Hospitals in Bluffton, Ft. Wayne region

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2008

I see you are a NICU nurse. Parkview North just opened a brand new, absolutly beutiful 32 bed NICU and they are hiring.....

Lutheran also has a nice NICU not as cosmetically nice as Parkviews, but Lutheran is known more as the childrens hospital in FW.

I have friends that work at both, and hear good and bad about both places. Parkview, I know "upstaffs" and Lutheran fas as I know does not. Parkview is only upstaffing as needed till they become fully staffed.

I hope you will like Indiana, I do.

New grad RNs are hiring in at the 20.00 range and Lutheran will count years as a tech/cna/lpn as half year served as a nurse, so you may make a bit more there. Each now is offering attractive sign on and retention bonuses as well as tuition forgivness.

Good luck---you are in demand here in Indiana and will have no trouble finding the job with the hours you desire.

Innurse78 · Mar 17, 2008

Depends where you want to live in Indiana. City, burbs, country.........

Indianapolis is very competative for pay and jobs. You can get some great jobs there and CC nurses are always needed but its a very busy city.

Clarian, I have heard, is a good network of hospitals that is within the city limits and short distance from Indy like Greenwood.

If you want to work with kids, Riley Hospital in Indianapolis is excellent!

If big city is what you want, I would suggest Indy. If you want smaller town, the pay won't be a good and places to work might be harder to find or might be a longer drive to a good facility.

You may want to inquire about relocation incentives and help getting your IN license, if you don't have it already.

PS: If your buying a home, you will have a great choice as its a buyers market.

Good for the buyer, unfortunatly bad for the seller.

Good luck!

brenda

Innurse78 · Mar 17, 2008

Hey racingmom..................

Where is Lutheran? So what would a new RN with 18 years exp as an LPN make there?

Brenda :)

cc_nurse · Mar 18, 2008

I see you are a NICU nurse. Parkview North just opened a brand new, absolutly beutiful 32 bed NICU and they are hiring.....
Lutheran also has a nice NICU not as cosmetically nice as Parkviews, but Lutheran is known more as the childrens hospital in FW.
I have friends that work at both, and hear good and bad about both places. Parkview, I know "upstaffs" and Lutheran fas as I know does not. Parkview is only upstaffing as needed till they become fully staffed.
I hope you will like Indiana, I do.
New grad RNs are hiring in at the 20.00 range and Lutheran will count years as a tech/cna/lpn as half year served as a nurse, so you may make a bit more there. Each now is offering attractive sign on and retention bonuses as well as tuition forgivness.
Good luck---you are in demand here in Indiana and will have no trouble finding the job with the hours you desire.

Wow thanks! That is very encouraging :-) That info will give me a place to start, we were hoping to get some relocation assistance as we are coming a bit of a distance in eastern Pa. It sounds like I will make less per hour, but the overall cost of living appears to be substantially less so it should be a wash. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find another NICU job and would have considered L & D, but would rather not have to work with adults otherwise...

If you don't mind I may message you in the future for other info-with your permission of course

cc_nurse · Mar 18, 2008

Depends where you want to live in Indiana. City, burbs, country.........
Indianapolis is very competative for pay and jobs. You can get some great jobs there and CC nurses are always needed but its a very busy city.
Clarian, I have heard, is a good network of hospitals that is within the city limits and short distance from Indy like Greenwood.
If you want to work with kids, Riley Hospital in Indianapolis is excellent!
If big city is what you want, I would suggest Indy. If you want smaller town, the pay won't be a good and places to work might be harder to find or might be a longer drive to a good facility.
You may want to inquire about relocation incentives and help getting your IN license, if you don't have it already.
PS: If your buying a home, you will have a great choice as its a buyers market.

Thanks to you too! We would prefer to stay pretty rural to small suburb if possible. We live in a mid-sized town now and would like a different environment for the kiddos. I am sending for my IN license via endorsement tomorrow after I get my pic taken for it. It seems pretty straight forward, but I wonder if I can start putting my name into different facilities while that is in the works. You have been super helpful, its very appreciated; this is a scary move as I have been born and raised in the town we are looking to move from-:uhoh21:

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2008

Cost of living in Indiana is cheap cheap cheap--except for gasoline!!! 3.38 today...eegadds.

Anyways---Bluffton is a very nice small town. About 15-20 min drive to both Parkview and Lutheran.

