New to Florida

I am settling in Florida near Tarpon Springs on the Gulf side. Tarpon Springs is about 30 minutes from Clearwater and about an hour from Tampa.

Any nurses from this area with any advice of where to work and where not to work? I usually work in LTC or Med Surg.

Thanks if anyone has any advice!

Gary

Welcome to Florida Gary. If you want to work at a major hospital, you will have to drive into St. Pete or Tampa. Tampa General is a major quasi-public hospital, on Davis Island, that is a Level 1 trauma center and has a Burn Unit, as well as a spinal cord rehab center. Or St. Joes which is east of the airport. I would stay away from University Hospital, too many mistakes have happened there. Children's in St Pete is good. White Hospital, in St. Pete, is a for profit, as is one in Clearwater. There is a big VA Center in both Tampa and St. Pete. There are numerous smaller for -profit hospitals in the area. Most of the LTCC are for profit. They also have rehab units in them, that offer wound care and step down rehab services to those discharged from the hospital but not quite ready to go home.

I do not know where you are coming from but if it is the NE or Western U.S., be prepared to make less. And since the four hurricanes we had in 2004, the cost of rental housing and apartments has gone up, along with electricity, water, food. Also be prepared for traffic jams, especially during season, which is from October to the end of March. And gas is not cheap. And unless you really love being hot and humid, five to eight months out of the year, be prepared to run air conditioning and watch your FP & L bill go up.

Woody:balloons:

Golly Woody, couldn't you find ONE more thing to paint a terrible picture of Florida.??

Here's my take on Florida: I have a great job in a great touristy town.. yes, traffic is tough, and the hurricanes tested us (I can refuel my generator in the middle of the night in the middle of the hurricane with a flashlight in my mouth - I can restart that puppy with one pull) - ahhhh woman - let me hear you roar!!

The pay is terrific - I have my certifications and my experience and I had to find the right place but I'm making it... my house is great - I bought it at the right time 14 yrs ago....

It's hot about 8 months out of the year, but I got soooo good at using a snow blower when I lived in Mass that it scared me - honest to God, I could do it with one hand!

Okay, so Sunshine land isn't perfect - it's what you make of it... I wish you luck - you can make it! And I hope your day gets brighter!

Golly Woody, couldn't you find ONE more thing to paint a terrible picture of Florida.??

Here's my take on Florida: I have a great job in a great touristy town.. yes, traffic is tough, and the hurricanes tested us (I can refuel my generator in the middle of the night in the middle of the hurricane with a flashlight in my mouth - I can restart that puppy with one pull) - ahhhh woman - let me hear you roar!!

The pay is terrific - I have my certifications and my experience and I had to find the right place but I'm making it... my house is great - I bought it at the right time 14 yrs ago....

It's hot about 8 months out of the year, but I got soooo good at using a snow blower when I lived in Mass that it scared me - honest to God, I could do it with one hand!

Okay, so Sunshine land isn't perfect - it's what you make of it... I wish you luck - you can make it! And I hope your day gets brighter!

I am glad you are happy here. I believe in posting facts, not the Better Business Burea's little talk. I lived here since 1980. I have covered an area from just south of Olca down to Naples, over to West Palm Beach, south to Key West. I've met some very good employers and some very good doctors and some very good nurses. I have also found that Florida payes one of the pooriest salaries in this nation. I left for three years and returned. My rent went from $560 a month to over $900 a month. And it jumped even more after Charlie hit, as did everyone else's here in Charlotte County. But the pay never quite caught up with the expense of living here. And one thing I noticed, more people are moving out of Florida then are moving here.

I loved my job and got paid much better then even DON's. It gave me the opportunity to travel four times a year. And allowed me to spend three weeks in Hawaii, at Christmas time. As a matter of fact, I miss the job I once had. I was able to pick and chose the doctors that treated my clients and the hospitals they were in. I wouldn't work full time in a hospital down here for all the tea in China. You are not respected by physicians, hospital administrators and DONs. And the staffing hasn't improve one little bit since I first moved here. The only time I saw adequate staffing was in an ICU, where I was a patient for twenty one days last July. When I am out on the floor I got to see a nurse at change of shift, when my IVs needed changing, when I got my medications.

I would love to move back to New York. Unfortunately my health doesn't encourage me to move. At least when I was a patient in

Albany Medical Center, I saw a nurse much more frequently then I ever did down here. As a matter of fact, I saw a nurse more frequently in Chattanooga's Erlnger, then I did and do down here. Sorry but the sunshine doesn't pay for my bills or for my rent. As a matter of fact, I have to run my air conditioning more frequently causing my FP & L bill to go up. And I am still paying the surcharge that our state's governor allowed them to put into place, following Charlie. After three years you would think they would have recouped their expenses and losses.

