RN moving to Mountain Home

[michigangirl9876]

Fellow nurses,

I am a nurse with three years of experience most recently in a level III NICU. I will be moving to Idaho and was wondering what the NICU's are like there. Is the drive to Boise or Meridian tolerable from the base in Mountain Home? I have been looking at St. Luke's and St. Alphonsus. I was also looking at living about half way between the hospital in Twin Falls and the base in Mountain Home. What is an average salary for nurses in Idaho? Do clinic/office nurses make about the same as hospital nurses? I would not reinvented myself and being off during weekend/holidays. Any advice would be appreciated :)

Thank you

[Neats, BSN]

Mountain Home is a very small military town. Many people commute from Mountain Home to Boise and from Boise to Mountain Home . The state does have commuter/carpool rides (park and ride designated areas). The roads can be slick in the winter but just drive carefully additionally the roads sometimes have live stock so you must be careful for farm animals down in the Mountain Home/Twin Falls area. St Lukes in Boise has I think best NICU and a lot of times they ship out to Salt Lake University of Utah. Both St Lukes and St Alphonsus are very caring when it comes to neonates but St Lukes is the leader and I would really look at working in their downtown St Lukes NICU before anywhere else. St Lukes is growing, just approved for a huge multimillion dollar expansion (to include NICU/peds). Although it will take several years it would be exciting to be part of such tremendous growth. Twin Falls St Lukes has some good providers and they too are growing their NICU. The area near Mountain Home would probably welcome and need your nursing experience, keep in mind that area even though it is not a critical access area it is close to rural nursing so you maybe expected to assist with some very difficult cases before you stabilize and ship out. Twin Falls is about a 2.5- 3 hour drive to Boise. Mountain Home is about a hour drive and in the winter it can take longer, it is all freeway. The average salary is a little lower than what I would consider a nursing wage in Washington state Seattle area. Most hospital you can negotiate your wage...and I would. Clinical nurses make a little less monies, most physician offices are closed on Friday from 1200 on. Not many unions here in Idaho. Mountain Home does have clinics and always are in need of good nurses.