Anybody from Fort Myers?

mitchsmom · Sep 24, 2005

I'm really not that unhappy, just frustrated. I became a nurse because I was under the impression that we were in demand and although I never expected to get rich being a nurse I do expect wages that are livable. I moved here because this is where my family is from.I just got engaged and wanted to raise my own family close to home. True I didnt do my homework reguarding wages but I truly believe it is an insult to our profession that 2 nurses (my wife is a nurse here as well) cannot afford to live on the wages set by the institution. You read about the nursing shortage all the time, well there is a definite reason for that. We dont live extravagantly by any means but unless you bought a home here 5 years ago, what we as nurses are paid just isnt enough to live on.
I suppose you could say I am a new generation nurse. I have my bachelors from penn state. and have worked hard to get varied experience to make myself marketable and proficient as an RN. I am in a high demand specality and even where I am now we have constant vacancies that the hospital tries to fill.
I consider myself a fantastic nurse and love my patients, I think I am truly an asset to any facility I work in, but I wont work for peanuts. The sunshine is no excuse for not paying nurses appropriate wages and sometime in the very near future something will have to give. either care will be compromised because the hospital cant find enough staff to work, the core staff that does exist will get burnt out orienting all the new nurses filtering through the system and quit, or hospitals will have to take measures to truly attract and retain strong nurses.
I myself am getting out. I have already quit and have begun to pursue other options. I will miss working in the hospital but feel that I have been left with no other choice.
Sorry this response was so long but it is a sore subject for me and hits close to home. When I was single I didnt care if I lived check to check but now that I have a family to consider I have to make some hard decisions. I dont have a spouse with a better job to rely on, were both nurses with the same frustrations and concerns.

Hope you find a place that works for you. To hijack the thread, my husband and I have found that our relative standard of living has gone down in the last few years because everything else has gone up more than his pay - insurance, food, housing, electricity, taxes, etc. We are lucky that we bought our house before the big rise in the last couple of years - otherwise we'd be in a hole. I kind of feel ripped off though because we bought a cheaper house to pay off quickly, trying to be smart and live beneath our means, with the plan to get the type of house we really wanted later... well now I don't think that will ever happen- we could have done it before the big rise and we should have - now we're stuck in an ok but not ideal, not big enough for three children, house.

BUT when we look at other places to go, it seems like most places are the same or higher cost of living for anywhere we'd want to be. I truly hope you find a place you like that will allow you to live decently. I think a lot of people are getting stuck like this & it's scary.

I hope you told your place of employment exactly why you were leaving, I always hear the FL pay sucks... I'm in a rural area and I think RN's start around $17. :stone

skuterkomputer rn · Sep 24, 2005

thats the thing, I have been around pay is not this bad everywhere. It sounds like you are a new nurse I'm just saying if you dont have ties to florida like I do I would suggest looking into other places or other work environments aside from the hospital. I did let them know that dissapointing pay was the main reason I am leaving but it is not our managers who make those decisions. You are right florida does have notoriously low pay rates for nurses, and the excuse that we pay for the sunshine is unacceptable, pay will only improve when nurses become more proactive, or when the hospitals start to suffer from lack of staff. I am only one person and do not expect the hospital I am at to make any changes because I am leaving. but hopefully over time nursing becomes more respected as a profession in the state of Florida, and many other places in the country.

mitchsmom · Sep 24, 2005

thats the thing, I have been around pay is not this bad everywhere. It sounds like you are a new nurse I'm just saying if you dont have ties to florida like I do I would suggest looking into other places or other work environments aside from the hospital. I did let them know that dissapointing pay was the main reason I am leaving but it is not our managers who make those decisions. You are right florida does have notoriously low pay rates for nurses, and the excuse that we pay for the sunshine is unacceptable, pay will only improve when nurses become more proactive, or when the hospitals start to suffer from lack of staff. I am only one person and do not expect the hospital I am at to make any changes because I am leaving. but hopefully over time nursing becomes more respected as a profession in the state of Florida, and many other places in the country.

Yep you're right about that stuff... you could call your HR and let them know that's why you left as well - or go directly to the CEO - write a letter if you have to in order to get through, just to get the message out. You are just one person but they will know that you represent more, plus if everyone says "I'm just one person" then the word doesn't get out.

I'm still in school myself (2nd bachelor's). But I have moved around a fairly good bit in my life (a military brat, then several times as an adult). My husband's job will remain our primary income (not that it's that great) & there are a few opportunities to relocate but I find that they are usually higher cost of living (now we are in a rural FL area that has traditionally been much cheaper than the coasts... though I think that gap is closing in the last couple of years... like I said part of that is b/c we got our house when they were very affordable...that wouldn't translate here or anywhere since real estate is more now). We are also about to buy a business here so we probably won't be leaving for at least 10 years when that business loan is paid off. Anyway, I'm rambling... my main reason for going to nursing school was to continue on to become a CNM, so we'll see. I would like to work part-time PRN until my kids are older if possible, when I graduate. I hear a lot of people saying that they are finding it harder to get by the last couple of years. Sunshine don't pay the bills, does it?

skuterkomputer rn · Sep 24, 2005

I have made independent attempts just to get the message out. I have written our state senators, local tv news stations, and local newspapers. noone wants to respond.

Best of luck to you and your family business. that is actually the route I am going. It is just sad that I have to leave a job I love and have trained for because of the pay. I wish we had a unuion to represent us. I have never worked at a unuionized facility but that seems like the only option. Is anyone reading this that has any input reguarding unuionized institutions.

If so was it good, bad, how did it get set up, who represented you?