starting a new career at phoenix arizona

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hi. i am a new male nurse and got a job opportunity in phoenix arizona - they want me to work at st. joseph hospital at 24 dollars per hour... do you think that will be suitable for my everyday life?

i want to know more about phoenix arizona, its crime rates and standard of living. is transportation easily accessible? i would love to talk to someone who is living in phoenix arizona and is currently working. thanks.. Private Message me, please.

Specializes in NICU.
Good Sam, Thunderbird and J.C.L all are interested however J.C.L is who we are meeting with.

Any info that you might have or heard of would be very much appreciated. We know that there is no perfect job, place or person. That is not want we want, we just want a place we can raise our children, and make a comfortable living. We also would not want to work for a place with a really bad reputation.

Any advice or tips on places to check out for renting would also be appreciated. We want to get a 4 bed if we take the position.

Also is there anything that we must see when we get there and any recomendations on someplace nice to eat.

Thanks in advance

:caduceus:

I have no personal experience with John C. Lincoln, but I have heard great things.

Whereabouts are you thinking about living? Phx is HUGE, so I can't really give any thoughts on where to start looking unless you have a more general idea of location. I like recommending Tempe, but I'm a bit biased because that's where I live. It's centrally located and there's lots to do here.

Try any of the local (non-chain) mexican food restaurants. I'm not sure where you're staying so I can't really recommend anything specific. You can always ask around once you get here. But I definitely recommend checking out a good mexican food place. And something fun to do would be to check out a dbacks game!

Good luck to you all!

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It's all good, Rain Dreamer! Sorry to you if I didn't come off right, either...that is the problem with these boards, sometimes.

My folks used to live in Florida, when they first retired, and in the Motor Vehicles office they had a sign: "If it is so good back in New York, go back to NY!" Wise words, no? I used to get really frustrated back in NY when all the "outsiders" who got a wild hair and moved to Manhattan and pulled an "attitude." So I understand where you are coming from! Rest assured - I do care deeply about this state, notwithstanding some of its faults. I married a Tucson girl and have been here going on 10 years - so AZ is my home.

Be patient about housing. The run-up last year was a complete anomaly, largely driven by speculators/investors. They are now dumping properties and listings are on the market longer and longer. Some fairly reputable ASU housing economists are predicting prices will fall up to about 30%. So you will get your house!

I agree with everything you wrote about the AIMS test and AZ education. It is a travesty...

I want to pick your brain about NICU sometime!

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JCL has two campuses. One is way north of the city, near where Madwife lives - Anthem, AZ. It is a brandnew facility and very close to some very nice suburbs. The other JCL campus, North Mountain, is more urban - and located about 1.5 miles from where I live. It is an interesting area with million dollar homes and welfare apartments, all cheek and jowl to one another.

As Rain Dreamer mentioned, Phoenix is simply enormous. Where you live should correlate with where you work for the sake of sanity. There are many nice places to live - so once you know where you will work, perhaps then you can narrow your search. I would agree with Rain Dreamer that if I didn't live in my current neighborhood I would also chose Tempe. It is a centrally-located, diverse city with an excellent school district (ok, relatively excellent - Kyrene District). I'm very partial about the area around JCL North Mountain - but you want to explore it with a realtor to find the right sections.

If I had to recommend one Mexican place to visitors, where the food is excellent and non-chain go with Los Dos Molinos way down in South Phoenix. Shoot me a PM and I can fill you in with the address/details/etc. It is New Mexican style food and can be quite spicy. I take all visitors there. I tend to eat at more down home restaurants but they don't have much ambience and you need to speak Spanish...but not at Los Dos Molinos.

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Wow, This thread gets a lot of action.

At first I was a little worried about the school system, however I know how my kids are and we spend alot of time doing extra homework and both my kids will work extra on there own. Both my children love school and really try hard to get great grades. Son has been on Honor roll since first grade, and daughter made it this year while in first grade.

We are coming down on the 19th for a face to face meeting and a chance to look around(can't wait).

Good Sam, Thunderbird and J.C.L all are interested however J.C.L is who we are meeting with.

Any info that you might have or heard of would be very much appreciated. We know that there is no perfect job, place or person. That is not want we want, we just want a place we can raise our children, and make a comfortable living. We also would not want to work for a place with a really bad reputation.

Any advice or tips on places to check out for renting would also be appreciated. We want to get a 4 bed if we take the position.

Also is there anything that we must see when we get there and any recomendations on someplace nice to eat.

Thanks in advance

:caduceus:

I am on an enforced career break at the moment and I am hoping that if I am able to work on a floor again I can work at JCL, as it s down the road for me. I know one girl who works there in PICU and loves it.

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Just for fun.....one more generalization regarding Stopnik! You are not only a man in a predominantly female field but I would say that most of the men I have encountered that are in nursing are gay. I am probably going to get killed for that comment and I am not taking a side for or against their sexual preferences, but as Stopnik said earlier, it is my observation. No harm, no foul, okay???:bow:

DC

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Good point! So now I'm a double minority - straight and a male nurse (to be)!

