Nursing Question?? (Roosevelt, Newark, Lenox: apartment, health insurance, high crime)

[Ms. WhO]

Hi everyone. I'm moving to NYC next year. Can anyone tell me how the hiring is going for RN's? Specifically an ER nurse with experience, I also have some experience in ICU and a BSN. How difficult is it to get hired with experience?

Also if anyone can please tell me what the salary is for an ER nurse in NY? I have found some sites that say as low as $80K to a little over $100K? How true is this information?

Thank you to everyone in advance!!

(Sorry if this has been answered previously, I searched through quite a few of the threads but didn't see any)

[nycgirl1616]

The hiring situation in NYC is pretty bad, even for experienced nurses. ICU jobs are pretty hard to come by, I've been looking myself for a position in NYC or LI for CTICU and there is nothign.

ER seems to be one specialty that hires more frequently than others but I must warn you, 9/10 nurses that come and work here from out of state turn around and go back home faster than you can say "nurse". Because of this, many places are reluctant to hire nurses without NYC experience because most of them can't handle it, even experienced travelers.

Nursing in NYC is unlike anywhere else. Take your busiest shift and multiply it by 10 and that's what its like here almost every day. I hope you don't have a problem having 10 patients at a time, and you may have 8 tele and 2 ICU holds, its not going to be 7 fast tracks and 3 medicine. The patients here are sick, old and because of the immigrant population don't seek healthcare until they are pretty bad. Many patients who would go to ICU at hospitals out of state will go to the floor here, thats how high the acuity is. At least half of your patients on any given day will speak a number of languages other than English.

And now for the pay: Most NYC hospitals base pay is about 70k, some a little more, some less. Where I work, I get 1k a year for every year of experience I get here, and I get 3500 a year for having my CEN and 1500 for BSN. Sometimes I pick up an overtime shift, but I don't do it too often because I don't really have the time to. If I did, I could break the 100k mark.

Now here's the catch: If you are single, have no property tax/dependants to deduct, you will get murdered in taxes. The high salary puts you into a higher tax bracket, and then once you deduct health insurance, union dues, life insurance and all of that, you are left with not as much as you think. What's even worse is, if you work too much overtime in a given week you don't even see the money because you are taxed so high that your take home will be the same. You can't even circumvent it by working agency elsewhere, because when you file your taxes you will have made too much money without enough taxes taken out and will pay thousands at the end of the year, I know a few nurses that happened to. Personally, I claim 0 and so does every other single person I know with no legit deductions because if you claim 1 you WILL owe taxes at the end of the year.

Next thing is, NYC is VERY expensive to live. 100k doesn't go very far here believe it or not. Your apartment will probably cost you at least 2 weeks pay, maybe even more. If you are coming here with no debt whatsoever it will make it much easier to get by.

What I would recommend to you is to take a leave of absence from your job if you can, and take a travel assignment in the city for a few months. That way you can live here on their dime (they will pay for your apartment which is huge) and get a feel for if you really want to come live and work here.

[Ms. WhO]

Wow! Sounds like a nightmare. It makes me wish I could just stay here! I really have no choice in coming because of family. Thanks for the heads up on dependents, I have 3 children. I don't have any debt, just rent, bills, etc. I have roughly $50K in savings to help along the way, so hopefully I won't have to struggle too much.

1:10! Well, I love a challenge!

Someone suggested to me to give travel nursing a try for a few months, which you have also suggested. How difficult would it be to get assignments? We don't live an extravagant lifestyle by any means, but I also don't won't to be without employment for too long. Moving to one of the most expensive states during our current economy is ridiculous already, I don't want to have to come into this blind as a bat.

[Natural510]

Is the RN market any better in Jersey, that you know of?

[nycgirl1616]

The hospitals are much nicer in NJ, you just have to avoid certain high crime cities like Newark in north jersey. Hackensack and UNDMJ are 2 places I have heard good things about.

I would take a travelers job at first because you will then make a high hourly rate and the tax free stipend if you already have a place to live, you will be rolling in the $.

It's not like every day you are going to have 10 pts at a time, but it's not common to have only 4 and there are no ratios. If they keep coming you get them. In manhattan a lot of the patient population is going to be homeless, HIV +, psych, drunk. I work in Brooklyn where I do see that but not as much as in manhattan.

Based on ER's (from a working standpoint) I have not worked at these placed just going by word of mouth I have heard these places are best:

Montefiore (Bronx)
St Luke's (uptown not Roosevelt)
Mt Sinai
NY presbyterian (Cornell)
Lenox hill
Sloan Kettering (I've heard is awesome to work for and highest pay)

Worst:
Any ER in queens
Any ER in Brooklyn especially coney island
Methodist Lutheran and Maimonides aren't too bad but very busy.

Summer is a difficult time to get a travel assignment in the city but I think you will have luck with staffing agencies doing per diem work. The thing is you will only get tax free stipend if your current address is 50+ miles from where u r working. If you coukd keep your old address for a bit you can get it, otherwise agency is the way to go if you don't need health insurance. Try to apply anyway to hospitals you never know!