Southern Nurses Please Help!

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I currently live in an area of Florida that has a very high cost of living. Everywhere I look all I see are subdivisions, gas stations, convenience stores and Walmarts being built on every corner. :( I've lived here all my life and like a slower pace of life. I've decided that once I finish school I want to move. I really only want to live in a Southern state because I can't handle tons of snow. I also can't handle extreme heat where there's basically no Winter. I'd like to see the seasons change. So, if you are a nurse (LPN or RN) working in a Southern state can you please tell me what the average salary is? I've seen some posts on here saying that the average starting salary for a new grad RN is $14 to $16/hour in some states. That sounds terribly low! If it starts out that low, how long does it take to get to a reasonable level like $24/hour? Also, could someone tell me what state tax is? I think that's what it's called. Here in Florida we have income tax that comes out of our checks. Isn't it the same everywhere? Thank you so much!

There is Aiken SC...beautiful small town, 20 minutes from Augusta GA, 45 from Columbia SC. Can work in Augusta. New grads start around 18.50 plus bsn, certifications, and good shift diffs. PRN pay is around 36 plus diffs and way more if you float. Great area!! You can live on a horse farm and still be 10 minutes from walmart! I would move back if givena chance!

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mtngrl--the state i was really thinking about moving to was tennessee. i've fallen in love with gatlinburg and the mountains. i thought i wanted to live somewhere in that area and get a nice cabin on a little bit of land. however, i don't want to have to deal with extremely low pay though. :( if i have to accept low pay, it seems like i'll just be living the same way i would here in florida. with real estate like it is in florida, even if i make $25/hour i will still be struggling to pay my astronomical mortgage. :( ugh. i want to get out of this hot, flat state. i think there are mountains in north georgia, but i haven't looked into it. tennessee if the most beautiful place i've ever seen! i really don't know where i'll end up at this point though.

those rates i gave are for new nurses. if you have experience you would get more. and those are for a hospital. i make a lot more as a contract nurse. some dr offices pay around $17-18. it really depends. and there are so many lovely little towns here with that small town friendliness. that is why i came here and left the crowded noisy beach. i am 2 hours away from gatlinburg. it is more expensive down that way of course because it is a tourist area. but you could look in the area around it and find a nice town. i had never even been to tn except for the smokies park when i decided to move here. i researched several towns in the mountains, researched jobs, researched real estate, etc. before visiting my top 2 choices and deciding. if you love the tn mountains then come on up!

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Specializes in ICU.

If you like TN, you can always find a hospital in the Atlanta area that will pay you a base salary of at least $20 plus commuting costs, plus hotel costs to stay overnight if you worked your shifts in a row. I did clinicals with nurses who commuted from NC and TN for a 2 day shift and earned far more than they would have were they to work in their areas for 3 days. Just a thought. :)

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I'd love to move out of Florida too, once I graduate. My husband is self-employed and works via the internet, so it doesn't matter to him where he lives jobwise. My trouble is my kids. I REALLY like their schools....and they're FREE (public)! My oldest just finished her freshman year of high school in the number 2 IB school in the world. She's a straight A student and tops in her classes, even in the rigorous IB program. She really needs to be in that school. (Not to mention she loves the school and I couldn't blast her out of there if I tried.) Then there's the full-time gifted school my 8 year old is in. Love it! I could be okay leaving my middle schooler's school (it's a bit of a let-down after coming from the gifted elementary school, there's not enough gifted classes), but she is guaranteed entry into the really great high school with her older sister.

The other really big thing is the Florida Bright Futures Scholorship. Florida will pay full tuition (plus extra for books) to a state university for students that graduate high school with good grades. That is a BIG consideration with 3 college bound kids!

So I feel trapped here in Florida.

Having no state income tax is kinda nice too, but they seem to get the property owners to make up the difference in their taxes.

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I would like to put in a good word for my home town, Danville, Kentucky. It is one of the most charming places you would ever want to live. It has been named one of the top small towns in America and has wonderful people, character, and culture. Heck, this coming weekend is one of the biggest celebrations of the year, The Great American Brass Band Festival! Look it up on Google if you're interested. The Brass Band Festival was ranked as one of the top 10 attractions in the country by AAA a couple of years ago. The town really does have character. We have a great theater called the Pioneer Playhouse. I know that sounds a little red neck but summer internships are sought after by theater students all across the country every summer. George Clooney and Lee Majors are some of the famous people to work at the theater in their younger days. Also downtown is Centre College and it's great campus. The school is very small and tough to get into. I graduated with over 200 classmates in 1996 and I do not know of a single person that went to school there, it is that exclusive. But it adds character to town which is why I love it!

