Traveling in Sarasota/Brandenton area

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Thinking about possibly taking a Medsurg, MS/Ortho travel assignment in the Bradenton/Sarasota area. Anyone been to that area? I've heard the usual about South Florida not being great as far as working conditions, pay, and staff accepting travelers. Any thoughts?

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You heard right, except Sarasota is not 'South Florida'. It is far enough south though that it avoids typical winter, and it's a gorgeous place, the closer to the Bay you can get. It's at the tropic line where coconut palms grow, which are the sterotypical tropical palms. Sarasota is a rich, sleepy place for the most part- so hang out at the Ritz, see the Ringling Museum, and enjoy the beaches and islands and the Gulf, and also go down to Naples- if you haven't yet seen how the 1% live? Then take a short hop through the Everglades to Miami and SoBe (the real South Florida). It'll make you forget the mundane pay. Bradenton? Might want to skip- it's a world removed from Sarasota, and not in a good way. In fact, it's a dump. Florida, much like California, pays low for nurses- maybe they suppose just being there is enough of an incentive?

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California pays low for nurses? That news to me. San Diego has a reputation for that perhaps, but generally it is higher than 90 percent of the country.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Oncology, Neurology, Rehab.

Low pay for CA nurses? where did you get that information from as I worked as a traveler in Ca and then became staff nurse. As a matter of fact I have met nurse managers who came to work the strike in northern CA. Low pay I think not.

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Maybe not for travellers, no. For many other nurses? Fact. More so considering the cost of living, and the vast distances many people drive to work all over CA. FL defintely takes the cake, however. But at least there you can be around coconut palms, and toasty warm sugary beaches...

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Still not the facts as I am aware of. Pay for 15 year nurses can top $70. I'd bet the average new grad pay is higher than 15 year nurse pay in Florida. Vast distances nurses drive? Hospitals are no further apart there than anywhere else. Yes, some costs are higher, primarily the cost of home ownership. If you don't insist on buying a home, real pay is much higher in California than the South or most of the Midwest for that matter.

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So CA pays higher, but don't plan on being able to buy a house with all that landslide of cash? Seems a bit contradictory.

As far as all these 'highest paying' jobs in CA, the masses of nurses in here that can't find any work at all in CA must be scratching their collective heads in amazement.

As far as San Diego, we're on that same page- talk about a place that is so much ado about nothing, and with its COL I have to wonder what attracts peope to such a flagrantly overrated place? Beats me.

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So CA pays higher, but don't plan on being able to buy a house with all that landslide of cash? Seems a bit contradictory.

Sure, but smart people take advantage. I'll let you work through the rudimentary math exercise on market rental rates versus property values and when one should take advantage of one versus the other.

As far as all these 'highest paying' jobs in CA, the masses of nurses in here that can't find any work at all in CA must be scratching their collective heads in amazement.

Which nurses are those? You can't mean the 5,000 plus travelers that work in California every year, or the long lines at the BON to apply for those lucrative California nursing licenses?

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