More questions about FL nursing and living

MB37 · Aug 25, 2008

I live in Tampa and am a new grad, so I don't have a ton of info about the hospitals. I did my clinicals at TGH and it seems like a very nice place to work - but I have no comparison. I've heard great things about the VA, and I know many of the Baycare hospitals have very low turnover. I'm sure if you ask enough people you'll hear positives and negatives about every hospital however. There are many options for health care employment in the area, both in Tampa proper and in surrounding areas.

As an area, it depends on what your tastes are. Tampa itself is a very large city and a car is a necessity. Traffic is awful during traditional rush hour, but if you work 12 hour shifts it's nonexistent. Tampa has several nice malls - International Plaza for your more high end stuff, also has several decent restaurants in a courtyard type area. Hyde Park Village is another more upscale area you can walk around, shop, get coffee/good food. Tampa also has a ton of chain restaurants and strip malls - something I really dislike. Downtown is finally becoming a little more active after 5 pm, which is a good thing for a city, but at the moment there still isn't much down there. Housing prices are still low compared to many areas up North, but high compared to the rest of the deep South.

My husband and I are looking at buying our first home currently, and we're concentrating on St. Petersburg. My commute should be 1500 sq. ft, 3/2 home, brand new kitchen, and there are some with pools/jacuzzis in that range. We're only looking in higher end neighborhoods - if you don't mind living somewhere more suburban you can get a lot more house for your money. Also, if you have some skill with remodeling, you can get a perfectly functional livable house, > 2000 sq ft, that you'd probably want to sink some money into over the next few years - we looked at one recently for $259 in an awesome neighborhood that really only needed a new kitchen and some landscaping.

I hope that was helpful, and if Tampa interests you at all there are many people on AN with experience working in several of these hospitals who can tell you more about staffing, ratios, etc. On the floors I was on at TGH, med surg nurses typically had 4-5 patients and ICU nurses never had more than 2. I can't speak for any floors I didn't rotate through however, and ratios were a little higher at night on the floors at least. Good luck!

NursesRmofun, ASN, RN · Aug 25, 2008

Thank you Sooooooo much MB37! That was very helpful! Good luck on your house search in St. Pete! :)