Relocating to Florida: Gainesville vs Winter Haven

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Hello everyone! Very soon my family and I will be relocating to Florida. Just want some information about these 2 places - Gainesville and Winter Haven. I am planning to apply as a NICU nurse and I am thinking of sending my resume to Shands University of Florida in Gainesville and Winter Haven Hospital. I have a 4 year old son to take into consideration in deciding. ANd this is the first time that I will working as a registered nurse after NCLEX exam. Any valuable information will be appreciated. Hope to hear from you!

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

The Hospital at Shands is better than Winter Haven Hospital. And there is more for people (under the age of 60) to do in Gainesville than retiree-ville Winter Haven.

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Hello everyone! Very soon my family and I will be relocating to Florida. Just want some information about these 2 places - Gainesville and Winter Haven. I am planning to apply as a NICU nurse and I am thinking of sending my resume to Shands University of Florida in Gainesville and Winter Haven Hospital. I have a 4 year old son to take into consideration in deciding. ANd this is the first time that I will working as a registered nurse after NCLEX exam. Any valuable information will be appreciated. Hope to hear from you!

Gainesville is wonderful! Shands would give you great experience, but it is very large.

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Thanks to both of you :)

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Specializes in Burn/Trauma PCU.

I'll put in my $.02 and recommend Gainesville (and Shands) over Winter Haven. Not knocking WH or its hospital, but WH is definitely a retiree town, and Gainesville will have more stuff for you and your son. One of my best friends is doing her med residency at Shands, and she loves it, so I'm guessing the nursing experience there is similar. UF also has a great NNP program if you're interested.

Good luck and best wishes!

Annabelle:)

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Gainsville....

I lived in Winter Haven breifly as a teen...snOOOOOOOOOZE

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Specializes in Emergency.

Just started in WH as a travel nurse, PM and i'll give you any information I can get. Got to remember Orlando and Tampa ie Disney and Busch Gardens are both less than an hour away. Personally having worked in another college town-- Ann Arbor MI--- the cost of living tends to be higher ie rent/housing than other places. Anyone that lives here (Florida) can tell you housing is crazy right now ie values going up and rentals hard to find. Also if I were a single parent personally --no offense to any other posters-- wouldn't want to raise my child in a college town esp one noted nationally as a "party school". Also for what its worth WHH nursing is pursuing magnet status.

Rj:cool:

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

I went to school at Polk Comm. and worked at Winter Haven. I have also worked there as a traveler since then as I have family in the area.

And if Lance Anastascio (head of WHH) thinks that WHH rates magnet status, they better give him drug test, because he must be high.

It probably falls well into the bottom 50% of places that I have worked as far as morale and conditions for the nursing staff. I love the staff of some of the floors, but poor management has truly screwed up in major ways, resulting in a mass exit of good experienced dedicated staff about 7 years ago.

As far as partying, I would be more worried about the influence of Tampa and Orlando, than Gainesville. And there are only so many times that you can go to Disney (if you can afford it) or Busch Gardens (which I prefer).

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I received my BSN from University of Florida. I did many clinicals at Shands and think it is good. I live in Orlando now.

I'd definitely recommend Gainesville over Winter Haven. Several of my friends (not nurses) who went to University of Florida stayed in Gainesville after graduation and have lived there for more than 10 years.

Stephanie RN

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I just returned from south east florida. Spent four -five days searching for nursing jobs in ltc. First facility i went to, they dont hire RN's they have 3 in house and thats all they need????? second facility: d.o.n not in, they said to come back, i did , she was unable to see me, i left application. third facility

d.o.n stated no positions at this time, come back end of october due to low censes, i couldnt believe what i was hearing. Someone suggested i apply at agencies for RN medicare nurse visits for the assisted living facilities, did that

and now im back home and i still havent heard from them.

I talked to human resources at north broward med center. They said.

censes way down, they just closed two units, sending nurses home.

wow, so Florida does relay on snow birds. back home and not sure, maybe

i should just stay here, have ajob and visit florida few times a year

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Specializes in Emergency.

AS an RN I would be looking at hospital jobs not LTC, thats where the jobs are.

As far as drop in census thats the first hospital I have heard that had any significant drop in pts. My travel company recruiter was even surprised as typically its all but imposible to find assignments after April/May and there are plenty this year. As an example 3 from my company started the same day at the same hospital as me. Heer is a place to start searching its a list of hospital web sites. http://www.theagapecenter.com/Hospitals/Florida.htm

Rj

:rolleyes:

I just returned from south east florida. Spent four -five days searching for nursing jobs in ltc. First facility i went to, they dont hire RN's they have 3 in house and thats all they need????? second facility: d.o.n not in, they said to come back, i did , she was unable to see me, i left application. third facility

d.o.n stated no positions at this time, come back end of october due to low censes, i couldnt believe what i was hearing. Someone suggested i apply at agencies for RN medicare nurse visits for the assisted living facilities, did that

and now im back home and i still havent heard from them.

I talked to human resources at north broward med center. They said.

censes way down, they just closed two units, sending nurses home.

wow, so Florida does relay on snow birds. back home and not sure, maybe

i should just stay here, have ajob and visit florida few times a year

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I talked to human resources at north broward med center. They said. censes way down, they just closed two units, sending nurses home.

wow, so Florida does relay on snow birds. back home and not sure, maybe

i should just stay here, have ajob and visit florida few times a year

This must have been a temporary thing. I interviewed at that hospital not too long ago and they are still hiring. In fact, they have quite a few openings right now. http://www.browardhealth.org

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