RN looking to move to SA...

[Chakapu]

You will have zero problem finding a position in SA. I have heard that the area is short 300 nurses per day - ie if they could hire 300 nurses everyday there still would not be quite enough....We're desperate here.

Non-spanish speaking won't hurt at all. Sure, it'd make things easier if you were, but it's rare to have no one around who is not Spanish speaking. I do recommend taking some courses (offered locally) in "Medical Spanish" just to make life a little easier, but it's by no means a necessity. It's much easier here, even with having more spanish speaking patients.

I'm not an RN, but work in health and am familiar with both in general. Both are well respected.

btw - NW Indiana, or at least not far from there, has a large hispanic population. Head towards Elkhart and you'll find tons of new Mexican immigrants. It's a funny place - near Amish country and you find horse and buggies at Supermercado Rosales . I lived in South Bend for awhile, and was interested to find significant populations of new immigrants. Then of course there's Chicago.

[jeevneze]

Originally Posted by Chakapu

You will have zero problem finding a position in SA. I have heard that the area is short 300 nurses per day - ie if they could hire 300 nurses everyday there still would not be quite enough....We're desperate here.

Non-spanish speaking won't hurt at all. Sure, it'd make things easier if you were, but it's rare to have no one around who is not Spanish speaking. I do recommend taking some courses (offered locally) in "Medical Spanish" just to make life a little easier, but it's by no means a necessity. It's much easier here, even with having more spanish speaking patients.

I'm not an RN, but work in health and am familiar with both in general. Both are well respected.

btw - NW Indiana, or at least not far from there, has a large hispanic population. Head towards Elkhart and you'll find tons of new Mexican immigrants. It's a funny place - near Amish country and you find horse and buggies at Supermercado Rosales . I lived in South Bend for awhile, and was interested to find significant populations of new immigrants. Then of course there's Chicago.

I know exactly what you're talking about, I went to Goshen college and am familiar with Elkhart...have not been that way for the past 8 years but from what I hear both Elkhart and Goshen have a growing hispanic population. I currentlly work in South Bend, (live in St Joseph MI)...good to hear from an ex-southbender...thank u for the info.

[Chakapu]

Originally Posted by jeevneze

I know exactly what you're talking about, I went to Goshen college and am familiar with Elkhart...have not been that way for the past 8 years but from what I hear both Elkhart and Goshen have a growing hispanic population. I currentlly work in South Bend, (live in St Joseph MI)...good to hear from an ex-southbender...thank u for the info.

Ah, then Elkhart is just down the road ;-)

I lived there for 4 yrs in grad school, used to drive to MI on Sundays for beer . I miss some things about it, mainly X-country skiing, though I am ok with no Lake Effect snow and 90F days in February.

Oddly enough, I've found better tequila in South Bend than in San Antonio.

[ilmd]

Just a question- is the private sector pay scale part of the shortage problem? I have a couple nurse friends here (I too am a nurse, but have not worked in a few years, so am not up to date on salaries). I was shocked at how low paying the hospitals were- $18-27/hour. Civil service is must better- I have not worked civil in just over 10 years, and was getting $43/hour then. What is the info in SA?

[Chakapu]

I think it's just that the healthcare industry is growing too fast too keep up with the availability of nurses. There are new hospitals and assorted car facilities opening up all the time.

From my perspective nurses in the private sector get paid very well for San Antonio (maybe not compared to SA, but remember the salary scale is different here across the board), but then I work in public health, which gets paid embarassingly low.