cstep

Hello Lisa- I moved to East Tennessee from the downriver area of Michigan a few years ago. Tennessee is beautiful but was a culture shock for me. I worked for the Henry Ford Health system before moving and with shift diff. I was making close to $27 hour; I worked for about a year for the state of Tennessee at a little over $20 hour on the day shift but with decent state benefits; I now work in a clinic for even less than that but I have the weekends and holidays off. Cost of living is much cheaper here and they don't have state income tax (so get ready to pay tax on food and don't look forward to a "state" return at tax time); folks here are very loyal to their vols and are proud to be called "big orange country",although I am loyal to the maize & blue, no matter their current record!! Winters are not like ours up north and their roads are sooooo smooth!!! It took me awhile to adjust to how their traffic lights work( the left turn light doesn't blink red so we can turn when clear, etc) but after awhile I got it! Like LPM stated, Methodist is the only unionized hospital that I know of in the area; I do not think TN is as pro-union as MI (The Big 3 is not prominent here); you can also look into the new Ben Atchley VA hospital that is here in East TN but you have to go to the federal website to apply. Good luck in your search and hope you enjoy it down here.

hello to all the wccd nursing students. i was just going through the forum when i found discussions that evolve around wcccd and what a smile it brought to me! i graduated from the nursing program in 2000 and although i still currently carry my michigan rn license i now practice as a psychiatric nurse in tennessee. i plan to go back to school within the year for my bsn(online). i just wanted to take a moment to wish all of you luck and to hang in there....it will all come to a worthwhile end. thank you for evoking my memories of what it was like at wccd and what i had to do to become an rn.