I live in Lafayette, LA and work at a fairly large catholic hospital called our lady of lourdes regional medical center. I work 3east which is a medicine floor. I started out making 12.50/hr with 5 years of previous med/surg exp. I work at night and make an addition 3/hr so that gives me 15.50 per hour. Thats good for this area full time with great benefits. Our nurse to pt ratio at night max is 7 pts and the town is safe and housing is affordable. I rent and pay $350 for a nice neigborhood 3 bedroom mobile home.