Moving from MN to FL

[aschuety]

My family and I are moving to Florida early this summer (anticipated June 2019) From MN. I have applied for my license and have been looking for places to live and work. I have 3.5 years of RN experience with 2.5 years in acute care med/surg. experience and 1 year in long term care. We have always wanted to live in FL and have been vacationing there 3-4x a year for the last 9 years. Its our "home away from home."

We often travel to the Treasure Island area, but it appears that housing there is astronomical in most instances. We would like to stay on the gulf side of the state, no further then 60 minutes from the coast. I've been looking into Spring Hill and Sarasota.

Looking for suggestions on hospitals, pointers on moving there, and what I can expect for an income. In MN we have state and federal tax which is high (at least in my opinion) I work Noc Charge RN on our floor and make about $35.00/hr. Insurance is about $450 a month for family. Any hospitals I should avoid and why?

Any advice would be excellent! Thanks so much!

[Ombrages]

I would go to SWFL. It has more of a suburban feel, great for raising a family. The city is expanding very fast at the moment (lots of people moving in here, new hospitals being built, tons of new communities being built, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down at all). I've worked for Lee Health (at Gulf Coast Medical Centre) for 2 years and they are an amazing employer. A little further down is Naples... more of a rich and retired population. NCH is the hospital system in Naples, but I don't really know much about it.

The salaries currently being offered by Lee Health are very competitive for Florida. They also offer bonuses on 2-year commitments. You should be making about the same as you were making up north on your hourly rate, IMO.

Fort Myers is only 2 hours to Fort Lauderdale/Miami, 2 hours to Tampa and 3 hours to Orlando. So you have a lot of options around you once you get bored.

PM if you have any Q's