Cali nurse moving to Colorado!

klone, MSN, RN · Nov 3, 2023

Good luck to you! I lived in the Denver area for 7 years, and worked briefly in California (interim/travel work).

First, there are no nursing unions in the hospitals. No mandated ratios. No "break nurse" that's required by law to make sure the other nurses get their breaks. Most hospitals do 12-hour shifts (I know in CA, OT is after 8 hours - that's only a thing in CA).

Salaries suck compared to COL. Like, a LOT. The COL is ridiculous. Example: bought our 60s ranch house in a blue-collar neighborhood in Westminster (large suburb north of Denver) in 2013 for $170,000. Sold it in 2016 for $300k. Now it would sell for around $475k. I don't see how ANYONE can afford to buy a house on the wages they pay in Denver nowadays.

Traffic sucks. I-25 is a ***.

Weather is lovely if you're used to a northern climate. The snow doesn't stick around in huge drifts the way it does in the north. But, coming from California - there is snow. A lot. Get used to driving in it. Make sure you have an AWD vehicle.

I'm very familiar with most of the NICUs in Denver (I was L&D/women's health, but also worked in perinatal research and a lot of our studies were in the NICU). Best NICU is at Children's Hospital in Aurora. I believe theirs is the highest acuity in the state? They have (had? It might be more developed by now) a joint venture with UCH across the street for super high risk deliveries (due to fetal conditions) to deliver at Children's (had a beautiful small delivery unit created just for this right on the NICU unit). They do things like EXIT procedures, etc. UCH also has a great NICU and can handle just about everything except I think ECMO. My favorite facility to work at was Denver Health. (I've worked at Children's, UCH at Anschutz, Parker Adventist, Porter Adventist, St. Joe's, Denver Health, St. Anthony, St. Anthony North).

Let me know if you have specific questions about anything I've written.