How is MO???

RunnerRN, BSN, RN · Oct 5, 2006

Coming into this late, but I wanted to second the recommendations for Columbia. I went to nursing school there, and would move back in a heartbeat (my husband tells me he MUST be in St. Louis for his job...blah blah blah). There are multiple hospitals (University, Boone, Columbia Regional, the VA) in the immediate area, then you have Jefferson City (the capital) 30 minutes south which has 2 hospitals and Moberly 30 minutes to the north which has 1 hospital (Moberly is definitely rural). University hospital is the only level 1 hospital between KC and STL, so we got some great traumas. Also, University Hospital has a helicopter service (Staff for Life) on premises.

Lots of green space and trails. Truly some of the best park areas and trails I've ever been on - went hiking nearly every week while I lived there! 30 minutes west is the Mo river. The mayor of Columbia has been on a big push for several years to make the city more bike/pedestrian friendly. The Katy trail runs straight through Columbia too.

The town is a little more liberal than the rest of the state (good or bad depending on your personal views). Lots of good nightlife-bars, clubs, and restaurants. We got plenty of good concerts, and the Mizzou sports are a lot of fun.

Obviously, you're in the middle of MO, so you will get the hot summers and cold winters. But, if you move here, you'll get that no matter what (the extreme southern part of the state tends to be a little bit warmer). My experience in Columbia was good with regards to the street cleanup after snowstorms though.

There are several WalMarts, but there are also LOTS of family/personally owned businesses.

My recommendation? There are a TON of just barely outlying areas to Columbia where you can get acreage and a nice house, have less than a 15-20 minute commute to the hospital, and never even look at a walmart!

Good lord, can you tell I want to move back there? My sister is at MU now, and she "lets" me visit all the time!! In fact, heading down in a few weeks for a football game!!

Good luck!

PS-I live outside of St. Louis now, and like this area - we're southwest in the country, and I get to one of the level one hospitals in less than 30 minutes. I just liked Columbia more!

RunningWithScissors · Oct 6, 2006

OK, let's get real here. The gal wants to know how Missouri is. It's a nice place to live. Only you have to let go of a few things. Like income.

Springfield? You're looking at an experienced nurse making $17-19 an hour.

Columbia? Boone's top of scale is about $22 an hour. Plus you'll rotate shifts. University is I think a little lower. Sorry, the "Children's hospital" is actually the pediatric ward of the University hospital.

Jeff City pays a little better but you'll work like a dog. Draw your own lab, transport your own patients to radiology, etc. and have 6-8 pts.

one2one · Oct 6, 2006

Well, I want to add that the cost of living in MO is lower than a lot of other places (esp CA). Besides that, money isn't everything. The wages quoted in the hospital websites are, of course, negotiable. For my money, MO is still the best place to be!!

RunnerRN, BSN, RN · Oct 6, 2006

Ditto to the above poster about cost of living. Again, you can buy a very nice, LARGE, home on a little land in Columbia for around $300,000. Try doing that in California! No, nurses here don't make a ton of money, but I think we're paid pretty well. Plus, you won't spend an hour commuting. I would rather have quality of life than extra money.

WDWpixieRN, RN · Oct 6, 2006

I was coming to make that point....the cost-of-living here, at least for housing, is MUCH lower than in CA....my brother just sold my mom's (small) 2-bedroom, 2-bath mobile on a very tiny lot over 2 hours from L.A. for almost $200,000 last month. Never mind the taxes, etc. that someone will owe on that.

Oh, and while I was staying out there cleaning the trailer for him after her passing, I was standing out back enjoying the evening when I realized I heard the sound of breaking glass on the street behind in my mom's backyard fence. Lo, and behold, it was just the local gangbangers breaking in to cars....needless to say, I didn't sleep well after that. And I'm not claiming that you can get away from problems, but that was not an uncommon occurance out there.

Everyplace has its pros and cons, there's no doubt....

BeccaznRN, RN · Oct 7, 2006

OK, let's get real here. The gal wants to know how Missouri is. It's a nice place to live. Only you have to let go of a few things. Like income.
Springfield? You're looking at an experienced nurse making $17-19 an hour.
Columbia? Boone's top of scale is about $22 an hour. Plus you'll rotate shifts. University is I think a little lower. Sorry, the "Children's hospital" is actually the pediatric ward of the University hospital.
Jeff City pays a little better but you'll work like a dog. Draw your own lab, transport your own patients to radiology, etc. and have 6-8 pts.

Yes, but like the other posters said, the cost of living is WAY lower. We ARE real here. I am doing my senior preceptorship in a hospital in St. Louis where nurses with 15-20 years experience are making around $30 an hour - GREAT pay for an area like this with a reasonable cost of living. I realize that it takes years to get to this pay, but you can still live here very comfortably as a new grad while working your way up.

MultipurposeRN · Oct 21, 2006

People talk weird (kidding). They don't know what a freeway is; they say Missour-ah instead of Missouri and sun-dah instead of sundae.

