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I am a Home Health Registered Nurse considering relocating to Hooksett, NH. I went to High School in NH, but have lived in Kentucky for 18 years. I am 39 years old and divorced. I do have family in NH and MA. My question is with my profession will I be able to afford to live in NH? Also, is it hard to find nursing jobs in NH at this time? I am considering making NH my base and doing travel nursing if I cannot find a job.
Any particular reason for choosing Hooksett? It's certainly not the first New England town to come to mind when you think about jobs in nursing. There may be more job opportunity in your field closer to Boston?
I helped an uncle find a job in southern NH; his field is human resources but I scoured all the hospitals. Most of them have extremely navigable "Careers" pages that let you see which positions are open. There always seem to be a number of RN positions available. I'd say the full time jobs pay a livable if not extravagant salary (in the ballpark of $45K), but be advised that a lot of RN positions around here are per diem. Also, please be advised that I don't know the difference between home health RNs and regular RNs. If the difference is meaningful (e.g. if you can't get a regular RN position with your background), you might have to do a more specific search. Again, most of the hospitals have navigable "Careers" pages; I just don't know enough about the home RN profession to be helpful. Another thing to watch out for - especially if you can only get per diem work and thus have to pay for insurance out of pocket - is that many hospitals in southern NH (including Concord Hospital; no clue as to the Manchester hospitals) do not accept any of the healthcare.gov plans, and the premiums for non-healthcare.gov plans have skyrocketed. (DON'T ATTACK ME, INTERNET STRANGERS; I speak from experience as an employer/business owner and am not saying the law needs to be repealed altogether/kept intact/etc -- just that people who need to buy their own insurance might want to avoid cities whose hospitals don't accept healthcare.gov plans). The nice thing about NH, though, is that restaurants, hotels and bars seem to be doing well, so it's possible to supplement per diem income with a part-time job in hospitality. I know people who support themselves with per diem work plus a job in hospitality on the side. One of my friends supports herself and a child with per diem work and a bartending gig. She lives in a nice 2-bedroom apartment in Concord; her child has piano, soccer and dance lessons; she drives a nice car; seems to be comfortable.
You can find a decent 1 or 2-bedroom apartment for under $1000 in southern NH; some apartments can be found for $700-800. If you're looking to buy, you can buy (what I think is) a perfectly nice house for under $200K. By "perfectly nice," I mean a solidly built 1500+sqft home with a homey feel and lots of character in a safe, lovely neighborhood full of wonderful people; if you're like my ex-girlfriend and need a Great Room with 20ft ceilings, marble floors and all that other crap, there are plenty of options for you in southern NH nowadays, but they'll waste over $400K of your hard-earned money. Some smaller homes (around/under 1000sqft) sell for under $100K; they're few, far-between and generally require some handywork, but they exist (again, Suncook/Hooksett village isn't a bad place to start looking. Suncook has almost miraculously turned into one of NH's loveliest villages over the past decade, but housing prices are extremely reasonable). You can buy a mobile home or a condo for under $50K in southern NH, and some mobile homes sell for as low as $30K. Just beware of condo/park fees, as these can raise your total monthly expenses to well over a modest single-family house's mortgage. I haven't heard of any "bad" condo/mobile home community in the area (most of them do extensive credit/background checks), but I'm sure a couple of shady ones exist. I'd say the cost of utilities, groceries and other major expenses have risen in proportion to rising costs elsewhere (even though I never lived in KY and can't make a direct comparison). Good luck with everything!!
My mom is a home health nurse in Massachusetts...just a bit north of Boston. There are numerous companies and they always seem to be hiring since she only seems to stay at each for 3-4 years. I'm not sure what the scene is like in NH. My guess is Mass pays more, but your cost of living is higher.
Hooksett would set you up well to work out of Concord or Manchester. I have friends who enjoy living there, although it wouldn't be on my own personal radar. Nothing wrong with it though.
Looks like your choice is between SC and NH, but you mention in the SC forum that you are looking for a warmer climate than KY and access to the beach. I think I would rule out NH then...not going to be warmer than KY and we don't have as large of a coastline as SC. If you do swing back toward NH, you would probably want to look at the VNA for a home health position. The last time I looked at them, they were making cuts rather than hiring. I know that oldmanlookatmylife through out some salary numbers. I can only speak to hospital numbers which tend to run low for national average but I imagine are higher than KY. The closer you get to Boston, the more likely salaries will be higher and in general, MA itself pays considerably more than central NH but you have to weigh out the down side of working in MA such as paying income tax, commuting, etc.
My guess, having family in SC, is that SC has a larger home heath nurse infrastructure, especially once you get away from the more populated areas such as Charleston and Myrtle Beach. A few web searches and phone calls should get you all the information you require. But if you are considering doing travel nursing with NH as your base, why don't you just go ahead and do that now from KY? It will give you an up close and personal idea of what the economic climate for nurses is in a given area as well as if you would actually enjoy living in the area. KY is a compact state, so that gives you 24 states you could practice in without having to obtain a new license.
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