LIRN

Well, since you're moving from upstate NY, you won't have as much salary shock as you would have if you were moving from Long Island or NYC :) I think she'll find the LPN pay rates about what I quoted in my first reply. I too became an LPN first to take advantage of the pay bump, way back when, but I did it through BOCES, so it was reasonably priced. Then I went to an LPN to RN program at the local community college. That saved about a semester of classes. I'm sure those programs are still around. Some of the LPN schools are so outrageously priced! I've heard of a few in our area charging upwards of 20K for the program! I hope she's not going to have to pay that much. I don't know if she's looked into the CLEP program but I really recommend she take as many CLEP tests as she can. They can shorten the time to the Associate's degree (and decrease the cost) tremendously! English, Psychology, Sociology, Human Growth and Development, College Algebra, and many humanities and social science requirements can be satisfied with CLEP. The danger of going the LPN-RN route is getting "stuck" in the LPN phase. Making more money than as a CNA, working full-time--it's easy to put off school. That and maybe having kids--it happens. Sounds like she has a good plan. You're going to love winters in Florida. I too am from NY and I'd never put up with those winters again! Good luck to you and your wife!

Do you plan to live and work in the Tampa area? I can call one of our facilities in that area and ask what the starting pay for LPNs is. Over here in Martin County it's anywhere from 17-19 an hour, depending on what company you work for. Might be a bit higher or lower in Tampa area but that should give you an idea. None of the experience and accolades as an aide will help with starting salary as an LPN, though they are all good things to attach to an application. References are important, at least to me. Sometimes it's hard to get that first job as a nurse, especially now when there is no shortage of nurses due to the economy. May I suggest she go directly for the RN and skip the LPN? She could do it in a lot less than four years if she goes for an associates degree. Are you moving from upstate NY, the city, or Long Island?

Worthytosucceed wrote: According to a friend of mine who has been an LPn for years and is a charge nurse in a LTC facility, there is a pay scale that all federally funded (medicaid funded) facilities must follow. I'm pretty sure your friend is incorrect about that.

I do the hiring in a SNF in Martin County, Florida. Martin County is considered south Florida, just barely. It's a nice place to live. Schools? Well, it's Florida, what can I say. A lot different in quality from what I can see compared to the schools on Long Island where I'm from. Housing is dirt cheap. Beaches are gorgeous. But back to pay rates. Starting wages for LPN on day shift is $19 and hour, on eves $21 and hour, on nights $22 and hour. There's shift differential and that's it. No other differential. RNs start at $21 on days, $23 on eves, $24 on nights. Just shift diff, again. Work every other weekend and half the major holidays. I do a salary survey every spring and we are maybe a little bit higher than most of the facilities in our county, and a tad bit lower than one. We haven't raised our rates since 2006, based on salary survey results--that is, almost no one else has either. In this economy, there's no reason to raise rates, speaking purely from a financial viewpoint. RNs who are managers (DON, ADON, MDS, Risk Manager, SDC etc), make significantly more $$$ and are all salaried. It's a really good place to work too. I know that's rare, but it is.

In five years, the only times I ever worked more than 40 hours a week were during the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, and that wasn't because I was doing MDS assessments! (we had to evacuate). I worked Monday-Friday, 7-3:30. No weekends, no holidays, no on-call. I wasn't ever allowed to be pulled from MDS to anything else (hurricanes being the exception). The position was given the respect it deserved, by company policy, being so time senstive and important in the making of money for the building! My only duties were MDS (scheduling, coordinating, transmitting, billing logs), careplans, PPS meetings, department head meetings, and required inservices. I did only Medicare and Insurance. I had an assistant (fulltime) who did the LTC assessments. This was a 120 bed facility. In my current building, the MDS Coordinator has almost identical duties to those described above, and also works Monday-Friday 7-3:30, weekends and holidays off, no on-call, no being pulled to other duties. The only thing he does that I didn't have to do is supervise the dining room for one meal a week. These are two different companies. I don't think this is unusual for our area. MDS Coordinators are highly valued in our geographical area. How MDS nurses can be on call, be pulled to work the floors etc is beyond me. That just doesn't work, for so many reasons. MDS nurses, put your collective feet down!

