Philly, Allentown, and their burbs

[godbless-yute]

Hi all,

So, its official, I'm gonna be moving to Quakertown, PA!! I'm an ER RN so I definitely want to work at a trauma center, level 1 preferably, so I know I won't actually be working in Quakertown. I have my sights set on a couple hospitals in Philly and Allentown. I don't know much about any of them other than what the have on their websites. So, I was hoping some of you could tell me about where you work....you know, the things you wished someone told you (good or bad). Also, I know ppl don't like to discuss pay on here, but what range should i expect, what's the low end in the area? Also, this is random, but are the uniforms color coded at ur hospital? If so, what color do RN's wear??

[godbless-yute]

I forgot to ask about patient ratios....specifically for the er. thanks

[chuckster, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Congratulations on your move and best of luck finding a new position. While the job situation in the Phila metro area is terrible for new grads, the situation is much better for experienced RN's. I would expect with your background, you will be able to line up a job in fairly short order.

As far as salaries, the BLS reports the mean hourly wage for RN's in the Phila area is $34.34 with the annual mean wage at $71,430. I'm sure this varies quite a bit from hospital to hospital and I'd expect that it will be somewhat lower outside of the 5 county Phila area (e. g., Allentown). There are no state mandated nurse patient ratios, though I believe that some of the union contracts in place at a few hospitals have maximums. I don't know about the ER's but when I did my clinicals, the ratios on the med-surg floors I was on ranged from 4:1 at the main line hospitals to as much as 8:1 at the city hospitals. I've been in many of the hospitals around Philly (I'm a volunteer EMT) and I can't recall any of them having a color-coded uniform system for their staff.

Again best of luck.

[Piglet68]

You should look at Lehigh Valley Medical Center as they are a level 1 trauma center located in Allentown which is about 20 minutes from Quakertown. The plus is no city wage tax like Philly and much...much...much closer.