The downtown area of Danville is one of the model communities for preservation. Currently construction is going on to open up two HUGE (relative to Danville anyway) medical clinics downtown. What is awesome though is the shell of almost one city block is being preserved while the inside is being rebuilt from the ground up with state of the art technology. On top of that, only a couple of blocks away is the local hospital, around 200 beds and a brand new multi-million dollar expansion is going to be opening up soon increasing capacity to around 240. What I'm trying to say is opportunities will be everywhere for someone such as yourself.

Not to mention in Kentucky you will without a doubt see the seasons change. I can promise you will have winter but not enough snow that you have to put chains on your tires or anything like that.

I'm not a nurse, but planning to start nursing school soon. From what I have been told starting pay is in the low 20's, which considering the LOW cost of living, a GREAT salary!

Danville means so much to me I still live here but commute one hour away to Lexington. Even at 3.00 a gallon it's still worth it to live here and drive that far everyday.

In case you can't tell, I love my little home town!

If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer any (or find out answers if I don't know).

Best of luck where ever you end up!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I'll chime in. =)

I live in Kentucky. In Lexington and Louisville, nurses are typically starting out around 20-21$/hour. That doesn't sound like much, but the cost of living isn't terribly high here either. I love it here. :) I've lived here all of my life and can barely imagine living anywhere else. The winters exist, but aren't usually horrible. Summers are nice, though they CAN get awfully hot and humid. Fall is fantastic.

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I live in Middle TN and where I work RN's are starting out at 25/hr straight out of school

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Specializes in Pediatrics (Burn ICU, CVICU).

I live in Arkansas (Bryant, which is about 10 miles west of Little Rock). Hot summers, mild winters, mild traffic, great schools (in Bryant anyway). New grad pay is $17-19/hr. Real estates is on avg about $100 per sq ft .

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I live in southeast Alabama, at the hospitals the LPNS start out of school at about $10-$12, the RNs about $15-16. You can make mroe at a LTC facility, I make $22 with one year experience. It's a beautiful area to live in, housing prices are GREAT.

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I live near Chattanooga, and it is really a wonderful place....warm but not horrible in the summers, rare snows in winter, mountains, less than a day to the beach, city close if you want it and plenty of countryside...

We are about halfway between Nashville and Atlanta, same distance from Knoxville as well. Not the highest paying place, but then the cost of living is nice. Tennessee has no state income tax, either!

Beth

I'm in the Middle Tennessee area. Tennessee is as bad as Florida as far as development, and I'm very anti-development. They will keep on until there's nothing left to develop, just rows and rows of ticky tacky houses and ugly Wal Marts and shopping centers.

But there is no state income tax yet (certain politicians are really pushing for one, so I imagine it will be a reality here sooner or later)

Tennessee can get incredibly hot in the summer, and the winters are dreary. No snow, just gloomy, cloudy weather with brown all around. I've got SAD really bad and I wish I could get my husband to understand why I need to go where there is sunny weather in the winter months.

I like the small-town way of life, myself. I like to be able to go to the big city, but I also want to be able to get away from it. However, it's getting harder and harder to. Nashville is growing and growing.

I grew up in Arkansas, but even though it's on a smaller scale, Little Rock is reaching out into areas that used to be quiet little communities. My hometown of Conway has been ruined in the last 15 yrs. or so. Crime rate through the roof, ugly malls and shopping centers, they are going to demolish a wooded nature trail there where I used to spend many mornings walking my dog to make way for some "new urban development"...it really makes me sick.

So, it seems that no matter where you go, development is taking over. It makes me grieve. I literally grieve for the land that is being raped. Call me a kook, but it's the way I feel. Small towns are on their way out.

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I just moved to Atlanta after having lived in Raleigh, NC for 8 years. I really loved Raleigh ... slower-paced, friendly people, affordable housing, many excellent hospitals. Starting pay is around $20-21, which is more than sufficient considering the cost of housing.

Atlanta is nice too, athough much faster-paced and more expensive. It's all about personal preferences and what you are looking for.

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I live in the middle of NC. The RN starting pay in my area is around 18.50-19.50, depending on the facility. The cost of living is not bad here. Mountains to the west and Coast to the east...more ice than snow in winter, but some snow. Wonderful springs, HOT summer (but to me, anything over 60 degrees is HOT), great schools.

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