tips anyone?

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My family and I are looking to relocate from Texas to a more LGBT friendly state, any tips on suburban areas with good schools for our kids and near to a hospital with high risk OB/GYN L&D unit? I have never been out of Texas for more than vacation and have never been to the new england area, but its clearly time to go. Any advice would be greatly apprieciated!!

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Even as an experienced nurse jobs are hard to find in MA. Hopefully you have a BSN, otherwise jobs will be impossible. I would find a job first then concentrate on a place to live.You will be shocked with the cost of living, rent and housing are much moreb expensive. Most high risk ob units are in Boston. You will find overall people are open minded and accepting. You will find the job market tight and cost of living very high with state taxes, I know TX does not have state taxes , so that will be an adjustment.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I have a sister in law in texas......you need to check out the cost of living out here. It is staggering what housing costs. Look into New Hampshire just over the border from MA....Believe it or not...Ohio. My cousin and her partner have live there in peace in the Comunbus area........but there sadly isn't marriage. I wish you the best.

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Specializes in Pedi.

New England is a great area for what you are looking for and same-sex marriage is legal in 4/6 New England states (MA, NH, CT and VT). The job market is pretty bad in MA right now and the high risk OB/GYN units will be in Boston... there may be one in Worcester (UMass Memorial Medical Center) or Springfield (Baystate Medical Center) but I'm not sure about those. I would look into New Hampshire or Vermont as well. I would guess Dartmouth-Hitchcock (NH) and Fletcher Allen (VT) have high risk units as well.

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Specializes in Reproductive & Public Health.

I disagree about housing costs- I am in Western Ma and it is very affordable here. I recommend looking around the Springfield area- Baystate and Mercy have decent L&D units. Northampton has a stellar school system, IME. Other posters are right, though. The job market is ROUGH. Do you have L&D experience? Cooley Dick has an awesome L&D unit, but they are not high risk at all.

eta- Hartford Hospital in Ct has a wonderful, high risk L&D unit. Ct is more expensive than Massachusetts, but I lived in the Granby Ct area and was able to make ends meet.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I think we were referring to eastern MA......You are right. Western MA is much better than out near the coast. I know that if I owned a home in Texas that is the same amount I have here in Eastern MA.......My neighbor would be JR Ewing.

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Thank you all soooo much! I just have an RN-C for ob/gyn 2 yrs high risk ob L&D. Does a BSN make a huge difference up north? In TX we make the same pay and work in the trenches side by side. School district is a huge priority for our children, also I see in my research of the area there is a lot of apartment living in Boston...which is fine but we have 2 BIG dogs. So, how does that work? Do people have their dogs in apartments? What tools do you need to dig out of the snow? Wth is a pellet stove?? Why does everyone have basements and mud rooms?? Completely sure I sound like an idiot, so have a giggle at my expense, but seriously, answers?

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Hi and welcome!

I was new to New England 6 years ago and had some of the same questions you do. I would seriously reconsider the Boston area unless you end up with a solid job offer only because you can find decent costs of living and very good wages if you look on the western side of Massachusetts. Boston is a great place to live if you can afford to.

A previous poster suggested Baystate medical Center in Springfield. This is an awesome facility. Look it up online and although the city of Springfield is affordable, its still a fairly BIG city. The good thing is the highway access is very easy from that hospital, so if you want to live out in the country (The Berkshires, parts of Agawam) you can certainly commute with little problems. Oh, and Baystate has a terrific L&D unit. You can search open positions online and they are usually always looking for nurses with experience.

The school systems in the western Mass areas are phenomenal. My children currently go to a VERY small school out in 'the hilltowns'. Coming from a big city where kids go to schools with hundreds of other kids, my kids are among 87......in the entire elementary school. Not that all schools out here are that small, but the education systems in Massachusetts, in general, are terrific.

Okay, so the question about mudrooms and basements. The most appealing thing to me when I first moved here was the houses. They are architectual beauties. There are areas that have more contemporary housing, but I'm still in love with the older style that still seems to flourish very nicely out here. The 'mud room' is a small room very close to the front or rear entrance of a house where you can take off your boots (usually covered in ice/snow/mud...etc.) and leave your coat/hat before tracking things into the house. I'm sure someone else may have a much better description but this is the jist of what I've noticed. Most of the older houses have these rooms and they are wonderful in the colder months. Pellet stoves are heat producing stoves that people install inside the home. They are similar to wood burning stoves except you fill them with small pellets.....I'm not exactly sure of the specifics of what a pellet consists of but I think its still wood based. These stoves are cleaner than wood burning stoves and people who have them love them.

Sorry for the looooong post,but I couldn't help it! Hope it helps.

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