California

Central valley pays the most. So Cal, specifically San Diego pays the least. As far as the sights, I love all of California. I couldn't even pick my favorite place. There's something to do everywhere, and if there's nothing to do in the vicinity, you're never more than a two hour drive from something to do.

It is hard to run out of cool places to work in California and it is easier for me to name places I don't want to go to. I've never worked in the Central Valley (well.. Chico is technically Central Valley), nor do I want to. It is enough to drive through. Riverside is out for me too. A few other places are also out in eastern California as well.

Pay is lower in southern California for sure, but I'm not sure the Central Valley pays the best. Best paying is more likely the Bay area, but of course housing costs are much higher than the Central Valley. So take home pay may be higher outside the Bay area. Sometimes you can land a well paying contract somewhere like Eureka where housing costs are relatively low. But it is a great state with geography, progressive politics and employee friendly laws such as overtime rules and staffing ratios.

Mandatory 15 minute breaks in the first 4 and last 4 hours of your shift AND a 30 minute lunch break....AND lots of floats and ancillary staff!!! I'm on my first assignment in Southern Cal and I swear I've died and gone to nursing heaven. Today I got to eat, pee, and go get coffee from the coffee cart in the lobby. You will love working in Cali if you are from pretty much any other state.

California law is actually a 10 minute break every 4 hours.

That was actually they one thing I didn't like about my California assignment. I only got a half an hour break for 12 hours of work. They have this thing, at least my agency, where you sign a waiver to forfeit a second break. But even if you get a second break you can't combine them and take an hour. You have to take two separate half hour breaks. Like I said maybe that's just my agency and the hospital I worked but I was working night shift and I couldn't really function with one 30 minute break.

Those are meal breaks. You are still entitled to a ten minute break every 4 hours. You can either call the labor board or many specialty lawyers to recover your pay. It will pay one hour of regular pay for each missed break.

I've never really had issues with a 30 minute break in a 12 hour shift, even at night. The absence of a break at all due to a high acuity shift is worse. I come from a hospital where nurses were expected to take care of most tasks, including lab draws and IV insertions AND deal with CNAs that conveniently disappeared during a patient needing ADLs addressed and then magically reappear once you were done helping the patient. Poof! Your break is nonexistent. Other hospitals have more fair distribution of tasks.

Any assignment in California is better than a regular job in my state (fl). Here I was floated to the medical floor and end up with 8 patients, 3 were admits from ED, 4 of them going for surgery. I am ready to move out of Fl.