Psych Nurse Tampa Florida (Veterans Affairs)

[2TallOH]

I am currently a Psych RN in Ohio with 1 year experience and am at a standstill in deciding what to do with my career.

My family and I desperately want to move out of Ohio but I'm not sure which venue is best for my wife, daughter and I.

We are looking into travel nursing, but not sure if now is a good time to be in Psych Travel Nursing.

Next option is to consider a straight move to one of our favorite destinations in California or Florida. Our move is based around the limited number of universities that offer the MSN Psych which I will be completing in a couple years.

Does anyone know anything specific about the VA in Tampa?

I am interested to learn about the are, facility, pay, benefits, good neighborhoods to live/apartment complexes, proximity to USF. I have heard that RN pay in Florida is even lower than here in Ohio which is discouraging because I love my job and benefits here.

Any advice or input is greatly appreciated!

[Shaunna]

I know I'm a little late to this thread, but if anyone is still curious maybe this'll help. I can't speak for Tampa, but I imagine it's not too much different from Gainesville. For a brand-spanking new BSN RN in Gainesville's VA hospital, the pay starts off just shy of 46K a year, about $22/hour. The differentials are about 15% for nights, 25% for weekends. Benefits are pretty good in my opinion. RNs earn 8 hours annual leave and 4 hours sick leave per pay period, which adds up to 26 vacation days per year and 13 sick days. The VA also has lots of insurance options and retirement plans and kicks in a fair bit for both.

[slave_diverRN]

There's also the Bay Pines VA in St. Petersburg. From a psych nursing perspective, that one may have more interesting cases and its closer to the beach!