Fort Myers Nursing Market

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I thought I would visit the Florida forum to inquire about work opportunities in Fort Myers. My husband and I are planning on relocating down there when I finish nursing school because his family lives on Sanibel. I am concerned that I may not be able to find work (although it is my understanding that Lee Hospitals are fantastic places to work) because of layoffs. I know that the economy not being good isn't great for vacation spots like Fort Myers and Sanibel, and I have heard (on forums) that the hospitals are letting go fo staff because of the drop in tourism. Is this true? Maybe it was true a couple of years ago but the market has adjusted itself???

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, ER, Peds ER-CPEN.

Lee County Health systems and Naple Community (HUGE facility) both have very informative websites, I'd try going to those and getting the number to the nurse recruiters, not sure how rent is going now but when we visited my g'ma in Bonita Springs back in April we looked in the paper out of curiosity and found them to be quite reasonable, and if you go to www.realtor.com and look for houses in Cape Coral and you'll find a TON of them at rock bottom prices as several large builders went wild when things were booming and over built, I found pages of 4 bedroom houses that were brand new for less than a 3 bedroom house that's 10+ yrs old in our county which is 90 minutes away, go figure lol LMHS also has relocation options too and I *think* NCH did too

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Lee Memorial owns 5 of the 6 hospitals in town. While they are not calling it layoffs, non-clinical staff has been let go. Nursing staff has had hours cut and OT is banned. Additionally, there has been a hiring freeze since october 07. Not a good situation really. Lee Memorial has essentially created a monopoly in town. Because they bought 2 other hospitals and have mismanaged money, staff is paying the price.

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Fort Myers is not the best place for a nurse to move to. Just like the others are saying if you work in the hospital, Lee memorial pays their RN's ok but they are really cutting hours right now. We have soooooooooooo many nurses come to place where I work @ just to get extra money. Naples hospital's pays more than Lee county. LTC & Hospice pays the most in Lee county.

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Specializes in M/S-Ortho-Renal-Peri-Op.

I live in sarasota/bradenton and can tell you that fort-myers is always looking for rns. right now a bit slow but mid-august they are planning for season. also nch which is naples community hospital has their own seasonal nurse program. hca is always hiring........however they have this second rate computer system and computers that make you feel like you have a ball and chain attached to you while trying to provide care to patients. One of the best hospitals on the west coast is Sarasota Memorial Hospital which is 850 bed acute care. Beautiful beaches and hospital uses care vision which is a windows based friendly program. hope this helps.

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Thank you to everyone for all this info! I am feeling a bit better about job prospects in the area. It seems to me that there is a large number of places to work relative to population size. I have also read that Fort Myers is currently constructing one or two new pediatric hospitals, but I have not had this confirmed.

I start my nursing program here in MO in fall '09, so I am hoping that some of the money and staff problems in Fort Myers have an opportunity to work themselves out by the time I finish my program. When we go stay with family on Sanibel this holiday season, we are planning on exploring the Fort Myers communities. We usually only have time for some dining and shopping in Fort Myers when we are in Sanibel because my kids' school vacations are really short (only a week.) We have seen the neighboorhood Paseo online and are really happy to see something in a "normal" price range (not the prices of those really exclusive places!) If anyone has any other suggestions of neighborhoods we might want to visit, we'd definitely appreciate the suggestions.

Thanks again for all your info...it really helps me to feel more confident about leaving our current comfortable situation for the adventure of a relocation.:nuke:

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I don't know anything about a children's hospital but if it's one coming I'm sure it will be owned by LMH. I will be cheaper for you to ride around and look for a house if you all have time because the market here is for buyers now. Now it all depends on what area you want to live in. Gated comm, nice area more house than land. nice area more land than house. really nice near shopping and schools little bit of land. extra nice school ,shopping, golf altogether. $$$ no property walk out the door and shopping, dinning, and movies ect. are all their.

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Hi Little Doe! I was nervous until I read that you were not even going into school until fall '09, because like everyone is saying there is definitely a hiring freeze. I myself will be graduating in May '09 and I'm hoping there will be something out there for myself and my classmates. Crossing my fingers, sooo much can happen in such short a time. As far as living here, blah! We have "school-choice", which is a nice way of saying "stand in a line for five hours with miserable people just to get your kid into a so-so school". We also have horrible traffic, way too many tourists and forget even getting to Sanibel when the weather is nice (ie:winter), unless you want to leave at 4:30am and beat the rush. I hate to be so negative, but I've seen a lot of the USA and Florida is nice to visit and a whole different story to live in!

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Specializes in psych. rehab nursing, float pool.

Check out leememorial.org to see what jobs are available, also hospice has a website, although I do not recall what it is, you can google to find websites. hope this to be helpful for you. At the moment, LMHS Lee Memorial Health System, seems to be in a holding pattern as far as new hires but that could change, we are waiting to see what season brings, if it is not a good season. I expect layoffs will be coming in our future.

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Recent article in the news paper stated that LMHS had a "surplus" of nurses while everywhere else there were shortages. Summer is usually the slower time but with them not hiring, vacations, etc we are working short alot and holds in the ER are still common and floor staff spread thin.

LMHS while being a not for profit hospital is very much watching their bottom line. Rumor has it 2% cost of living raises this year are expected but it doesn't help that the raises last year fell way short due to the economy. I expect LMHS will continue to play it tight, afterall, Jim Nathan needs another 80K bonus on top his 6 figure salary. Oh, LMHS is able to pay the construction loan interest for the DOT, so we have nice roads to our new facilities.

Toq

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LMH is opening a Cancer on Colonial Blv. And I heard a another Convent Care was coming to the Cape. But I can't talk bad about them right now because I just got $1400 to start back @ Edison. Jim and I are friends until I apply again next year.

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LMH is opening a Cancer Center on Colonial Blv. And another Convent Care in the Cape I heard but I'm not sure about sure about the care center. But I can't talk bad about them @ this time because they just gave Edison $1400 in my name so Jim and I are FRIENDS until I apply next year.

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