Moving to Florida

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Sep 4, 2007

Please use the "search" option and research the topic. There are hundreds of threads on this topic.

First, be aware that Florida salaries are not very competitive. The vast majority of patients are medicare, and that rarely reimburses very well, especially given the comorbidities of the elderly. Another issue is the fact that there are many For-profit hospitals, all of which try to short staff, and limit costs. So ratios can be bad. I have worked in an oncology floor in a very "entitled" area, and carried 6-7 patients on days, adding in two DCs and 2 admits, so dealt with 9 on many days. Some places staff better, but there are few unions and few protections.

The state won the unofficial "Salary Hall of Shame" award a few years ago on this BB. Pay rates have gone up a little since then. But the COL has climbed even higher.

This translates into working harder for less. There are very few young (below 60 year old patients that are healthy, walky talkies. The cardiac -tele floors stay busy, often into the slow season.

The "snowbird season" is late December to April. The floors stay packed, with rapid turnover of patients. Patients may wait hours to days in the ER for beds. In the off season, one may be low censused frequently.

Recruiters will excuse the low pay with the, "There's no state income tax", and "The cost of living is low". They will also use the, "You get paid in sunshine"......

Unfortunately TECO (tampa electric) doesn't accept sunshine to pay my bill for AC....

THe place is horribly hot and in the last three years, insurance rates for homes have gone through the roof.

I am planning currently to change my legal residence...and move to the Maryland/VA area. The hospitals, MDs, weather and pay is so much better.

Carolina who was a native Floridian.

MB37 · Sep 5, 2007

I'm a nursing student in Tampa and relatively new to the area (and the state - 1.5 years). If we had a choice we would never have left Louisiana, but we had that little storm two years ago...What everyone on these boards says about the pay seems to be true. Even go to salary.com and check it out based on your education, experience, etc - it's kind of sad when nurses here make (according to that site) $10,000/year less than in Louisiana, one of the most impoverished states in the country. What pay rates you hear will vary based on whether or not they include differentials - it seems like base rate for new grads is usually in the low $20s though, and you can make more for nights, weekends, etc. Do do a search, you'll get more specifics, but a lot of those threads are several years old.

COL is high here - much more than where I came from. My husband and I share a pretty crappy 2BR, very small, with warped wood and rotting countertops, and pay $925/month plus all utilities (even water we have to pay). If you live alone you won't pay less than $600, and that'll usually get you a studio. We do live in South Tampa though, which is a (relatively) safe neighborhood. You can pay less for more space if you're willing to live in the suburbs, but I'd rather have a worse apartment and a shorter commute. Even in the city though, you need to have a reliable car because everything is driving distance. There is no public transportation to speak of and even cabs can be hard to get sometimes. If you want to buy, "starter" homes are close to $200,000. Thankfully for us - we're planning on buying when I graduate next year - the market is in a huge downturn right now. Prices haven't dropped by huge amounts yet, but at least they've stopped rising. It seems like every third house is for sale. I know that where I live is safe, as are Hyde Park (but $$$$), and Davis Island, but I don't know much once you pass downtown. Parts of St. Pete seem like they'd actually be fun to live in, which we may consider when we buy if we can afford it.

There are some nice things about the area, so I don't totally dissuade you. My husband likes it a lot better than I do, but half his office got transferred here after the storm so he has a job and coworkers that he really likes. As long as you don't mind some heat and some rain in the summer/early fall, you can't beat the weather - especially when it's blizzarding up north. Many beautiful beaches are close by, and if you're into any kind of water sports you can do them almost year round. I really enjoy spring training baseball - last year I watched my team play 6 different teams in 6 different parks, all within a 2 hour drive (most within 1). It's a really normal, big, spread out city that happens to be on a peninsula so you're close to the water. It's not awful here or anything, it's just not the paradise that some people make it out to be. Good luck whatever you decide!

valkyria, BSN, RN · Mar 11, 2008

first, look at what i answered to aimee3. no for your other questions;

* yes there are many opportunities but there are big nursing schools down here so, if you can, schedule your job search during the middle of the semesters. if you wait until the end of the terms or graduation, you have alot of competition. you have new nurses, who do not know any better, will believe anything, and work for alot less than perhaps they should get. i do not mean anything bad by that but sometimes, recruiters for hospitals remind me of recruiters for the military: tell them lovely things to get them to sign on to a committment and then..worry about the rest, later.

