Moving to florida

valkyria, BSN, RN · Mar 11, 2008

ok, here we go. i live in miami but have looked in orlando so i have a little idea of what it is there. first, everyone raves about baptist health systems of south florida, they have baptist, south miami, homestead, mariners, all the "urgent care centers" and a womens' care center too. they have an agreement with miami dade college for a joint nursing program that is actually on the campus of baptist hospital. i was told by hr there that they do not have a nursing shortage! i heard that the enviornment at south miami hospital was different so i went there. it is, it is more stuffy and clickish. we also have tenet health systems. they have coral gables hospital, palmetto, hialeah, and northside hospital. they pay better but they are a very closed enviornment and god forbid if you are a new nurse, like i was when i started in their icu! they know nothing about how to treat,take care of or nurture their employees. they are all about company. we also have hca columbia healthcare, they have kendall regional hospital. those folks just spent an incredible amount of money revamping their facility and they built a whole new building for their l&d suites, mother baby and the outpatient wing. the really good thing about them is if you go to work for them, your time is transferrable to any hca facility in the country! and, they have facilities in alaska! we also have miami medicine. a name affectionately given to the huge university of miami/jackson memorial hospital/ miller school of medicine/sylvester comprehensive cancer center/ryder trauma center complex. the best doctors in the world go there to learn, practice and do research. they have the only level 1 trauma center in the southeast, and the busiest er second only to los angeles county. the latest technology, state of the art mri and radiology facility, they recently bought cedars hospital(now university hospital) and they are opening outpatient facilites creeping up the east coast of florida. they have the greatest surgeons in the world in every major specialty from neurosurgery to otolaryngology(the chairman of that department pioneered cochlear implant surgery) to stem cell research for cancer, spinal cord injury and soon for traumatic brain injury. the pay is perhaps not as high as at baptist and the highest was tenet but the opportunity for growth and variety at um are beyond compare. a benefit for um employees is that after one year of fulltime employment you can have tuition remission so every degree is covered except jd and md. in orlando, the best is,of course, florida hospital group. they nearly have a monopoly on health care there but for good reason. everything um has, they have and more. in addition, the cost of living in orlando, of course depending on what suburb you live in, is somewhat cheaper than in miami. also, recruiters at fhg have a program that if you sign a contract to work with them, they pay a certain amount of relocation expenses! fhg have internships, as does jackson, in nearly every specialty you could want and they recruiters at fhg while answer their email and send you all the information quickly. jackson recruiters will answer your email but you may have to be a little more of a pain in the butt with them to keep things on track. the um recruiters are right there for you, chuck is great. each facility i talked about has a website that is very detailed though some are harder than others to navigate. i have worked with nurses that say that memorial hospital in broward is a good place to work but i cannot offer any support for that assertion. i hope i was helpful to you. i guess it all depends on where you want to live and what you want to achieve. oh, i graduated with a lady that works for memorial in st.cloud, around kissimee but on the west coast by the water. she lives on the beach, or right across the street, and she loves it. let me know if i can help you more.:icon_roll

mcs1505 · Mar 11, 2008

I'm thinking about moving to flordia, the destin area. Can anyone give me ANY info about pay rates, good are to live, good hospitals to work at. Any information would be so helpful.
Thanks
Amy

I live in Niceville (about 20 minutes from Destin) and work at a hospital in Destin. Unfortunately I'm not a nurse yet (just got accepted last week) so I don't know about their pay but the Sacred Hear Hospitals here (Destin and Pensacola) are amazing to work at. They are the top rated hospitals in the area and they take wonderful care of their employees. I see OB is your specialty: they just opened their Family Birth Place in October and it's their prized jewel. (It's gorgeous and completely pimped out). If you're moving here you should definitely take a look at them.

Pretty much everywhere around here costs an arm and a leg to live. It's usually cheaper in Fort Walton Beach and Crestview.

untamable07 · Mar 18, 2008

I agree with the previous poster. My brother lives in Navarre which is close to Destin. It is a beach town and condos/apartments are very costly. Great shopping outlets though!!! :0)