Woody:balloons:

Thank you Woody and Walk6Miles, I see I have a difference of opinion about Florida.

Where we came from (Maryland) I was paying $3.20 for a gallon of premium gas whereas here in Florida I pay $2.84 per gallon. That alone has encouraged me to stay! In Maryland I was paying very nearly $100 per week per vehicle (2) for travel to and from work, shopping, etc. Here, everything is close at hand and I doubt I'll spend 1/3 that here. Yes, I did make an exceptional salary in MD but with the savings in gas per gallon and savings in gas used per week, those two incredible cost reductions alone seem to more than make up for the difference in pay for nurses in Florida (not to mention Florida has no state tax). And, as a bonus, our cable TV, phone, and internet service is all from the same company on one bill and the total cost for these items is around $65 less per month than we paid in MD.

We bought a small but very nice older mobile home in a fabulous adult retirement community here and my total output per month for lot rent is 1/5 of what we paid for housing expenses alone in MD. And apparently hurricane Charlie, George, Mable or Joan has not yet affected our little place because it's been here in the same spot for likely 20 years without as much as a dent from a storm (and hopefully that good fortune will continue to remain true!).

In MD we spent 6 months out of the year freezing our you know what off dealing with snow, ice, dreary cold rain, fog, overcast skies, and fairly unpredictable (often lousy) weather. Here we see mostly sunny blue skies, gorgeous clouds, and heat/humidity that seems easily manageable even in July and August compared to some of the over 100 degree days we've seen come tearing through and lingering seemingly forever in our area in MD.

And, traffic here? Ha! You haven't lived until you've gotten caught in a 3 hour stand still traffic jam on the Baltimore Beltway on a searing August day!

Thanks to the both of you with the pros and cons, however, from our viewpoint the only thing we seem to worry about now is how we are going to manage in our first experience with a hurricane maybe named WelcometoFlorida.

Gary

Welcome to Florida!

Helen Ellis is the not-for-profit hospital there and is part of the Baycare system. I heard the RN to patient ratios aren't good there though.

Good luck!

Hi Gary,

Now you're up in my neck of the woods, so I'll tell you which hospitals are around. Happier news: you can apply online. When you get bored, just go trek around the Sponge Docks off Ducadonese Blvd. It's a tourist trap, but a lovely one. And the food's awesome (Greek).

Other news: If you're an LPN, you'll make more at a LTC. Check out St. Petersburg Times online: http://www.jobs.tampabay.com/

If you need to make money fast, the best thing to do is register with a couple of different agencies and do per diem during tourist season (September to March). Only problem is that all of them tend to call you on the same days. Summertime salary is very iffy, so if you need insurance benes or a steady income, I'd recommend getting into a hospital as staff.

But you came just before the yearly hiring for this season, so you came at a good time. All the hospitals should be starting to beef up their staff for the season.

If you're looking for proximity, I know of two hospitals pretty close to you: Helen Ellis (part of UCH - University Community Health System) and Morton Plant North Bay (part of Baycare Health System).

Both are small community hospitals and I could be wrong, but I think each of them has around 200 beds.

http://uch.hodesiq.com/job_start.asp

http://www.baycare.org/

I would love to move back to New York. Unfortunately my health doesn't encourage me to move. At least when I was a patient in

Albany Medical Center, I saw a nurse much more frequently then I ever did down here.

P.S. to Woody: The reason you saw nurses more often in Albany Med is that it's a teaching hospital, so there are interns and residents all over the place. Locals would only go there if they had a trauma, the care was much better at St. Peter's, down the street.

Hey Gary,

I am from Baltimore (White Marsh) Maryland.... I love the NO STATE INCOME TAX here... I always let the nurses leaving "biker's town" for Baltimore or Maryland in general about the "piggy back" tax....eeekkk!

Welcome to Florida - there are still real estate bargains and food is about the same price; my car insurance and home insurance are way lower here.... I think I am just lucky....

God Bless!

You will find mixed reviews about Florida, if you review threads on it.

As a native Floridian, I left and would never go back except for having family in the area. I love my assignments up North and am disappointed at how much overdevelopment has robbed the state of the real beauty of Florida and left a ticky tacky tourist state in its' place. This sentiment is echoed by the large numbers of Floridians that have left the state to move to Georgia, North and South Carolinas.

I would rather pay state income tax than have crappy roads and seriously damaging overdevelopment (Tampa, and I4 in Orlando come to mind).

Others may like the Sunshine state, but I like to be able to have a decent garden (impossible w/ water restrictions), and patients under the age of 60, occasionally. Not to mention not deal with the yearly high/low census periods.