New graduate unsure where to work in Brandon/Tampa, Fl area

[munkee4me]

Hello,

I'm a new graduate (December). I had to take off some time to get my mental health back from school and to take care of some personal things. Now it's time for me to look for a job (even though I'm terrified about starting work as an GN ) and not looking forward to what's coming up, but got to pay my dues to get to where I want to get (plus the hubby and I are gonna need the $$).

I live in Brandon/Tampa, Fl. I've heard good and bad (though not much) things about Tampa General and St. Joe's. I haven't heard anything about how it is to work at Brandon Regional Hospital. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad thing. I was interested in Brandon Regional since I live not 5 minutes from there. It's better for me to be close to home since I'm trying to work things out at home, but don't want to be there if it's not a good place to work. I want to be able to enjoy (for the most part) where I work so my stress won't be as high.

I want to work general med/surg to get some experience before I specialized. I ultimately want to move to the VA in Tampa, but still want the experience of med/surg. Plus it was recommended I stick with that plan from several nurses at the VA (my dad did some job hunting for me since he goes there for his Dr. appointments).

Any ideas or input?

Thanks!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Best of luck to you.

Allnurses has a Florida Nurses Forum here: https://allnurses.com/florida-nurses/

which I'm not sure you know about. Take a look around, and you might ask this same question in that forum since you are more likely to hone in on some locals.

Good luck!

[VU RN BSN]

I live in southeastern Hillsborough County.

My advice is for you to apply to every single hospital in Hillsborough County. Tampa General, St. Joe's, UCH Fletcher, Brandon Regional, South Florida Baptist, Moffitt, etc. Go ahead and apply to the Tampa VA hospital.

Because of the recession, you may have to accept a job offer from a hospital that is not your first choice. Also, you may have to apply to hospitals in Polk County, Pasco County, Manatee County, Pinellas County, etc. The job market for RNs is really really tight right now in Tampa Bay.