Winterhaven area hospitals

Ace587RN, RN · Dec 22, 2009

im also looking into WinterHaven. They have Winter haven hospital which is a magnet hospital. I applied there and still waiting for a response

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2009

Winter Haven Hospital, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Lake Wales Hospital, Regency Hospital (part of WHH - handles L&D, eating disorders, Gyn/OB, eye surgery), Heart of Florida, and Bartow Regional Medical Center.

Having listed that, I would not highly recommend them or moving to that area at this time. The economy has been SERIOUSLY impacted by the current recession.

Winter Haven has WHH/Regency. I worked at WHH in the 1990s. The conditions were abysmal. Staffing for the Ortho floor was around 2, or rarely 3 RNs for 41 beds at night. An LPN passed meds for the floor, and there was UAPs for about every 6-8 pts. To make matters worse, a supervisor came on the scene in the late 1990s, substantially reducing what few benefits that made the job worth while. The hospital lost major staff. As few locals would work there, the hospital imported large numbers are foreign nurses. When retrogression occurred, they could not do that. Thus, they had to redeem their rep to get staff. Thus, the reason for getting Magnet status. I have been told that things have "improved", but I do not trust Lance to continue that when retrogression lifts. I have been told that Regency is better, though.

Lake Wales, I know very little about.

Bartow RMC and Heart of Florida are owned by a ForProfit company, HMA. I do know that the ratios at BRMC are rather poor (10:1).

Lakeland Regional Medical Center is the largest hospital in the area. They used to have good ratios (5:1 on med/surg) and reasonable conditions, but no longer. I know a lot of nurses that have left because of poor/ dangerous conditions. Ironically, they have a union.

In most of Florida, you have to face the fact that you will be short staffed and work hard during the snowbird season, and get low censused frequently in the off season. The pay rates in Florida are low, comparatively speaking. However, my understanding is that there have been far fewer snowbirds so far this year (but it is early). This does not bode well for the economy. It is also much easier to job hunt before/during the first part of the snowbird season than in summertime.

Ace587RN, RN · Dec 22, 2009

Winter Haven Hospital, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Lake Wales Hospital, Regency Hospital (part of WHH - handles L&D, eating disorders, Gyn/OB, eye surgery), Heart of Florida, and Bartow Regional Medical Center.
Having listed that, I would not highly recommend them or moving to that area at this time. The economy has been SERIOUSLY impacted by the current recession.
Winter Haven has WHH/Regency. I worked at WHH in the 1990s. The conditions were abysmal. Staffing for the Ortho floor was around 2, or rarely 3 RNs for 41 beds at night. An LPN passed meds for the floor, and there was UAPs for about every 6-8 pts. To make matters worse, a supervisor came on the scene in the late 1990s, substantially reducing what few benefits that made the job worth while. The hospital lost major staff. As few locals would work there, the hospital imported large numbers are foreign nurses. When retrogression occurred, they could not do that. Thus, they had to redeem their rep to get staff. Thus, the reason for getting Magnet status. I have been told that things have "improved", but I do not trust Lance to continue that when retrogression lifts. I have been told that Regency is better, though.
Lake Wales, I know very little about.
Bartow RMC and Heart of Florida are owned by a ForProfit company, HMA. I do know that the ratios at BRMC are rather poor (10:1).
Lakeland Regional Medical Center is the largest hospital in the area. They used to have good ratios (5:1 on med/surg) and reasonable conditions, but no longer. I know a lot of nurses that have left because of poor/ dangerous conditions. Ironically, they have a union.
In most of Florida, you have to face the fact that you will be short staffed and work hard during the snowbird season, and get low censused frequently in the off season. The pay rates in Florida are low, comparatively speaking. However, my understanding is that there have been far fewer snowbirds so far this year (but it is early). This does not bode well for the economy. It is also much easier to job hunt before/during the first part of the snowbird season than in summertime.

thanks for the insight caroladybelle. im from Miami and its been really impacted by the recession. I applied to pretty much all hospitals in Florida. only got 1 reply so far, so im waiting on the others.

ORgirl2010 · Dec 22, 2009

Caroladybelle,

Thanks for your advice. That is exactly why I posted this thread I wanted to get a "feel" for how the market is in that area. Here in Michigan things are really bad so I was thinking that Florida may be a possibility as I would have a place to live in Winterhaven. I guess the economy is just as bad in Florida too. It is hard to know what to do as a new grad

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Dec 23, 2009

Have you thought about Orlando? The hospitals are a bit better there (worked as traveler in the Adventist - Florida Hospital system) - not fabulous but decent and caring. The pay rates are also better.

WHH may pan out as a decent place. They would have had to improved ALOT to get magnet status, but having been seriously burned by them, and knowing plenty of longterm dedicated staff that were burned by them, it is hard to regain trust. And I am at that point in life, where I need to trust my employers and like/respect where I work.

Ace587RN, RN · Dec 23, 2009

Have you thought about Orlando? The hospitals are a bit better there (worked as traveler in the Adventist - Florida Hospital system) - not fabulous but decent and caring. The pay rates are also better.
WHH may pan out as a decent place. They would have had to improved ALOT to get magnet status, but having been seriously burned by them, and knowing plenty of longterm dedicated staff that were burned by them, it is hard to regain trust. And I am at that point in life, where I need to trust my employers and like/respect where I work.

i tried Florida Hospital. http://www.linktoyourfuture.com. i applied and havent heard anything so far. Orlando also is scarce on jobs