I need help with when and where to apply

[hellooonurse28]

I am currently living in Cleveland and have been getting information from you lovely Texas nurses for the past couple of months:) Very appreciated. Anyway, I am deciding between three apartments--one in Grapevine, one in Irving, one in Fort Worth. I will be moving beginning of July, my question is when should I start applying for jobs? I don't want to apply too soon and irritate them by not being able to start for months, but don't want to wait for the last minute. Would applying 2-3 months before my move date be a good timeline? Any opinions on this would be helpful. And I am in the process right now of getting my Texas license now.

By the time I move, I will have 2 years exp. as an RN (BSN) with skilled nursing and med surg work. I am trying to break out of the med-surg/typical hospital setting. My three big interests are child or adult psych (I had clinicals in an independent inpatient psych clinic and would really love a setting like that!) public health/school/community nursing, and long term care/alzheimer's setting. I have been doing some research finding these types of jobs, but any help about places you've heard that are good, bad, or other places to look for these jobs would be really helpful. For public health jobs, I've looked at different counties' board of health websites...any other ideas?

Sorry for it being so long, I really appreciate your help though!!:)

[DesertKat]

Weeellll-

I wouldn't find an apartment until you know about where you want to work. It would be pretty hard luck to live over an hour away from work due to traffic. I would think that looking about two months out should be sufficient- it took me about a week from interview to offer in a small town and in San Antonio so I think it would be about comparable.

[studentforlife]

You could always speak with the nurse recruiter at any hospital hospital that interests you. They are usually very helpful.

[hellooonurse28]

Thanks for the help so far. I'm leaning towards Grapevine, but even if I do end up in the apartment in Irving they are only 20 minutes away from each other.

[Lunaticus, LPN]

Grapevine's a wonderful spot; I'm only a few minutes away, in Keller. I'm still a student, but I will give you a tiny piece of advice. . . DFW traffic sucks! Seriously, it will regularly take me 20 minutes just to get from one end of Grapevine to the other in rush hour traffic. I attend school in Irving, and I have to set aside a MINIMUM of an hour and fifteen minutes to make it from my house to school. The vast majority of the time is consumed trying to get through Grapevine. Again, Grapevine is a great town; just don't finalize your living situation until you know where you're going to be working. It would be a shame to waste precious hours that could be spent sleeping sitting in your car instead!