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Before we bought our house we researched the best school districts and only looked at homes in those areas.

I learned you can't trust the A+ rating system either as struggling school districts with large illegal immigrant student populations with poor reading, speaking, and writing skills are exempted from standardized testing and school evaluations. One elementary school I'm familiar with had only a small percentage pass the AIMS and they proudly display the A+++++ on the school front. Until a magic bullet is found I can appreciate the reluctance to throw more $$ at the problem.

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Thank you for your replies.

It looks very much like we are going to take the JCL position. We just need to come down to look around. A tentitive offer has been given to us with just the face the face meeting and I do not forsee any problems. We are happy so far as there is a nice little relocation package offered. They are also getting a 2 for 1 special, as I will be getting a job offer with them as well as a PCT. I am an EMT with National Registry Certification with a few years of exp. I am in nursing school here in PA however I will be looking to get into a program down there. This brings me to a few more questions that I have for you guys and gals. I have most of my college classes finished (psyc, anatomy, phys, micro, eng, nutrition, and a semester of clinical. The shool here is a little different as you do some college, and clinicals together except for the first semester which was all at the college. I have a 3.6 GPA, I am in EMS, a volunteer firefighter and will be working at JCL. Are my chances good for getting into a program without a long lengthy wait. If I have to wait I guess I will just have to work a little more however I am hoping that I will not have to wait tooooo long.

Next question is about some locations and travel time. I have been doing research about schools, neighborhoods and travel time(with mapquest for distance). We have found a few houses that we like online in, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills, Peoria, Scottsdale(had our favorite house) and Sun City. What are your opionions on these area's,(school,travel to JCL, crime).

Right now we travel 35 min to work at hospital and I travel an hour when I have to take the college class.

Thanks in advance for all your guys and gals help.

A soon to be Arizonian!!:yelclap:

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JCL actually has their own program through Paradise Valley Community College in which they train both the public and their nurses to be RNs. Check it out on their website, or better yet, ask the JCL people. JCL will most likely start you out as a PCT in their long term care facility...just a warning. If that doesn't sound too appealing give Southwest Ambulance a call. They run 911 for most of the cities in the Phoenix metro area and they can't get enough EMTs.

There are specific requirements for the community college system - by far the largest and cheapest way of becoming an RN. Provided your past coursework meets those requirements, you will probably have a 1 year wait (apply in the fall - start the following fall). There are community colleges all falling under the auspices of the Maricopa County Community College District scattered in every part of the city. When you apply - you list your top 3 choices. So you can easily apply to those closest to your home. There is a huge demand for RNs out here - and a huge demand for students trying to get into a program. You can also try for ASU, but they are super competitive and have a much longer list of pre-reqs and a system that goes on GPA, essay, etc. Much harder to get into. There are a few trade schools out here with RN programs, but they charge upwards of $30k.

As far as your neighborhoods - a lot will hinge on which JCL hospital you are working at. The list you provided contains towns scattered all over the Valley of the Sun - each with their own distances, pros/cons, etc to the different JCL facilities. For example, Fountain Hills must be a good 40 miles from Cave Creek. Also, even within the different towns there can be a huge difference in quality of life and even commuting distances to different schools/hospitals. For example, North versus South Scottsdale...

Hope you will not miss the FD too much. Firefighting is all paid out here and they guard their turf very jealously against out of state vollies (I'm ex FD, too). Your certifications won't count for bupkus and you will find huge entry requirements just to work as a "reserve" to run piddly EMS calls out of a sleeper, rural station...

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One other thing - try and schedule an appointment with nursing advisors at some of the community colleges before you come out - and also ASU. Have your transcripts with you - they can at least give you a more informed view on how you stand vis a vis the schools out here.

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Stopnik,

Thank you for all the great information. I knew when I seen that the FD was paid that I would have no shot especially if I said I used to Volly as there is the gaping hole that seperates the paid from the unpaid. IMO that should not mean a thing as I put my life on the line every call just like they do except I don't get paid. I really want to be a ED nurse as I love trauma and the fast paced action that it entails. JCL north mountain will be the hospital. I have not spoken with anyone there yet, my wife has though and they were just doing her interviews. We are going through a recruiter(I know they can be bad) however this one we trust as he has worked with more than a few nurses in our area and some of our friends have made the move from here to other states and they just love there jobs. I wont mind doing the PCT however I will check with the ambulance service also.

With knowing the hospital now, any thougts of area's to look and or avoid.

Thank you again for all your help, it is greatly appreciated.

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I would focus on Scottsdale and then Cave Creek. Scottsdale is very convenient to JCL North Mountain. My wife works in downtown Scottsdale and we live near JCL North Mountain. Her commute takes 20 minutes on local roads. But there is also good freeway access from more northern parts of Scottsdale.

http://www.swambulance.com/

Unless JCL can hook you into their nursing program, I'd just as avoid working as a PCT...your call, but check out the link above...

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