Moving to Michigan....

I am getting married and moving to Michigan by the end of the year. I would like information on hospitals in the Detroit/Southfield area. My specialty is NICU. I've never lived anywhere except TX so I need information on how to get my Michigan license. Also what's the weather really like in Michigan??

I do not know anything about the Hospitals in Detroit, but you do have to contact the state of michigan BON and they can help you with getting your license in this state. Go to http://www.mi.gov and you can get most of your info there. The weather is another story, but I live right on lake Michigan and we had snow up until just two weeks ago, the weather is forever changing. Good Luck

Hello, I work in Detrot @ Hutzel Womans Hospital. Childrens Hospital is right next door to us and they have a awesome NICU. Call the Detroit Medical Center and ask to be connected to Human Resources 1-313-745-7555 they also have a wabsite where you may apply http://www.dmc.org good luck in your job search!!!!!

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I am getting married and moving to Michigan by the end of the year. I would like information on hospitals in the Detroit/Southfield area. My specialty is NICU. I've never lived anywhere except TX so I need information on how to get my Michigan license. Also what's the weather really like in Michigan??

I am also a NICU nurse from Texas (currently in Plano) and we will be moving to the Detroit area in the next few months. My husband put together a spread sheet of a lot of hospitals in the area that have NICUs. As soon as we have more details on our move I'm going to start pursuing a job. I'm about to send in my nursing license application.

Where are you in the process now? Any advice? Do you know where you'll be living? (I worked at Texas Children's for a while in 2001 in Houston, by the way)

I am moving to Michigan next week with my 2 kids. I am driving from Texas. Is it hard to find an LVN job in Michigan. I have enough money to last for 1 month. Is it possible to find a job in a month? I started looking at Michigan job bank and other websites i can find but theres not that many openings. I am thinking maybe some openings are listed in the local newspaper. I am a little bit scared moving because I dont know anybody except for my former classmate who moved there last November. She is just renting a room. I am a filipino and hoping to find a filipino Nurse who can help me and my kids.

If anyone can give me a lead to any Nursing Home LVN opening-- i would highly appreciate it.

If anyone has a spare bedroom where i can rent for a month until i find a job, that would be very helpful.

I appreciate anyone who could help us.

Thank you.

biotoLVN, Wow, people leave Michigan to move to Texas and look for work, not the other way around. I hope its not too late for you to rethink your plans.

1 month of living expenses is cutting it very close. My ex husband is an engineer with a masters degree and has been out of work over a year up here. Not that it has anything to do with nursing, but Im just saying the grass is NOT greener in Michigan than in Texas.

Yes I definitely don't think that moving from texas to michigan is a good idea. Its very hard to find work up here and the weather is horrible! It could be sunny and spring like, rainy, and snow all in the same week! I am definitely trying to get AWAY from michigan. In the event that you HAVE to move here I'm not sure of who has the best NICU. Beaumont is continously laying off so I would be nervous working there. I would try St. John, henry ford, or DMC. Hope this helps out some but if u can help it I definitely wouldn't leave texas for michigan!

You ask if it's possible to find a job in a month in Michigan. Really, right now it is not. There are very few job openings, because no one is voluntarily leaving their job, and when there are openings, there are 100 or more applicants.

Also, it sounds like bad weather worries you. Winter in Michigan lasts through March, and the roads are slick. Do you have experience driving in snow?

Where is your classmate working? Is she in any position to hire you?

Double-posting to add that according to these unemployment statistics, one in five people in Michigan are not working or can only find part-time work.

Everything I am about to say is based completely on personal opinion and has not been researched at all. All "evidence" is based purely on my recollection and imagination where memory failed me. Anyone who spots a factual error is probably both correct and smarter than me.

So here we go.

Michigan is flat out tough right now. Jobs are scarce, nursing or otherwise. Our recession started around 2003 or 2004. Even the Governor has said publicly that unemployment within the city limits of Detroit is probably around 50%. In the suburbs around 20% is probably fair. Right now, I would say the rule of moving here is the same as moving to a tropical paradise- come with a job, don't show up looking for one.

Nursing jobs are hard to find because a few things have happened:

1. Retried or non-working nurses have returned to the market when their SO lost a job (and make no mistake, in the Detriot area ALL jobs are tied to the auto industry).

2. Nurses eligible to retire have put retirement off due to the economy and the evaporation of the 401K's

3. Payor mixes have shifted towards medicaid and indigents due largely to unemployment (no job = no insurance). As a result some hospitals are closing beds, units, moving to out-patient only, etc. Staff is being shifted where ever possible. so internal candiates are hired first. Layoff have happened in at least one system.

I know it's not really good anywhere, but it's probably worse here.

As far as weather goes, it can be as tough as the economy. We haven't had as much snow as we have in the last two years, but it does snow here (much less than the west side of the state though).

