Best City/Area for New Graduate

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi All,

I'm a 42 y/o married father of a 3 yo from Northeast PA. (low cost of living but low salaries too). Better in Allentown and Philly I'm told. I'll graduate with a second degree BSN in May and am starting to decide where to start my Nursing career (after 15 years in the computer field yeah everyone's heard of the dot.com bust) . Could I get some opinions on what City/Area is best for recent nursing graduates considering salaries/working environment/weather/cost of living/culture/schools. I've just read on Salaries.com how bad New York/San Fran/Honolulu/LA are and how good Huntsville/Knoxville/Reading, PA/and York, PA are but apparently culture and weather weren't part of their equation. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Halinja,

Thank you for the response. What I was wondering and trying to get some opinions on is Where and Why newly graduated nurses have actually chosen to live and work. I'm trying to figure out why someone unless you're born there like me in Pennsylvania and have family there would possibly choose to live in Pennsylvania (I did list a Few positives) or any other similiar area (ie Columbus, Louisville, Detroit, Kansas City, Omaha and on and on and on...

Unless you are making ALOT of money who would actually chose to move here (Pa) or any of those other places. I understand about cost of living but doesn't Anaheim or San Diego area look ALOT better as examples only? I'm mean nurses do work there, right? I mean, if I'm not making alot more money in Spokane why would I move there? All other things being the same I'd rather be a little poorer due to the cost of living in a nicer place. Who would move to Buffalo for 22/hr.?????????

I've heard that all nurse's in CA are unionized and therefore make more money than other states? Is that not true? $35.00 /hr in Anaheim even after cost of living looks ALOT better than $22/hr in Atlanta or Birmingham or PA. Am I missing something????

Ok, I'll add mine. Where I live is in a big metro area in Florida. You have Tampa Bay, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Orlando is only an hour away. I've seen adds for pay as much as $40 an hour some places. How true that actually is, I don't know. I'm an LPN. I know the Va over here pays well. For the most part weather is nice. Summers are hot, but you have to realize we are in the south. Schools are ok. If you don't like the regular schools you can put the kids in a "magnet" school. They offer different courses for kids and I guess get more one on one attention. (my kids go to public school and do great). There's always something to do here. Malls all over the place. The only issue that stings is the property tax is so high. The cost of living is up there too. During the winter we get alot of Canadian folks and northerners coming down to warm up. Always busy this time of year.

Well, that's my piece......My family and myself love it here and I personally have no intentions of moving until I am forced too. :)

Halinja,

. I understand about cost of living but doesn't Anaheim or San Diego area look ALOT better as examples only? I'm mean nurses do work there, right? I mean, if I'm not making alot more money in Spokane why would I move there? All other things being the same I'd rather be a little poorer due to the cost of living in a nicer place. I've heard that all nurse's in CA are unionized and therefore make more money than other states? Is that not true? $35.00 /hr in Anaheim even after cost of living looks ALOT better than $22/hr in Atlanta or Birmingham or PA. Am I missing something????

DUh YA!! You are missin' something!:monkeydance: Check out the 100's of posts on Calif and you will see...or better yet get on the phone....and call the HR depts and you will see....that Calif is I believe THE or close to THE most expensive place to live .... the commute is horrific....people are generally not very friendly (and if you freak out b/c nobody answered you..you will HATE calif).... Anyway call them and you will see the START WAGE for a new grad in Calif is NOT in the 30 per hour range. It is about 5 to 6 an hour more than say, spokane which you mentioned. You get smog; you get rude; you get crowds that you cannot get away from..you get a home you can't afford...and all that to live in good weather! Hey I considered it myself and then I realized I could not afford to live there. WHY do people go to OTHEr places...b/c it's TOO MUCH MONEY to live there...b/c they don't like folks not talking to them....b/c they dont like everyone being caught up in facitious gunk...b/c they don't like the drive...or the smog...who knows. Lots of reasons. But dollar for dollar...you just need to call the HR depts and then look up the cost of living...and figure out for yourself how much you'd struggle financially...etc....instead of asking everyone else b/c they don't know...they can't know... each situation is different. Do you wish to live with 4 roomates? Then fine you may make in Calif. Do you mind a long bumper to bump commute? Do you mind crowds? Do you need everyone to be friendly? Then you will NOT like it there. All depends what you want/need.

But reality check here....Calif is all that above. Even San Diego and it is VERY VERY expensive to live dollar for dollar you get far more bang for your buck in other areas of the US.

I grew up in Calif. I know. I also lived in Spokane for 10 years and it stinks. But...for 10 years I liked it better than calif. Now I'm not sure where I'll go...but don't fool yourself about Calif. It ain't "all that" ..and unless you know people there...i t can be very tough to find true friends....it can be a very lonely place. AGain all depends....on where you go....etc. Meaning where you place yourself in your daily life.

No place is perfect ;)

Holy Cow sunbeach- How much does the VA pay? I think I may be checking it out down there! I went to Port St Lucie last year and fell in love but I assumed the pay scale sucked for nurses. I had friends who moved there and made very low wages at other jobs so I never thought about anything but travel nursing in FL. Goes to show you should never assume!

