centralflorida

I know some hospitals also offer sign-on bonuses. It might make more sense to go for that, if it pays more than the tuition reimbursement.

I tell you what - I'll call a few places that offer tuition reimbursement for their employees and see if that goes for CNAs also, and I'll post whatever I find.

Does anyone know if hospitals offer tuition reimbursement for nursing school for CNA's that they employ? For instance, Florida Hospital in Orlando seems to have a program that pays part of nursing school tuition at Florida Hospital College for employees who have worked at their hospital for three months or more, but I'm not sure if that includes CNAs or not.

I imagine nursing is like anything else - you have your good facilities and your bad ones. Staying at a bad facility is a sure ticket to misery. I'm not going to say what field I'm in right now, but I will say I have liked almost all of the places that I've worked - there was one place that I hated and I didn't feel appreciated. I left. I was much happier. I have several friends who are nurses in Florida who love their jobs and feel that they make good money. (They do a fair amount of overtime, but I plan on doing that too. I can't WAIT to be able to work all the overtime that I need!)

"There are no "magical" cheap places with good pay" - Well, I'm not looking for a "magical" place, just trying to find out what type of salary an RN might expect in different areas of the state. The thing is, as NurseJane just pointed out, there are also intangibles to consider, such as where I'd enjoy living. Also, now that I've done some research, I know there are parts of the country where nurses are paid much more money than Florida. Most of those areas have housing that is so much more expensive than Florida that it more than makes up for the salary difference - after all, when housing costs started shooting through the roof here, they did so nearly everywhere else in the country. I know there's a lot of Florida bashing from people who don't like it here or are angry about how insurance and property prices have soared, but aside from the low salary, I really love Florida. As I mentioned, a survey done a few years ago mentioned Wisconsin as one of the top places for nursing salary and low cost of living. Unfortunately I happen to hate cold weather. So when I get my nursing degree and am deciding where to look for employment, I have to consider not just how much I'll earn but where I'd enjoy living - weather, local amenities, restaurants, beaches, attractions, universities, culture, housing costs, the arts, all of those things would play into it.

I'm in the position of looking for schools right now so I have no real world experience in nursing - but if you look at the thread I started, "Florida nursing salaries - seriously???" you'll see that pretty much everyone that responded to me said that for a new REGISTERED NURSE grad, starting pay would be $19 to $22 an hour in Central Florida. So for an LPN to start out making the same, or more, sounds quite suspicious to me. If it's a recruiter for an LPN school - of course they have incentive to, ahem, exagerate. Or flat out lie, I guess. And as for what individuals say they make - I think some people brag and exagerate as well. I just took a CNA course. One girl in the class told me her sister works as a nurse in an Orlando hospital, and makes $2,500 a week working a regular full time schedule, and has only been a nurse for a few years. I really, really, really wish that were the case - I could live quite nicely off that salary - but I just don't see how that could be possible. If you were working all nights and weekends plus a ton of overtime, maybe - and I could see doing that sometimes when I need the extra money - but for a regular schedule? Hmm.

What about other areas of Florida? Other than Miami, which obviously has expensive housing, what areas pay the best?

Argggh, you people are depressing me with your talk of low salaries! (Sticking fingers in ears) - la la la la I can't hear you! Seriously, though, what I'm finding after being on this board for several months is a wide variety of what people say they make as a nurse in Florida. My best guess is that when I finally get my RN - which will take about 3 years, including one more year to finish all my prereqs - I will start at about 22 to 25 an hour. (I hope salaries will go up over the next few years!) And as far as I can tell, I'll be able to bump that up considerably by working nights, weekends and overtime, and by continuing my nursing education. I'm also finding that overall, the states that pay the highest usually have an equally cost of living. New York, Massachusetts, California, Hawaii...they seem to pay much higher, but the cost of housing there is much higher than that of Florida. I know the housing cost is higher here than it used to be, but that's true everywhere across the U.S. I still find housing to be cheaper here than in most other major metropolitan areas across the U.S. Oddly enough, looking at some survey that was done a few years ago, I believe Texas and Wisconsin came out as being among the best states for nurses in terms of salary vs. cost of living.

Go to this link, which is the Department of Health listing of nursing programs in Florida. Look for LPN programs in and around the Orlando area - what I did was highlight them all with a highlighter, because there are a whole bunch of programs. Then, call each program and ask if they have what you're looking for. http://www.doh.state.fl.us/mqa/nursing/lst_trainingprograms.pdf

Except when hurricanes roll through here, life really is a beach. That's why I wish it payed more here! I really love everything else about Florida. There's always a ton of things to do, it's summer all year long, and yes, houses have gotten more expensive here, but it's still cheaper than anywhere else that I've lived.

Also, Sharil, there are Brewster and Erwin in Tampa - same idea as PTECH - much cheaper than the private schools but it takes a lot longer to get in. You probably would not be starting school any sooner than next summer, and maybe not until next fall. I guess the question is, is it worth it to you to pay an additional ten grand to get in to school right away versus waiting a year. It might be - a year is a long time to wait. On the other hand, you could always work as a CNA in the meantime and if you were working at a hospital, you'd already have an in when you went to hunt for jobs, and they might pay for you to go to LPN school.

I am also looking at LPN programs in that area. Erwin and Brewster in Tampa are also cheaper technical schools, but the problem is the same as it is at all cheaper technical schools - much longer wait time to get in and way more students applying than they have room for. So you can pay a lot and get in right away, or pay a little and wait a year or two to get in. I haven't found a good alternative. If you're willing to wait to get into a cheaper school, then you can increase your chances of getting in somewhere by applying to ALL the accredited LPN programs within driving distance of you.

Keiser also apparently has an LPN program in St. Petersburg - same set up as Galen, it's way more expensive but you get in quickly. I have a friend who goes to Keiser in Lakeland and loves it. I would do what I saw another prospective student on these threads suggest - call the human resources departments at local hospitals, and ask them if they've hired nurses from Galen and Keiser, and what they think of them. Also - some hospitals will pay off at least part of your student loan, in exchange for you signing a contract saying that you will work at that hospital for a certain amount of time. Before you sign a contract like that, of course, you would want to check around and make sure that you like that hospital, and that the salary they are going to pay you is worth it.

I am getting ready to take a CNA class in my area. I'll probably start working as a CNA in about a month and a half once I finish the course, take the test, and they finish my background check and all that. Anyhoo, I've never worked in the health field before, and I am wondering what immunizations I should get. This week I'm planning to get Hepatitis B - I understand that's a series of shots and I have to finish the series before they become effective. What other shots/immunizations would y'all recommend for a CNA? (I lived in Texas for a while. Can y'all tell?)

Thank you! That is extremely helpful! I came across a lawsuit recently against an LTC facility, in which they alleged something went wrong with a patient and named not only the facility in the suit, but about 20 different people who were working at the facility that day. Best case scenario - all those people have insurance and the worst they have to go through is missing work, stress, the aggravation of having your name on a lawsuit, etc. etc. Worst case scenario - they don't have insurance and have to pray the facility comes through for them and doesn't try to find a fall guy. Or they have to hire a lawyer. And on a CNA's pay, that's not really realistic. Don't get me wrong - when I have someone's health and life dependent on me, I will care for them to the absolute best of my ability, but these days I don't believe that's enough to prevent someone from being named in a frivolous lawsuit.