Salary in FL

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Hello ALL

Id love some input about the salary of new grads in FL. I am currently a Surgical Technologist as some of you may know already, and make a pretty decent income. A fellow ST friend of mine was recently hired at a hospital in Tampa for 21/hr, I have a nurse friend that was hired at 23/hr! Is this an accurate starting wage for a RN? Certainly that must increase with experience? I hope so anyway. In my mind I'm thinking hmm, add on thousands in student loans to make 2 or 3 dollars more than what I can make now?? Maybe I should rethink this. Money is certainly not the only reason I am considering nursing, Im just truly not happy with what I am currently doing. Theres so many options as nurse, but if my income is going to pretty much stay the same and I'm going to drastically be adding on to my debt, I just don't know if its worth it for me.

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I live in South Florida and I'm about to graduate. We have been to several hospitals in the county for clinicals, and salary was always something we asked about. Most of the hospitals start new grads at $21-$25, but we did find a couple hospitals that were a bit higher: $27-$31. Also, those hospitals with a nurse residency program offered about $15 while in training, then up to the regular pay once you were on the floor independently. So that is something to think about as well.

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Some hospitals may choose to give you half credit for your time spent as a surgical technologist. For example, I was a surg tech for 13 years, and my facility started me out as an OR nurse with 6 years experience on the payscale. It's definitely worth finding out your hospital's policy.

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Very nice to know! Thank you so much!

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I live and work in FL and 21-27 sounds about right. Glassdoor.com is an excellent site to gage pay scales for hospital jobs. Hope this helps!

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