YOu must be from a different part of MO than I am . I've lived here my whole life in the SW part, just on the cusp of KS, OK, and ARK, and no one here says Missouruh, we say Missouree..also say Sunday, not sundah. We pronounce it more like SUNdy. lol

MultipurposeRN · Oct 21, 2006

You might consider working around Joplin MO, too. There's 2 big hospitals there. Wages aren't bad, COL isn't bad either. There's kind of a slump in sales of new homes, so it's a good time to buy. YOu can get a nice 2 story newer house around here anywhere from 100-200 k..that gets you quite a bit of home. There's also cheaper houses that are believe it or not fairly nice for 40-60 k, though usually they're older homes that may need some fixing up. Still, there's even some newly built homes where I live that priced around 65k a few years ago when they were first built.

WDWpixieRN, RN · Oct 21, 2006

People talk weird (kidding). They don't know what a freeway is; they say Missour-ah instead of Missouri and sun-dah instead of sundae.
YOu must be from a different part of MO than I am . I've lived here my whole life in the SW part, just on the cusp of KS, OK, and ARK, and no one here says Missouruh, we say Missouree..also say Sunday, not sundah. We pronounce it more like SUNdy. lol

I have had countless people say, "You must be from California" when I use the term "freeway"....apparently they're only "highways" here....whatever, dudes!! :)

As for the Missour-ah and sund-ah....some of our illustrious politicians have pronounced the state name as such....and the first time I had someone say, "Let's go get an ice cream sund-ah", I thought I was going to die....it was like fingernails on a chalkboard!! I actually came home and looked it up in the dictionary to see if there was a pronunciation like that (there isn't). These are usually the exception, rather than the rule, however....

Also, one thing that's gotten more evident to me after 13 years of living here -- there are MANY MANY transplanted Californians!! There are also those from other areas of the country, too....I don't think there's the huge differences in living here than anywhere else anymore, except for a bit of culture...it's not like the "old days" of 50 years ago or whatever where fads, fashion, movies, concerts, etc., took forever to get here....we have as many Starbuck's GAP stores, Sam's Clubs, Cheesecake Factories, Olive Gardens, etc., as most other mid- to large-sized cities anywhere....

runningfool · Oct 27, 2006

Ditto to the above poster about cost of living. Again, you can buy a very nice, LARGE, home on a little land in Columbia for around $300,000. Try doing that in California! No, nurses here don't make a ton of money, but I think we're paid pretty well. Plus, you won't spend an hour commuting. I would rather have quality of life than extra money.

I know what I'm about to post isn't going to be popular and it's not a personal comment to you or anyone else, but geez I don't like when people say this! I don't care if people move here and I'm not telling anyone to not move here because this is a free country and Missouri is a great place to live, but it saddens and angers me to see all the beautiful land and trees ripped up in the counties so they can stick in more cookie cutter homes in every inch of free land and then traffic gets bad because the roads aren't made to accomodate more cars. The worst part is when they want all the city convienences so they keeping building and building and building. Then no one wants to live in the city and it falls apart while there is no land left in the counties! It seems to be spurred on when people say things like "Oh you can buy a huge home here for the same price you can buy a small home there!" and it's always the cookie cutter subdivison homes in the county they're talking about. It perpetuates the building because people keep moving here and buying them for that reason.

I remember one winter it rained and then the temperature dropped so quickly the water froze on the tree branches. When the sun came up the next morning it looked gorgeous! The trees were sparkling. I will never see that again because the new people here voted for "progress" and now those trees are gone and a shopping center is in their place. That's so sad.

I'm sorry if this post is offensive to anyone, but that's how I feel.

Nurse`Chief~Chickie · Oct 27, 2006

i lived in sacramento for two years before moving back to mo. i love it here. i did my clinicals at st. johns in springfield, and i really liked it. not bad traffic to and from. commute/rush hour isn't anything compared to what it was in sac. plus springfield is adjacent to lakes and what not. i can't speak to any wages, i work at 2 rural hosptials an hr n 1/2 north. but like i said, clinicals went well, and the staff was receptive and generous with students. ( ps i haven't heard as good of things about cox)

WDWpixieRN, RN · Oct 27, 2006

I remember one winter it rained and then the temperature dropped so quickly the water froze on the tree branches. When the sun came up the next morning it looked gorgeous! The trees were sparkling. I will never see that again because the new people here voted for "progress" and now those trees are gone and a shopping center is in their place. That's so sad. I'm sorry if this post is offensive to anyone, but that's how I feel.

You know, I totally understand what you're saying....when we moved to west St. Louis County 13 years ago, it was much more rural than it is now...it is sad to see some of the building....but the reality is, this isn't the only area of the country this is happening to...before we moved here, we looked in to Oregon and Washington and Idaho as possibilities....the people in those states were HIGHLY ticked off as housing prices had skyrocketed in So. CA and residents were cashing out and paying higher and higher prices in these adjacent states for large homes and a better way of life...that in turn drove up the housing prices for the natives, brought more "city ways", and caused water shortages and other problems....I also understand that the state of Arizona and Nevada was having the same issues...so it's fairly prevalent in a lot of areas....I don't know that there are any easy answers, but I guess that's "progress"....with all of its problems and pluses.....I don't know that we can get away from it anymore....look at Branson and the Lake of the Ozarks; St. Charles/St. Peters, the Illinois cities, Kansas City; Springfield, etc. It is kind of sad, huh?