[Chris04064]

My wife and I are both RN's. She is a float nurse with 3 years experience and I am a new grad. We are considering relocating to Florida from Maine. We are sick of snow and find ourselves prisoners during the cold winters. We are considering the Tampa, Sarasota area or Orlando area. Any insight to nursing in Florida would be appreciated. Thank you

[kyle19125]

Ratios vary by hospital and would say typically to avoid the for-profit chain hospital groups like HCA if wanting to avoid 7-1 ratios as Florida has not been able to pass a law since it's been reintroduced year after year since 2009 thanks to hospital lobbying groups fighting it tooth and nail with "donations" to legislators. Check out some of the better options like Tampa General, Shriners Hospital-Tampa, USF-Bayfront Medical, Johns Hopkins Children's-St Pete, Morton Plant Clearwater, Mease Countryside, Mease Dunedin, Sarasota Memorial, Manatee Memorial Bradenton, the Orlando Health group and the Florida Hospital group. Salaries average higher in Sarasota oddly enough, followed by the Tampa Bay area (57K to 55K respectively) while Orlando is significantly less at around 49K on average,

[Restrain]

Fort Myers hires year-round, nurse shortage. On the news, they quoted salaries $50-60K starting.

[Arcenal813]

Wife owns a nursing agency. RNs are always in HEAVY demand. They are paid the state average, which is low to mid 20s hourly.

[rvais]

I'm a LPN here in Tampa planning on going back to school for Rn, LPN salary state wide are $17-22 depends on location and what discipline, RN $26-33 again depends on location and discipline. One thing I have noticed they don't always pay shift diff, I haven't​ seen a perdiem or agency rate higher than normal rates and some places have the audacity to not pay holiday pay.

[aridon]

Depends on where you go and what you do.

You'll be better off long term at a unionized facility that is a level 1 trauma center. Specialties, good wages, regular raises and great benefits. Tenet is excellent as an example. I'd avoid HCA as they don't pay and at least in SE FL are terrible hospitals. Some of the stuff that gets transferred from there can be pretty shocking.

Level 1 trauma centers have the doctors and specialties. So if you want to be paid well pick from the short list of those in the state because that is where the non boo boo scratch type patients go for actual care. You are going to work though. These places tend to be busy and tend to give the best care.

If you run a doc in a box type hospital why on earth are you going to pay your support staff anything substantial when you don't take care of anything substantial? They don't, so don't bother going there if you want to be paid or be pushed professionally. Any noob will do. If you want a less stressful job but not advance nearly as much in knowledge or wage then this is the place for you. They won't push you far out of your safe zone because most of the difficult patients or specialized care will be automatically sent for transport elsewhere if they do show up.

Ratio's will vary considerably based on where you work and more importantly what department you are in. You can expect lower ratios in critical care environments like any version of ICU, Oncology, ER etc. You can expect higher ratios on other floors. You can also expect to have much better support on critical care floors, techs, aids, doctors 24/7 etc. Other floors not so much.

So if you end up on a regular floor somewhere don't be shocked when the ratio gets pushed 7 to 1 some nights, you have 1 aid between floors so you're stuck doing your own vitals, can't contact the doctor because they aren't answering their phone and managing 7 acute patients. Par for the course. Might as well go critical care and avoid the BS.

Choose wisely. Go critical care and get the good ratios, have doctors and support with you the entire time. Go elsewhere and your experience won't be a nice.


TLDR:

Unionized Level 1 Trauma Center (level 3 NICU etc) best for pay and advancement.
Critical care floors have better ratios and support

Choose wisely because the pay gap in FL is very high depending on where you plant your root.

[BucFan]

outstanding post, respect and rep.

[City Guy997S]

Get a travel nursing assignment to get your feet wet in an area.....they cover housing/benefits etc before you leave Maine so you have little risk. Once in the area you can figure out where you want to be permanently.