Moving to Baton Rouge

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My husband and I are seriously considering making a move to Baton Rouge from northeast Louisiana and I wanted to get some input on the various hospitals in the area (OLOL, Baton Rouge General, Women's, Ochsner, etc). What are the pros and cons of the hospitals and what kind of pay scale can I expect? How is the market for nurses in the area?

I currently have a little over a year of experience on a telemetry floor and have been working nights. I am not married to the idea of working in any particular area at the moment, just trying to find what fits me best. Thanks in advance for the information. Have a great day! :D :)

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Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.

OLOL pays pretty low, but most folks that work there love it that I have talked to. OLOL is a teaching hospital, so you will see a lot of students. OLOL is hard to get on too, as well. Pay: CNA 7-9; LPN 13-15; RN 18-22

Baton Rouge General has two locations. One is near the commercial strip on Blue Bonnet and the other is on Florida in an older part of the city. They pay a little more or about the same, but all I have heard are rumors. BRG is a teaching college as well.

Oschner is a very nice newer facility. They were going to open up a new birthing center in a bit, if not already. I heard they pay a little better.

Promise hospital is a LTC in the area that has branches on Mancuso in a building near OLOL, up on a floor at BRG Mid-City, and up on a floor at Oschner. They pay the best - if you like LTAC bedside. The have High Observation, which you get a max 2 patients, but you need ICU/PACU/etc, to get it.

Regency has a branch here run by Cypress, a company that manages Nursing Homes. But, for some reason, they tend to get way too much turnover for some reason.

There are agencies like Maxim and Advantage. They pay better than most of the hospitals CNA 10-16 LPN 17-25 RN 26+ - if you can tolerate unreliable work schedules and out-of-the blue cancellations (some times) going to the same 2 places located far way/no notice and other temp service annoyances. Sometimes they get good jobs, though.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.

There's also Lane Regional in Zachary (just north of Baton Rouge) Lane is a smaller community hospital. Not sure of the pay, but I have friends who have been there for 10+ years and love it.

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Sounds about right, but you should know its hard to come by any type of nursing job these days in Baton Rouge. I've heard that Woman's is on a hiring freeze. This area is saturated with nurses, new and experienced.

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OLOL's new grad pay is 19.75/hr

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Specializes in Emergency.

Oh my God, if you're gonna move, move to Texas! Everything is worse in Louisiana! But if you come to BR, I think you probably want to work at Woman's if anywhere, they are magnet and from what I understand actually respect their nurses. The EMTs that come through my department express that the nurses at Our Lady of the Lake are....."rude" and they seem to think the ones at Lane are....."incompetent." They don't really say much about the ones at Earl K Long or Oschner though, that's probably a good thing. I think the reputation of nurses is a big deal at a facility because it reflects a culture and how the hospital treats its staff. If I were to start over, I am thinking about a job where you would work for the state, like Hunt's prison or EKL....or move to TX, AZ, NM......

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Happy to announce that I already have an interview at OLOL. Applied yesterday and got a call from HR yesterday.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, Hospice.
Happy to announce that I already have an interview at OLOL. Applied yesterday and got a call from HR yesterday.

Good luck!:yeah:

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Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.

Even for the lower pay, I think that is a good choice.

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