Ft.Wayne is surrounded by small towns ( I live in one and LOVE it)

I work with a nurse who just moved here from the East Coast, she actually lives in Bluffton too. Anyways, she is making less per hour, but her savings account has never been so big because of the cost of living.

I do not know though about relocation pkgs. Not typical in the nursing world--at least in this part of the region. Why are you moving here? Is a spouse able to get a relo pkg?

Since they are offering sign on bonuses you could use that towards relocation, but they are paid out in 1/3. at 30 days. 6 months and 12 months.

Feel free to send me a message.

Before I decided to become an RN. I spent 10 years in the HR industry and handled all the interviewing/hiring/relocation for many fortune 500 comps. So I love to talk about new jobs...remember everything is negotiable. I can get some referrals your way as my contact list has obviously merged into the medical field now.

cc_nurse · Apr 3, 2008

Hi everyone,

Well I have already been receiving phone calls of interest lol, I guess this will be easier than I thought :-)

So far I have an interview scheduled for Clarian North (NICU) in Carmel for the next to last week in April, and heard from Dupont (L&D) this morning, will likely interview with them during that same time period if I can schedule everything well.

I haven't heard from Parkview yet, was thinking of calling them and inquiring if they received my info and if I could visit while there, making the most of my visit and all.

My newest question is whether any of you have worked for or heard anything about Dupont as an employer? Clarian sounded nice, but I wasn't initially interested in the Indy area so want to explore my options very thoroughly.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Apr 3, 2008

I have always wanted to work for Dupont and maybe someday once my kids are bigger I will. Dupont is totally nurse driven. They have wonderful perks for their nurses. They are my dream hospital. Best of luck. I am assuming the Dupont interview if for L&D. They deliver the most babies in FW. I dont think they have a NICU though. if they do, it is very small and they are pretty big/healthy babies. Would not be your typical NICU.

Dupont actually has a concierge ( I know I spelled it wrong) service for their nursing staff.

Best of luck-cant wait to hear the results of the interviews.

cc_nurse · Apr 3, 2008

Yup the Dupont job was L&D, the NICU there I think only had 13 beds or so...They have called twice, the first time not realizing I still live in Pa and wanting me to come in next week (!) and the second time reiterating that I still lived in Pa and that they would get back to me soon *shrugs*...I'm nervous about potentially learning a new job in a new town, but I really did want to locate in that area more so than Indy, so we will see. I hope they get the whole "I have to visit" aspect straightened out soon ;-) I realized after I wrote that post that you had PM'd me about Dupont previously, oops...It makes me really excited to get an interview though!

nurseaboveboard · Apr 5, 2008

cc_nurse, you do not mention the population of your current town, and exactly what you mean by a "different" environment for your children. I think you meant more opportunities? I for sure don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but I personally would not live in Fort Wayne for love, nor money. Maybe it is just my perception, but I feel there is too much crime there. That said, I agree that they have some pretty good places to work. Like any hospitals, I have heard both good and bad, and have worked with nurses from both Parkview and Lutheran. Of course INDY, being bigger than Fort Wayne, would have more crime issues, but certainly some good opportunities too. I would imagine you have checked the stats available re crime. Don't want to offend any Fort Wayne lovers, but good to get all sides too.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2008

Nurseabove board---I am sorry to hear you dont like FW. I spent the day there with my 9 year old today, saw a movie and jefferson point and then lunch at Casas. I lived in FW for about 10 years and felt totally safe.

Now we do live in a small town about a half hour away and I think that is where CC nurse is wanting to go to the surrounding areas.

but as far as the crime. I feel perfectly safe having my family in FW.we have a great zoo, jefferson point is wonderful, we have gone skating at headwaters park this winter.

I think if you stay out of certain nieghbor hoods and dont buy drugs, you will be OK, but everyone is entitled to thier opinion.

By all accounts though, I love my small town over ft.wayne. 1 reason, we have a bunch of kids and FW is getting too big, I like knowing I can track my kids down in 3 or less phone calls and be able to drive tehm to thier friends homes in less than 5 min drive time.

Right now though I know I could get a much nicer/bigger/better neighborhood of a home in FW for the money than I am getting in my small town. Ft.Waynes housing mkt has reached its peak, and the homes are selling at great prices. For that reason, I am somewhat jelouse of my FW friends.