* yes there are sign on bonuses. again, in south florida, it may be a little vague. at most of the big organizations here in miami, you get your first half of the sign on bonus after 90 days of employment and the other half after one full year. if you leave before the end of that first year, you owe them the money back. the same goes for tuition. at baptist health, if you go to work for another organization, you have to give them back the money they spent sending you to school or giving you a "scholarship". if you get a scholarship from baptist and go to um, barry or fiu and you skip out then you owe them the 7500$ they give you. there is always a trick. um bought cedars and those folks at cedars who did not want to work for um because um is not a union shop and cedars is, so now umh (um hospital has a number of openings as you can seeon www.miami.edu or www.baptisthealth.org or www.fhg.org in orlando. was there another question? oh, i have a masters in human resource development and administration in addition to being a bsn rn so i make it my business to know what is going on down here. oh, how could i forget? we also have a va (veterans administration) hospital down here and mrs.sonia robinson is the recruiter there and they have a website but you will have to google

* va nursing careers*. again, the truth. they pay better: much better, if you are a bsn with 3 years experience you are guaranteed 59,100 plus the sign on bonus,half after 30 days and the rest after 1 year. the benefits with the va are better. they pay for your metro-rail pass/parking, they give you an allowance for uniforms and they have an excellent health care plan. baptist has united, um has humana, and i am not sure what the va has but i remember being impressed when i read the agreement. it is difficult to get into the va unless you are a veteran or a minority. that is what the party line is anyway. i am a hispanic female,(though i look irish with red hair and green eyes), and my father is a veteran and i have experience and i could not get lucky enough to get past the first interview. you get the picture. but it is worth a look. on the website you will find all the listings for all the nursing careers at all the va facilities in florida, if you widen the search. well, i hope i was helpful. i think i answered all your questions and more but if not, let me know. :nurse:

dreamon · Mar 24, 2008

Wow Valkyria, thank you for all that information. Esp. about the VA bonus. I am not a nurse yet, currently 'city-shopping' to see which area will be better for me to move to & attend school at.

I hope they still have that sign-on bonus when I am done with my schooling. Bummer about your interview, perhaps you will try again? (Contacts? Hair-dye maybe?) j/k.

BlueRidgeHomeRN · Mar 24, 2008

:twocents:i am a happy refugee from central florida! moved here to central virginia in '04 when dh and i got the last kid out of the house and the old dog died!

do not miss the hurricaines, the heat, the traffic, the overpriced housing market, or the rotten pay. we lived in orlando for 15 years (parents were living there when we got out of the army) and watched the congestion and prices quadruple. i did get a great education at ucf, however, but am not sure what the wait list is like now.

some folks love the heat and are willing to overlook the negatives--just don't move thinking of nothing but beaches and sunshine. there is a popular bumper sticker in fl..

"some of us aren't on vacation":lol2:

valkyria, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2008

dreamon, i have green eyes, red hair, people think i am irish. i have a spanish last name, from my father, and i was born in germany. he was military and so am i. i speak spansih, though most people do not see it coming. i would never use contacts or hair dye, though i know you were just kidding. i just never thought that the va of all places would descriminate, naive i guess. blueridgehomern, i can appreciate what you mean, we came down here after my dad retired and i have been waiting to go back to atlanta. now the market is down for real estate and here comes another hurricane season. it is a nice place to visiit, and my brother lives in orlando, and i can visit there too once or twice, but i do not feel like i am home.

hawkfdc · Mar 28, 2008

do not miss the hurricaines

don't worry, as long as my flood insurance is paid we won't have a storm (cliff notes-bought flood after katrina, haven't seem a storm since).

i am in jacksonville and am still in school. however, we have a decent housing market (prices are coming down) and the "rumor", and i stress rumor as i only heard it from a nurse manager, is that st. vincent's is paying a $25,000 signing bonus for experienced nurses for a 3 year commitment. i also heard that st. luke's is paying $10,000 for a 3 year commitment.

in jacksonville, there's shands which is affiliated with u of florida, a teaching hospital/level 1 trauma, baptist system with 3 satellite hospitals and the big house plus wolfson children's hospital, st. vincent's and st. luke's (st.v just purchased st.l), and memorial medical center/orange park medical center, sister hospitals about 30 miles apart but for profit. and also a mayo clinic. and brooks rehabilitation (adjoining memorial medical)

i'll let more experienced nurses speak about the work conditions, i only know what i see once a week during clinicals.