I'm in southeast Florida. As an MDS Cooridnator in Palm Beach County I was salaried and as of late 2006 made 63K a year. That's a bit over 30 dollars an hour. From speaking to other MDS Coordinators in the area I would say that was about average. In the past year salaries have gone up, perhaps because there are not too many skilled MDS Coordinators around, and the cost of living has risen in SE Florida, so nurses are demanding higher pay. In my current facility, we have an LPN as a MDS Coordinator (which I don't think is a good idea) and he makes 55K a year, about $27 an hour. At this point in time, in my area of the country, I wouldn't work as an RN MDS Coordinator for less than 65K. Some MDS Coordinators in Martin and Palm Beach Counties are making even more than that. I think some nurses don't realize that they can command a higher rate of pay in positions such as MDS, ADON and DON. It's all about supply and demand. On Long Island, where I'm from, I'm sure the pay for MDS Coordinators is much higher. It was over thirty an hour when I left a few years ago.

Hi I live right near where you're moving. Just a bit north. Closest hospital: Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter. Very good reputation. Communty Hospital, very well regarded. Start there is you don't want to travel. Next closest: Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. Big, part of a chain. Good cardiac division. All the cardiac caths in the area are done there. In Stuart (just a bit to the north) Martin Memorial Hospital, north and south (both in Stuart). I think it has a pretty good rep. In West Palm Beach (south of you) St. Mary's (has the local advanced trauma center). Also Columbia. There are more if you want to go farther. Also lots of surgicenters. No shortage of work here! You won't have any problem! You don't have to take the boards again! Just go to Myflorida.com and click around till you get to the link for health licenses. It's a pretty user friendly site. It takes a little while to get the license once you apply so get on it! Get used to the fact that the wages in Florida are not what they are in the northeast. I moved from Long Island, so I was in shock. I'm used to it now though :) The cost of living is less here than on Long Island, no matter what anyone says. I don't know about Philly. You're going to LOVE the winter here. You're coming at the best time of the year. Jupiter is BEAUTIFUL! Wait till you see that beach with the turquoise water, and it's warm enough to go swimming all year! Good luck! LIRN

I moved to SE Florida two weeks before 9/11 from Long Island. I got a job as an MDS Coordinator at a facility in Palm Beach County. I do the MDS for all the short term rehab Medicare patients. I have an assistant who does the insurance patients and the long term care patients. I am an RN with an associate's degree from Suffolk County Community College on Long Island. I was an LPN prior to that. I have 25 years experience. I work Mon-Fri, no weekends or holidays. I have yet to reach the salary I made in NY, but I'm close. The cost of living, especially property taxes, is so much less here than on LI it more than makes up for the salary difference. When I sold my house on LI, I purchased a condo there, which I rent out and plan to live in for the summers when I retire someday. To me, that is the best of both worlds, Florida from November to April, NY from May to October. As far as employers go, I think mine is pretty good (for Florida!).

I'm the MDS Coordinator in a 120 bed facility in Florida where 60 of the beds (3 units) are short term rehab, a good deal of the patients are orthopedic rehab. On the day shift there are 4 nurses for those 20 patients, and 9 CNAs. There is also a unit manager at the desk, and a unit secretary. Everyone's busy, but it works out OK. The rehab staff does a lot of the AM care with the patients, since occupational therapy is part of their rehab. The speech therapist feeds some of them every day (stroke patients). There is a big turnover of patients--some stay only a couple of days (like post CABG patients). The dense CVAs stay the longest. We have lots of PICC lines and IVs running at all times. Until recently, there were only three nurses, one for each 20 bed unit. THAT was not enough. The fourth nurse made all the difference.