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Salaries are much better in Michigan compared to the southern states. Traditionally because Mich is a union state, so salaries are higher. I know cost of living is less in Mich, but not as low as southern states. I live near the thumb of Michigan and the salaries are good. ( Yes, in Michigan we hold our hands up and point to where we live.) If you are looking to live in a city by one of the great lakes, both east and west coasts are nice, the northern coast is beautiful, but a higher cost of living. I think if you lived on the west coast of Michigan, you could enough work for years to come. It is more sparsley populated, but there are people living there year round. Many of the smaller hospital have been bought up by Spectrum, and I now they have a lot of satellite clinics throught the area, the last time I was in South Haven, I saw some. It might be worth a road trip tp check out. Spring and summer are ccoming, and the state just sparkles in the summer.

Where do you live now? I am from Michigan and the west side of the state is beautiful and people move there for the beaches and the summer and the beautiful living conditions. There are mainly smaller community hospitals on the west coast . Grand Rapids has several large hospitals you could work at and still drive home at night to the lake.Muskegon has a bigger hospital as does Traverse City. Michigan and Florida are totally opposite weather wise and I guess it would depend on what kind of weather you like. I think Michigan is beautiful and could never live in florida with it's hot humid weather. The west coast gets a lot more snow, especially lake effect snow which can be measured in feet rather than inches.It depends on what activities you like, the west coast is very touristy during the summer, but much quieter in fall and winter. As far as employment, I always see ads needing nurses in Grand Rapids. I have a friend whose daughter just graduated and had her pick of jobs in Kalmazoo which is more toward the west side of the state. I would investigate both areas before you decide.

I retired last year after 38 years of nursing and thought I could easily find a casual job as an RN at the hospital where I worked, but havn't found a casual job in an area where I wanted to work. I taught at a local college as a clinical instructor 20 years ago, but my hours changed and couldn't do it again. I re-applied and was able to get a job as a clinical assistant/clinical instructor part time which is all I wanted to work. They were desperate for instructors, and I have had another college call me wanting to know if I wanted to work there. I have a BSN and anMSA, so I can't teach theory, which I didn't want to do anyway. I think it is harder now to find any job in nursing, I thought I would have an easier time since I don't need benefits, but that has not been the case.

I retired last year at the age of 58. I had been a nurse for 38 years and wasn't ready to retire, but our union contract was starting to be negoiated and I would have lost half of my healthcare being paid for and my pension would have changed and I didn't want to lose those benefits. I wasn't prepared to retire and no future plans, it was kind of a sudden decision after several long talks with the union president . I knew I would have to work as I still had a house and car payment and wouldn't have retired for another 4-5 years. I took 5 months off and now work part time as a clinical assistant and clinical instructor at a local community college. I didn't realize until I retired how burnt out I was. My caring well was dry. Initially, I was going to take a month off and go back to work, but everytime I thought about it a feeling of dread came over me and i knew I wasn't ready. Everyone I talked to who was retired said take some time off to de-stress and figure out what you want to do, and I am glad I did.It gave me time to rest and connect again with family. I neice stayed with me on and off for 2 weeks, and I never would have been able to forge a stronger connection with her if I worked full time. You find ways to fill your time when you are not working. I lost weight, exercised every day and became more fit,had more energy, read more, worked in the garden more, took up knitting and crosstitch again, and took a moment to just sit on the front porch and read a book, which was heaven. I even started to miss being a nurse. I missed talking to my former co-workers. I think you expand old interests or discover new interests when you retire and have more time. The only downside is that now you are living on a fixed income, and expenses go up but your income doesn't. You now have the time to do more, but not always the money. I was used to shopping on my days off work, maybe as a stress reliever and now I have to budget my shopping time, which was a learning experience for me. I enjoy working again with nursing students and feel I can offer them my experiences of 38 years of nursing. They are giving me back some of the enthusiasm I had being a nurse before I became burned out. Working only 20 hrs a week still gives me time for other pursuits. I also don't work when the college is closed and no longer have force my way into work during a blizzard because hospitals never close, but colleges do.I also can take summers off , which is nice.

I am 59 and retired last summer. I would have worked until mid-60's and had 38 years in my present job. Our union contract expired and in the new contract I would have lost the cost of half my health care paid for and a reduction in my current pension benefits so I felt it best to get out under the old contract. I still have a house and a car payment, so after taking 5 months off, I am currently working part time as a clinical instructor and clinical assistant at a local community college. It pays very well and pays for my insurance and extras. I love being reired now, but it is a two sided coin, on one side you are more relaxed and less stressed and have more time to do things on the other side, you have less money to spend on doing the things you want and everything goes up except your pension.