For the OP- Bucks County is beautiful and still in east. I would move back there in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose. I lived in Newtown and fell in love with the whole area and the schools for my kids (public) were the best I have ever seen.

Maybe to get responses all you needed to do was bump this. Being nasty is no way to go about things.... I would have responded had I seen this sooner but I am not on much anymore since school started.

Oh and if you look at the number of responses to clicks ratio, you were actually right on track, maybe even ahead of the other threads.........

Delaware is actually quite nice in many respects. The beaches are great. The schools in many areas are good. The salaries are okay. Housing is expensive, but there have been added a lot of services in the past 10-15 years. My retired parents live there near Rehoboth. I would seriously consider going there if my husband didn't work close to where I live now. There is the A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital and Christiana Hospital in Northern Delaware which are very well-respected. Near my parents' home is Beebe in Lewes, DE which I have heard is pretty nice. They have recently added Open Heart and expanded oncology services due to the influx of retirees.

Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

Pittsburgh is an up and coming mid-size city. It has been rated by Rand McNally as one of the top 10 most liveable cities in the country. Southwestern PA is a great place to raise kids. As for culture, the University of Pittsburgh oozes culture through its architecture and there is plenty of theater, symphony, and art. UPMC is also the largest employer in the area and has control of over 50% of the local health care industry and boasts large teaching hospitals. If you want exposure to just about everything under the sun, UPMC's Presbyterian and Shadyside hospitals are the place to be. There is also Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh which has a great reputation for the new grad as far as retention. The cost of living is fairly low. Winter is snowy and cold. Salaries for new grads are surprisingly low at anywhere from 17 to 20 bucks/hr depending on the position. The public school system is undergoing some revision. There are loads of parochial schools. Some of them in the suburbs are pretty preppy. Of course you know this is a sports oriented town. It can seem pretty intense for the newcomer.

Well, i'm glad to at least get a rise out of some of you. I've spent quite a bit of time in Cali and have never really found people there to be overly rude or obnoxious. At least not noticibly more than anywhere else. Have you ever be east to NY or NJ? I don't mind crowds so much and I really don't care all that much if everyone is falling all over friendly. Just wanna live my life pay the bills and feed the kid. I've experience the traffic in LA and San Diego and SanFran but haven't found it any worse than the Philly Skukyill Distressway trying to get outta town on Fri nite. Can't imagine traffic in Anaheim with so many lanes even on downtown streets. In Cali at least most of the expressways have been built with 8-10 lanes for the modern age, In Philly, just for example, the roads were built for horses and carriages REALLY, The Skukyill has 2 lanes each way and I'm not joking. Besides, as new grads working off shifts, would traffic really be a big commute consideration? I'd like to live in a real city if possible but why not at least pick a good one? Why would you live in cold, cramped, expensive Boston (big city) and not Anaheim or (Vista (east) or Carlsbad (north) commutable to SD).

Try texas, we have most anything you want. Along the I -35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin and Dallas you can find small, medium and large hospitals. you can live in the big city, a small town, small city or medium city. Do you want to own land, some counties one acre is as low as $1000.00. You can buy homesites of 1-15 acres or more if you want, within driving distance of work. Lots of lakes out here. Lots of trees, good farmland. Winters are generally mild, everything comes to a halt if it snows! You will need a car unless you live in the big city. Cost of living runs the gammet. Big cities cost more but tend to pay more, sometimes. You can get a nice home here for under $80,000.00. Of course there are other choices along the coast or out west. Unless you want big mountains with big trees and snow we pretty much got it covered. Can you tell I'm a native:lol2: Good luck.

I have to agree with Kat!! I love Texas; I am a native who recently moved away and have plans to move back home in 3-5 years. I would say that you will do well in any of the larger cities (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio) but I would encourage you to look into the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area.

The area is about 6.2 million people large with about 1 million in Dallas & 1 million in Fort Worth with the remaining being in the suburbs. The suburbs are about a 20-30 minute commute to the city centers, but you could easily work at a hopital in the burbs. According to the hospital websites, the new grad pay is b/t $22-28/hr.

The DFW Metroplex is an international center, so you've got lots of culture, art, music, theatres, sports, retail, restaurants, etc. The cost of living is also consistently lower than other major metro areas in the country. There is no state income tax. Property taxes may seem high, but the schools are mostly ranked exemplary so I guess it's worth it. You can easily find a nice 2200+ SF home in a great neighborhood for $160-185k. If you want to spend more you can easily find 3000+ SF homes.

The weather is great if you can deal with heat as opposed to snow. Very mild winters and hot/dry summers.

The people are very welcoming!

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I'm a newer nurse who just completed school one year ago. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has been very good to me so far. The abundance of jobs, reasonable cost of living and quality of life have been great.

Read this nursing economics article:

http://www.ga.unc.edu/NCCN/research/quickfacts/Salary%20Adjustment%20Table.htm

Texas looks like it has the most bang for the buck.

Scott

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Read this nursing economics article:

http://www.ga.unc.edu/NCCN/research/quickfacts/Salary%20Adjustment%20Table.htm

Texas looks like it has the most bang for the buck.

Scott

It's true.

California offers the highest wages when cost of living is NOT taken into account. But once the cost of living is factored in, Texas nurse salaries rank at the top.

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