I think the schools stay open until totals get up around 8" and there hasn't been enough time to clear the roads. We go to work on time with 6", we just take a little longer to get there. No one panics and the grocery stores are never stripped bare.

It gets cold. Sometimes really cold. Single digit temps are not uncommon in the late winter. Teens and 20's are pretty typical. The cold starts as early as October and it can snow into late April.

We're in the north, so the sun goes down before 5 pm and won't come up till well after you started work. The days are short here. Not as short as in Northern Minnesota or Alaska, but short enough.

Spring is usually nice, but often wet. Trees get their leaves back in Mid May.

By June it's hot and usually humid. 80%+ humidity is the norm for most of the summer. I am guessing that temps are usually in the low to mid 80's but 90's and even the occasional 100 happen.

Fall is pretty. The weather gets nice in September, the leaves change in October and the whole state is pretty. It starts to get cold in October and I can recall Haloweens with snow on the ground. Usually the leaves are gone by early November at the latest.

Other things to know- Houses are fairly cheap, especially when compared to most of the US (except, I'm sorry to say, Texas which somehow missed the worst of the housing bubble).

Our roads are in pretty rough shape in a lot of places but we drive faster than just about anyplace I've been.

We're a good bunch of people in general, but less overtly pleasant than in the south, tougher than those one the west coast, and not as hard (or brittle) as the east coast. We have a great lakes accent tempered sometimes with a Canadian Eh.

We have more fresh water than pretty much anyone else and I think you're never more than 12 miles from a lake (not necessarily a Great Lake, but a regualr lake) anywhere in the state.

Detroit has a lot of culture and arts if you're willing to look for it (and you don't have to look too hard). We have some great and storied pro sports franchises and some not-so-great pro franchises. But we love them all.

Like everywhere, we have our good and our bad. There are things you can't find anywhere else in the world and we're on the whole happy and proud to live here.

We've been through tough times before and made it through. We'll do it again.

And (for you movie fans) while the Dude may abide, Michigan and Detroit will endure and persevere.

I don't know much about Texas, nor your reasons for choosing to leave (let alone leave there to come here), but they are your reasons regardless and you are entitled to choice. I am not attempting to discourage you, just giving you my input.

I was born and raised in Detroit and the closest I've come to living elsewhere is 5 months in Ann Arbor (about 45 min away). Detroit is all that I know, and I know that I want to leave. The quality of life here is poor. The price of housing is low, but when you add to that that over 12,000 houses are abandoned, the city services are poor, the school system is in total disarray...honestly, the low price may still be too high.

Choices in education are limited because they have closed so many schools so far. In addition, at least 20 more schools are supposed to close by fall of this year and 30 more are supposed to be "restructured". You can't get a cop to come to your house in a reasonable amount of time for an emergency....and if someone steals or breaks into your car...you have to go to them to file a police report because they will not come to you. They make no effort to find a person/people who break into your home. Heck, I couldn't even get them to fill out the report, even though they were called to the scene, came and took information and looked around (and I had the nerve to be excited because they came in 45 minutes...that was quick for them). I had to make a second report 4 days later for the same incident because the first report was never done by them.

Yes, the roads are horrible. The streets are closed down for up to 2 years for reconstruction, but 3 years later have potholes galore. Steetlights may or may not work, insurance rates are at least 3 times in the city limits what they are outside. Jobs are scarce and it is gloomy outside from late October until May. At least 8 months of the year is cloudy, so even if it's not raining or snowing it doesn't mean it's sunny.

My brother left here over a year ago and moved to Texas and he loves it. He said it does get cold in the winter, but nothing like here. He wouldn't come back. I, myself, am planning on moving as well...not to Texas, but certainly out of Michigan. I am fortunate to have a job right now, but as an assistant. I graduate in May and want to work here for a year to get experience to make me a little more marketable when I leave.

Speaking of job....as a nurse here, I personally see nurse patient ratios of 1:5-1:8 at my job, but I've heard nurses talk about ratios commonly at a particular hospital of 1:10, not safe, but nurses feel trapped because they have no other options at the moment.

I just want to make sure whatever your decision, you come with your eyes wide open. Be prepared for any and everything. Blight in this city is outrageous and the mayor currently wants to demo 10,000 abandoned homes, but I don't know if that includes abandoned businesses...and who knows when or if that would even occur.

I have never feared living in my city, but I am so discouraged with the deterioration I can't take it anymore. It is hard trying to raise two boys to be good men when we have little if any options for help. Not many rec centers to keep them busy...ones that are up are not maintained. Failing schools, abandoned properties (which allow squatters and dealers to take it over), unsafe neighborhoods, lack of police presence, lack of city services, and much more have influenced my decision to leave. I used to love my city...but I love my family much more and it's time for us to have better.

Whatever you choose, be safe, be happy and be prepared.

Best wishes!