only hospital that I know of there. I live in Gadsden, which is not as small as those places. We do have two hospitals and more options as far as job opportunities. Good luck in your search! By the way...just to give you an example; During my last few weeks of LPN classes we were given an assignment to go to various employers and get their rate of pay and various other benefit info. The one hospital (Marshall Medical) started LPN's off at a big $10/hour!!! :angryfire
Kim

Thanks for the info! $10 per hour is ridiculous! I have a friend in El Paso, Tx who in an LPN making $50,000 per year! Scary!:chuckle

maclaren · May 19, 2006

What is your specialty? my mother-in-law is the director for the L&D unit at Marshall Medical Center South in Boaz.

Gadsden Regional Med. Ctr. is a nice hospital. However, it is owned by Triad. Triad's main focus is on the bottom line--not patient safety. On a med surg unit, as a charge nurse, I had up to 10 patients AND 2 LPN's to cover. BUT this was not a nightly thing. Most of the time the patient load was 6 for me as charge and I would have 2 LPNs to cover. And most of the LPNs I worked with were from the old school and rocked!

Riverview Regional Med. Ctr (Also in Gadsden) , to me, is a clusterf**k. I can't imagine working there unless it was in some strange , special circumstance.

I presently travel and I am in Birmingham right now and bring home 1000-1400 per week (36 hr week).

Feel free to email me if you would like to know anything else. I'll do anything I can to find answers for you.

Jenrn05 · Jun 20, 2006

I just read this thread so I don't know if you still need the information or not. I live in Arab (I have lived here the majority of my life) and it is a small town (about 8000 people). We are actually on Brindlee Mtn. Albertville and Boaz are on Sand Mtn. There is also Guntersville which is on the lake in between Arab and Albertville. It is about the same size as Arab. It only takes me about 35-40 mins to get to Huntsville Hospital and Crestwood is a little closer. We have a wonderful school system in Arab if you have children. You can visit the city's website at www.arabcity.org and it has a lot of information about the area. There are actually 2 hospitals in this area as well. Marshall Medical Ctr North which is between Arab and Guntersville. Marshall Medical Ctr South is in Boaz. They don't pay as much as Huntsville Hospital or Crestwood, but they are much smaller hospitals. Please come and visit to check out the area before deciding if it is too "country" for you. This area has grown tremendously and with BRAC bringing in thousands of jobs to the orificenal it is only going to get better.

Jennifer

military spouse · Nov 6, 2006

I just read this thread so I don't know if you still need the information or not. I live in Arab (I have lived here the majority of my life) and it is a small town (about 8000 people). We are actually on Brindlee Mtn. Albertville and Boaz are on Sand Mtn. There is also Guntersville which is on the lake in between Arab and Albertville. It is about the same size as Arab. It only takes me about 35-40 mins to get to Huntsville Hospital and Crestwood is a little closer. We have a wonderful school system in Arab if you have children. You can visit the city's website at www.arabcity.org and it has a lot of information about the area. There are actually 2 hospitals in this area as well. Marshall Medical Ctr North which is between Arab and Guntersville. Marshall Medical Ctr South is in Boaz. They don't pay as much as Huntsville Hospital or Crestwood, but they are much smaller hospitals. Please come and visit to check out the area before deciding if it is too "country" for you. This area has grown tremendously and with BRAC bringing in thousands of jobs to the orificenal it is only going to get better.
Jennifer

Thanks for the response!!! I keep looking at the wonderful housing prices in the area and can't help but think........... How are utilities? Are most people "from there?" Target? Walmart? Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenrn05 · Dec 5, 2006

Hi,

A lot of the people in Arab have lived here all their lives, but there are many more that have moved in. We have a Super Wal-Mart and Super Target is in Huntsville. They are building a lot of new sub divisions in Arab - we just moved back a year and 1/2 ago so I don't know all of the names. The power is through Arab Electric Co. and the water is Arab Water Works..the prices are about the same as any other place we have lived (we have lived in Florida and Atlanta). The cable is Charter and the phone is Otelco (right now we get our local phone svc for about $55/mo and it includes unlimited long distance - they also do DSL internet , but we have Cable internet). The property taxes are pretty low as well. If you need more info just let me know!!

Jennifer

military spouse · Apr 19, 2007

Thanks everyone for the responses. I may make a trip down there over Memorial Day weekend. I was looking at job opportunities at both Marshall Medical Center and Huntsville Hospital. It looked like Marshall works many 12's, while Huntsville works primarily 8's. Is that true? Would it be unrealistic to make $25 or so an hour with about 13 years' experience? Is there a real shortage of nurses or could it take awhile to get a job? Are there any prisons out there? I'm currently working med/surg in a regional prison infirmary and have actually enjoyed it (most days:lol2: ). I'm not opposed to going back to a hospital, though. Thanks everyone for your help. I really do appreciate it!

military spouse · May 9, 2007

Hi everyone,

I might be making a trip out to the Huntsville area over Memorial Day weekend and was hoping to get some info on ratios and general feeling of satisfaction at the hospitals within an hour drive of the Huntsville area. Are 12 hour shift common? What are ratios like for med/surg or tele? I saw some new homes in one of the real estate guides for very low 100,000s that are close to the Toyota plant (that is how they were advertised). Is that an okay area. We are looking for a place that will seem very inexpensive compared to here

Jenrn05 · May 9, 2007

Hi,

I am sorry, I meant to reply to your earlier post, but we were in the middle of finals so it has been crazy busy(but finally done with nursing school only 18 months off track!!)! I work at Huntsville Hospital and the majority of the shifts there are 12's . You may find a few 8 hr shifts but not many. Also at the Athens Hospital they do some 7 on/7 off (in the ER I know, but not sure of anywhere else). I don't know about the shifts at Marshall Medical. There are several prisons around - Limestone Correctional and the Madison county jail (It is a big county jail so they may have nurses). I don't know anything about the houses near the Toyota plant b/c that is in Tennessee and we are about 45 minutes south. Good Luck when you come down!!

Jennifer