Florida nursing salaries - seriously????

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Sep 25, 2007

All areas of Florida have expensive housing.

Problem is, the market has gone soft here, as everywhere else. Our home increased in value X 10 since our purchase in 2000, but there's no way it'd sell.

Problem is, who could afford it? Salaries have not kept up with the cost of living. We've had raises, but insurance rates have effectively countered those raises.

So we're just tightening our belts and grimly hanging on till this recession is over.

MB37 · Sep 25, 2007

That's why I'm going back for a master's after within a few years of my ABSN graduation next December. After 7.5 years of college, I really ought to make more than I did bartending. If I can't, then more school here I come. I took home $600/week with my first waitressing job, for not quite 40 hours, with a high school diploma 10 years ago, and that place didn't even serve booze. I've made a lot more than that bartending some places, and never less. In between I earned one bachelor's, only to learn that any entry-level job meant taking a pay cut that I couldn't afford. At least with my BSN my pay should stay about the same as I'm used to when I finally get a real job...

nursejane236 · Sep 25, 2007

Ok so quite frankly the wage scale in Florida for nurses is not what it should be. But there is no human service field that ever measures up. (For example, teachers, police officers, firefighters, etc.) People do it because they love it and they feel the need to help someone. People are drawn to Florida for various reasons as well. (lifestyle, family, warm weather) Whatever the reasons, a career choice and a location choice are generated by our emotions and we can never be paid enough for our emotions. Philosophical? Maybe. Yes housing has risen faster than Florida can keep up. The cost of living is climbing faster than some big cities. Yet we either adjust to it or we choose to try it out somewhere else. You have entered a career that is about personal reward and hopefully financial reward will come to you. The best thing about nursing is the opportunity. The opportunity to do something you love almost anywhere in the country and to diversify yourself when you get burnt, bored or tired. Long term care, hospitals, specialty, administrative and even government nursing are all available to you. There are not many careers that can offer that type of variety.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Sep 25, 2007

What about other areas of Florida? Other than Miami, which obviously has expensive housing, what areas pay the best?

There are none.

Even in places like WPB where the elite (along with the nastiest elitest attitudes) live, the pay rates are dismal....lower often than central Florida.

There are no "magical" cheap places with good pay, but plenty of expensive places with soso or poor pay.

Conqueror+, BSN, RN · Sep 29, 2007

There are none.
Even in places like WPB where the elite (along with the nastiest elitest attitudes) live, the pay rates are dismal....lower often than central Florida.
There are no "magical" cheap places with good pay, but plenty of expensive places with soso or poor pay.

Florida born raised and educated and AMEN to this quote. I and hubby are currently in Philly as LPN-RN students and I make 32 an hour agency with rent of 780 right outside of the city limits. He makes 27 on staff and carries the bennies. Granted as new grad RNs in Dallas we will take a big paycut we could never be home owners for near that amount monthly up here and we are toooo old to still be renting (32/34) so off to Tx we go. There is always OT and agency so....

centralflorida · Sep 30, 2007

"There are no "magical" cheap places with good pay" -

Well, I'm not looking for a "magical" place, just trying to find out what type of salary an RN might expect in different areas of the state. The thing is, as NurseJane just pointed out, there are also intangibles to consider, such as where I'd enjoy living. Also, now that I've done some research, I know there are parts of the country where nurses are paid much more money than Florida. Most of those areas have housing that is so much more expensive than Florida that it more than makes up for the salary difference - after all, when housing costs started shooting through the roof here, they did so nearly everywhere else in the country.

I know there's a lot of Florida bashing from people who don't like it here or are angry about how insurance and property prices have soared, but aside from the low salary, I really love Florida. As I mentioned, a survey done a few years ago mentioned Wisconsin as one of the top places for nursing salary and low cost of living. Unfortunately I happen to hate cold weather. So when I get my nursing degree and am deciding where to look for employment, I have to consider not just how much I'll earn but where I'd enjoy living - weather, local amenities, restaurants, beaches, attractions, universities, culture, housing costs, the arts, all of those things would play into it.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Sep 30, 2007

Have you worked in Florida?

There are also many issues at work as to working as a nurse in Florida. Such as poorer staffing, and patients with many more comorbidities. Management that is too interested in "customer service" and not interested in good health care.

It is when management puts ONE hall sink in a 30 bed oncology unit...because putting several makes it look "too much like a hospital"...to heck, with the fact that there are several patients at any given time w/CDiff, MRSA, VRE...and that alcohol handwashes do not kill CDiff. It is when they won't screen patients for MRSA, even though we know that patients coming from a community living area...probably at least 10-20% would be positive. Dealing w/isolation rooms are such a turnoff to MDs, patients, visitors....to heck with the medical implications.

It is when you have 7 patients on days with no tech, 3 that are feeders, most of whom can not ambulate without assistance...and you will DC 2-3 and admit 2-3 more. It is when you have MDs that have 3 different offices...the MD verbally tells the patient that they are DC'd....but does not write ONE DARN THING about DCing them in the chart...no order "DC patient" or anything. You have carefully placed the JCAHO required med rec. on the front of the chart where it cannot be missed and not one of your DCs has it filled out. You phone call chase the MD to each of his offices to get an order/fill out the rec. Then he refuses to "authorize" all the meds, requiring you to further call EVERY CONSULTANT on the case, to authorize their "specific" meds. Meantime, every relative of the pt will call to know exactly when he will be DC'd, what can we do to speed this up, and do I know that he is personal friends w/Mr. Lahdeedah, the CEO, and does that help?

