Moving to MD Soon...Need Some Guidance?

[Izzy21]

Hello everyone, this is my first time ever on allnurses.com so please bear with me as I really hope I am doing this right. So a little background on myself and my situation: I graduated nursing school in NJ in 2016 with my BSN. I've worked as a nurse for 4.5 years in a subacute/LTC setting with multiple roles (rose from staff nurse to charge nurse to facility nursing supervisor for evenings; was offered unit manager position for 2 units but turned it down), but I have recently broken out of my comfort zone finally to move into an acute care setting hospital. It's something I've always wanted to do, but would always reason myself out of it. Now the deed is done, I start my new job in an acute care setting hospital within a month. However, I do have a serious relationship in Maryland and so was considering a move down to Maryland after ~ 6 months to 1 year of experience in my new setting. I guess my questions are the following:

1. Is it okay to quit a job so soon and go for another job within that time frame, or is it just professional suicide?

2. I am looking to be around the Bel Air, MD area hopefully (wouldn't want to commute more than ~ 45 minutes), so what kind of average salary am I looking at (I understand there would be a difference between NJ and MD of course, but I am just wondering how high the difference is so I can get a more realistic idea of what kind of apartment rental ranges to be looking at)?

3. Anyone from the area: which hospitals seem to have the highest nurse satisfaction rate with their workplace? Salary is important of course, but it is just as important or more so to me that I end up somewhere I can continue to learn and grow and have a great supportive team. I understand no place is perfect, I just don't want to make a huge mistake and end up in hell, so anyone with any advice on how their workplace is please I am all ears.

Any input from nurses in the area would be so greatly appreciated. I've been researching extensively on the subject as well already, but with regards to salary I am getting such huge ranges online and I'm not sure if maybe it's because some of them are just so out of date or if that's really the difference between NJ and MD? So any updated real time information would be so helpful and appreciated.

Again I hope I am doing this right as this is my first time ever on allnurses.com, but if not please let me know so I can tweak for any future inquiries I may have. And again thank you all so much for any information, advice, or guidance to come.

[Dani_Mila, BSN, RN]

Hey, I'm at Elkton. The pay in MD in my opinion is quite cheap. The places I have applied to offers 27-34 for RNs. Whereas, in PA (Phillly area) offers 35-45 for RNs. Great for you that you finally left LTC. I am also trying to leave and trying to apply to an acute care setting job! How are you faring? BTW, there are plenty of community hospitals near Bel-Air. You might also get better rate down there since that's the rich people area.

[Izzy21]

Hey Dani_Mila, actually I am not really faring that well. I am basically about to quit today if I cannot get an emergency leave of absence, which would put me in the "quitting without notice" bucket and put me back about 4.5 months so far that I've about put in. But I am just so mentally and emotionally gone, I just don't think I can take anymore but I just don't know exactly how to quit too. I am scared to burn my bridges here because overall it is a decent hospital. It's just the stress and my already fragile mental health to begin with that I've never actually acknowledged before. I am unsure at this point what to do about it or how to fix this hole I've created for myself. I just feel so bad because I feel like I've wasted my time and of course the time of the hospital/company because again overall not a bad hospital just bad stress and just internal battles I've never actually dealt with either. I am very conflicted and unclear on how I should proceed.