Good offer or keep on moving?

What exactly is rural health?

I don't live in PA, but where I live, southern Michigan, I am told that we have some of the best hourly wages for RNs in the country, and $25/hour (with full benefits, a little more without them) for a new grad is competitive around here. I am a well seasoned RN (22 years), and at my last inpatient Med/Surg job I was making $28.50/hour base pay with full benefits, liberal PTO, and a 403K. Contingent positions here usually pay well over $30/hour.

I think it really depends on where you live and the cost of living there. I have seen nurses on these forums who live in other states and make somewhat less than we do up here so they are discussing hourly rates between themselves that I would consider low as compared to my part of the country. It's all relative to where you live, but I don't think that $25/hour is bad for a new grad unless this rural nursing is a field position that involves putting hundreds of miles on your personal vehicle every week, and then I would expect that you would get extra mileage pay.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but Id say it depends on how long you have been looking for work and how many offers you have received. Lets face it. The economy is horrible. Grads are having a very hard time finding work. That offer seems decent to me considering the area (I can't imagine cost of living to be very high in rural PA). I guess it depends on how badly you need a job, and how able you would be to sit and wait for the next offer. Plus, it would depend on if your spouse (if you have one) can find work in that area too.

When I earned my BSN in '07 I moved to Wyoming for my first job (from northern Virginia). They were hiring big time and I am so glad I did it. I got two solid years of med/surg under my belt. Now I am psych RN, but having that experience was invaluable when it came to moving away. My options were wide open as far as where I wanted to live and what I wanted to do. Now I have no family other than my dog, but being flexible in your first job is huge. So many people complain about getting a job out of school, but they want only one specific place. Or one specific hospital. It is important to be flexible. There are places that need nurses much worse than other places. So..look around be flexible, and it pays off in the end.

Congratulations on the job offer! That definitely doesn't sound like a bad starting wage at all, and especially in an area that doesn't have a high cost of living. I think the larger cities/hospitals pay just a bit higher...but i believe we may get taxed more as well (esp NYC and California). It's also much harder to get a job in general for a new grad (positions for new grads are almost nonexistent actually, its the new nurses with 2+yrs of medsurg experience that have more opportunities). The cost of living is expensive in cities as well.

I understand that it will be difficult to uproot your family for work...however, it depends on how you feel about the job and the hospital as well. Do you think it'll be a good place to learn and grow? Getting in your initial 2 yrs so you can move on to a more prime position later on is an opportunity you can't pass up. And hopefully you will get raises or added bonuses if you get extra certifications or during review time as well :) I just graduated in June, and during our last semester, the professors actually told us to apply everywhere, and to be prepared to relocate for our jobs since the market for new grads in NYC is almost nonexistent with regard to the hospitals. I'm casting my net wide...applying to hospitals in NYC, NYS, Boston, Florida, California, and Texas. We'll see what happens.

I think that's a good wage. I too am a new grad from Pa who just excepted a job at a major city hospital for 2.00 more per hr. My cost of living is higher near the city and I also have to pay city wage tax, and that's not even including the crazy parking fees I have to pay. They are still offering the same starting wage as they were on 07'. Its hard out there for new grads. So I would personally take the job. Get your experience and move on down the road if you still aren't satisfied.

Where in pa do you live? Im in the lehigh valley area and started at 24/hr, and thats pretty much the standard around here.. what were you expecting?

consider yourself lucky that you got an offer

Sounds great for rural PA! Nurses in Erie start at way less.

That actually sounds like a good offer. I have 3+ years experience in the northern suburbs of Detroit and my base wage without shift diffs is less than 50 cents more than that. Does that wage take any shift diffs into account?

I think the bigger question is if having to uproot your family and move to be closer to this job, and if that's worth it. Take into account the moving expenses, job opportunities for your spouse (if they are able to work), and transitioning children to new schools (if you have any).

Is there any way you could 'test it out' by accepting the job, lumping your scheduled days together and commuting back home for a stretch of days off? Perhaps you could stay with any friends/family near the facility to save some money on housing, or find a B&B/somewhere inexpensive to stay....The wage sounds like a good offer to me, but there are obviously other things you may want to consider :)

Im in PA as well, suprised to hear that Lehigh starts lower than in Luzerne county (where I am) was thinking of eventually going to your hospital They seem to have nice schedule set ups ..ie 9 months on 3 off ...but i dont know all of the details and I would have to drive one hour to work, right now i drive about 10 minutes anyway I'm also intersted to hear that someone posted pay is better if you dont take the benefits. Well in PA (at least at my facility) its not like that. I refused the benefits (have my husbands insurance etc) and this did not raise my pay one cent. I was kind of disappointed, I guess thats all in the past, now we just have corporations running health care, and things have changed.

Thanks for all the responses; I ended up accepting the job today. Some notes:

westieluv - Thanks for the advice. Rural health just means healthcare in a rural area. It faces slightly different issues since the population is lower and there are fewer resources. For example, rural health hospitals typically do not have a separate pediatric wing/floor, so they end up on a regular med surg floor, etc.

obizyanka - Good guess, but no, not in LeHigh (much, much further out) =). I applied to a hospital in Luzerne county that you might be at, but even though my info got handed to the nurse manager it didn't really advance from there. So different county, different hospital . I'm sure it varies by hospital, but I'm surprised your pay didn't go up when you refused benefits. To cover my family it would cost about $250 a month; opting out would put that back in my paycheck. What coverage did you have beforehand?

Thanks again for all the suggestions. I guess I was originally disappointed because I was given the impression that in my current area, new grad RNs in hospitals started at, the least, 60k a year; my area has a relatively high cost of living, so I guess I was hoping it would scale down to *around* 55k outside the area, before a night differential. I'm now finding 60k here just isn't the case here anymore.

I know a lot of people scoff and say, "Take it! Any job is better than no job!" But taking it means relocating my family, and attempting to take the risk of having my wife be a stay at home, and taking her away from her job (and government employee benefits). I know the economy is tanked, but you can go broke picking the wrong job, and I just want to be cautious.

Thanks for hearing me out =)