(I clocked 55 phone calls on my spectralink in one shift...most of them from relatives/friends/family....none that needed immediate attention, all of which interrupted meds on my 7 pts, calculating chemo doses, or doing cares that shouldn't have interrupted).

Then some management in pearls, pumps and with a clipboard in hand stops me. I am required to recite the CARE philosophy (connect-acknowledge-recover - excell) that the hospital lives by and the "appropriate" scripted responses that we are supposed to parrot back if there is any pt complaint. And that we are to take "special" care of any patients or visitors with "benefactors" cards, and thank them for their contributions to the hospital. All while doing my trivial lifesaving nursing duties.

And at 1600 in the afternoon, the MD (same one that couldn't be bothered to write "DC patient" and effectively held up DC by 3-5 hours unnecessarily) calls to complain that his "Direct Admit" (who is a "benefactor") has been sitting downstairs for 6 hours awaiting a bed....why?

(Because we don't have an available bed...because morons like him couldn't write "DC patient"....and there are much more critical patients backed up for 24 hours in the ER that have priority.) So what does MD do? After I finally DC pt (that should have been DCd in AM), I get report on pt that has been waiting for ages in ER. That pt arrives along with the benefactor DA, who DC'd to "jump" the line to the same room.

This was one shift......there were many more like it.

Trust me, some of us Florida natives have weighed the "intangibles" of working in Florida....and found Florida very wanting. What you call "attractions" and expansion, we call pollution and destruction of the environment, to the point that there are serious water shortages. I will work elsewhere, and pay higher costs for housing. My license and sanity are safer up North.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Sep 30, 2007

I have to say that I love my job and most of the time, I love where I work, and I love where I live.

Yes, we have the BS, but it's really not as bad as Caroladybelle paints it -- at least over here on the West Coast.

We're pretty friendly with our docs and they're pretty good about filling out the Med Rec forms. Yes, families & patients want to be DC'd STAT, but I explain to them that a discharge is a procedure, sorta like getting an important medication by IV, and there's a process to it that can take an hour or so. Most are understanding. While I'm waiting for the doc to call back for whatever (because something is invariably forgotten) I'll go over the things I can do. It actually gives me a few more minutes to go over important teachings with the patient and family.

Our management process is really pretty good. I don't care for certain things we do if we don't know what the purpose is. But most of the time, we have input into those processes, so that for instance, if I identify HIT (Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia) as a problem, I can ask to change the Heparin order form so that the secretaries can read it easier so that the daily CBC, PT, and APTT are not missed.

But if you want a clue as to what management is going to throw at you next -- and this goes for ANY hospital, not just Florida -- just go to the JCHAO website.

Of course we're busy. If we weren't, I wouldn't have a job. Of course we have admissions that come in all at once, just like everywhere else.

Our staffing is for 4-7 patients with a tech. Yes, you run your legs off. But it's doable.

As far as pollution and destruction of the environment, I guess what you don't know won't hurt you, but the fact is, it's happening everywhere, not just Florida.

DH said he wanted to move to Alaska and I told him he could jolly well go by himself, because I'm in a good, comfortable little rut and I'm staying.

centralflorida · Sep 30, 2007

I imagine nursing is like anything else - you have your good facilities and your bad ones. Staying at a bad facility is a sure ticket to misery. I'm not going to say what field I'm in right now, but I will say I have liked almost all of the places that I've worked - there was one place that I hated and I didn't feel appreciated. I left. I was much happier.

I have several friends who are nurses in Florida who love their jobs and feel that they make good money. (They do a fair amount of overtime, but I plan on doing that too. I can't WAIT to be able to work all the overtime that I need!)

justbreatheFL · Oct 1, 2007

$30/hr at LRMC for a new grad????

No Way... They are consistent with Manatee Memorial (same company) and new grads are around 19.50-21.00... And I believe Blake Medical Center is 19.50 ish also... Sad but true... I don't know about Sarasota County, but I believe Doctor's would be around the same as Blake... Same hospital...

I mean blake and doctor's are the same company not hospital... HCA I believe.

AngBthatsme · Dec 11, 2007

Sorry so late to post, but just saw this post. I work at LRMC, so here is what I have to add. I started working at LRMC about 3.5 years ago when I had just 2 years experience and I started at about $22 an hour. I work 7p to 7a so there is a night differential. OK here is the skinny on the differentials. Evenings from 7p to 11p is about $3.50 and 11p to 7a is about $5 and change. We get raises twice a year. They do have a weekender program that gives you a nice differential if you work weekends, but you work every weekend. It used to be base plus a third. For awhile I worked weekends so I had $22. plus my weekender diff of a third $7. plus my night diff of approx $4.50. So three years later my base rate has increased to $27 and change. I believe there are also diffs for working ER and units, but you'd have to check Im not sure. SOOOO can you make $30. and hour at LRMC, yes but you will probably be working every weekend and at night. Good luck to you. Angela

LTCRN4LIFE · Dec 25, 2007

I moved to FL from the North also thinking the salaries were probably compatiable. I moved back to the North. I am making $6/hr more. I was told pay is low because "it's a trade off for the sunshine and good life".

Good Life?? you can't buy a house there, who can afford the insurance....wildfires were so constant I was nauseated all the time and my asthma (which is never bothered in the north) was an issue....crime rate is astounding! I found the local news to be more interesting than any CSI show!

I rented a car in FL....you can't get renters insurance on your FL auto insurance so it cost me an arm and a leg!

At home I can get insurance so no matter where I go I am covered at a reasonable rate.

Sometimes we just don't know when we have it good....no..the grass is not always greener on the other side.

I have decided to bank the $6/hr difference in a vacation fund....when I need a FL fix....I'll visit!