Pay Rate

I've worked in 2 counties in So Cal

San Bernardino- I was a new grad, ICU. I made 31.40ish/hr base 10% dif from 7p to 11p and 15% 11p to 7a. This was in 2009, if I had stayed there i'd probably be around 38/hr base

You can get a pretty nice house in the safe areas of the county, redlands and so for around 250-300k

Orange County - 2 years experience in the ICU 32/hr base, 6/hr night differential. A safe 2 bed apartment costs around 1500/month.

As you can see you can now tell why I'm in Sacramento making 48.31/hr base plus 6$/hr night shift dif. (In the ER) My house rents at 1150/month and I'm near the river.

So, you will probably make similar wages to what you did in NY but the cost of living may be more. Depends on where you look. I'm not sure of how the job market is. It was definitely better inland vs near the beach.

Oh and ratios are as follows:

Med Surg: typically 1:5

Tele: 1:4

Stepdown: 1:3

ICU: 1:1 or 1:2 (depending on how sick the patient is, i've seen two nurses on 1 patient)

ER: 1:4, supposed to be 1:2 if you have an ICU pt but that's all relative to staffing

Most places to work are pretty nice, one of my coworkers moved here from NY and loves it, the ratios, the staffing.

Good luck to you!