Help! Torn between two job offers!

[alkang_rn]

Hi I have two job offers and I am torn between the two. I am trying to get into the public health nursing field and I'm located in SoCal. I have been a med surg nurse for about 3 years. 

First job is for orange county and it's a public health nursing (PHN) job for employee health. From what I'm told, 80% of the job is out of office and doing health screenings/n95 testings/TB testing/immunizations for employees around OC. I will have to use my own car. I will be partnered up with another nurse for these screenings majority of the time. No work from home days. No opportunity for growth from what I am told but they are working on a supervisor position (no promises). There is option to work 4 days 40 hours instead of the usual 5 but this will have to be worked out with the manger. Salary is 97k and 45 min commute but commute could increase depending on where I am giving services for the day. Max salary is 125k. The interviewers were really friendly and positive. They said that they will be with me every step of the way and will make sure I am comfortable before letting me do things on my own. 

Second job is for Los Angeles County for a district public health nurse. I will be managing my own case load of patients and probably will have one or two diseases that I will trace and manage for my district. I will be doing home visits. I may have to assist patients in skid row but this is not often from what I am told. I will have to use my own car. After training for two months, I will be able to have 2 work from home days. There is opportunity for growth in this position. There are supervisor positions that I can move into after 3 years of experience. Supervisor has been pleasant to me and sounds supportive. Salary is 103k and commute is 1 hr-1 hr 20 min. Max salary with time is $169k as a supervisor and $150k if not.

My end goal is to be public health nurse supervisor. Or maybe I could use these skills to transfer to being a case manager working from home? Just throwing ideas out there. I feel that being a supervisor is best achieved with LA county but if I transfer to being a district  PHN in OC (after a few years in employee health) this is possible too. I want to later move to OC as well. I want to raise a family there and my parents would be close. No plans to start a family for another 4-5 years. I live at home currently but I am planning to move out with my partner in a year or so depending on my job location as he works from home.  Please weigh in your opinions 🙂 I would appreciate your insight with these jobs! 

[Golden_RN, MSN]

I've always wanted to explore these kinds of jobs for myself and honestly, they both sound great.  I would compare the benefits packages of both counties, including pensions, before making a decision.  Keep in mind that a fairly large amount of money may be taken out of each paycheck to account for retirement/pension, so if you are already taking a pay cut from acute care, this will be another factor that affects the take home pay of a county job. 

I like the idea of doing screenings w/ another nurse (OC job).  I did similar as a school nurse and it was kind of fun.  And if OC is where you want to live and raise a family, you may not want to commute to LA.

[alkang_rn]

Thank you for your input! I will definitely check out and compare the benefit packages. I like the idea of a pension but yea the paycheck coming home would be lower for sure! Something I will have to budget for. I am leaning towards OC! My partner and I want to move in together soon in OC. I think having a shorter commute will help me mentally as well :)