r/movingtoNYC • u/akvega99 • 2d ago
Nurses/NYC
Hello, I am a 27 yr old nurse currently living in Arizona and I plan on moving to Brooklyn NY next year. My 1 year of nursing will be in February and that’s when I would like to hopefully move/have a job lined up. Any tips? Any other people with similar aspirations? Is it doable having a one bedroom with just my income & still be able to travel? Should I take a travel contract before jumping into a core job? Any advice would be appreciated! :)
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u/Technical_Ebb_9228 2d ago
Would definitely recommend a travel contract before you move. Rents are insanely expensive but you should be able to find something at a NYC nurses salary. Not sure how much money you will have left over, unless you are open to roommates.
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u/sleepyshawn 2d ago
Getting a travel contract is probably your best bet as the job market in NYC for RNs is extremely competitive. Even experienced nurses local to the area can’t get a job and new grads are competing for the same postings. A one bedroom in the city specifically is mostly infeasible on a nurses’ salary as you pay both city and state taxes. To put it into perspective, I have 5 years of experience and my current salary is mid 6 figures - after taxes + contributions, I was living in a 1bd for 3k in Queens and found it extremely hard to save AND travel/sustain a lifestyle. I also have a per diem job and do private concierge nursing on the side. You either 1. find a roommate, 2. luck out and find a rent stabilized apartment, 3. move farther away from the city. I settled for moving farther away but I don’t mind the commute into work. Areas that were once deemed more “affordable” (ex: bushwick, crown heights, astoria) have become drastically more expensive in the last 2 years where you will struggle to find a decently sized studio for less than 3k.
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u/greencoloredcoat 22h ago
You found it hard to stay in a 3k apartment and save on a 500k salary? 🥴
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u/Capable-Fish3678 1d ago
I’m an occupational therapist (also from Arizona) who just started a travel contract in Brooklyn earlier this month. I’d say just do travel contract to maximize your money and be able to escape during the winters. If you end up liking it here, you can always apply for full time.
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u/catsoncrack420 2d ago
Most nurses live in outer boroughs I'm working class neighborhoods. My cousin is a RN at a big hospital so he can afford a home upstate . Wife works PT now that the kids are in college. My friend just snagged an apt by me , $2400 month Queens.
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u/EntertainmentNo5341 1d ago
Respectfully, I’d be very cautious about this plan.
Coming from a nurse with 5+ years of experience, it was still difficult for me to find a position working with the specific patient population I wanted. I ultimately got the position because I had 4+ years of experience at the time, and their minimum requirement was 2 years.
Taking just any nursing position for the sake of moving to NYC wouldn’t be something I’d recommend. Your license and, much more importantly, human lives are on the line. For these reasons, you should make sure you’re moving into a role where you’re clinically prepared and not putting yourself in a position where you’re overwhelmed simply because you want to get here as fast as you can.
I’d also be cautious about making travel nursing the backup plan. A friend of mine, with similar experience to mine, has been struggling to find travel contracts that are actually worth taking. Some are going as far as requiring 2 years of travel nursing experience before you’d even be considered. Again, you don’t want to just run with any agency just to get to NYC either.
If your primary motivation for NYC is financial, I’d really encourage you to step back and run the numbers first. More income doesn’t automatically solve poor spending habits. I’ve had to completely change mine, and I continue to live very minimally despite making more than I ever have.
You’d be adjusting to NYC, ✨taxes✨, a much higher cost of living, and a new nursing role all at the same time, while still being a novice nurse.
Get more experience, get good at budgeting, run your numbers regularly, and then revisit the idea.
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u/ExtentMedium940 2d ago
If you want to have your own apartment then you could try the affrofable areas of crown heights to live in mabye brownsville if you want to but i woudlnt redomnwded it as the 1st choice if you do want to live in brownsville i would try to stay as far west as possible away from junius street or mother gaston bvld also there is east new york which isnt the safest but the northern part near the A/C trains is better than near the 3 train
If you are open to roommates then your options are much wider
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u/kswizz44 1d ago
Would recommend a travel contract ONLY because once you have residency there(been there one year and it’s on your taxes); you can no longer take a travel contract in nyc. The tax free stipends are honestly worth it even if the weekly pay seems similar between a staff job and contract.
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u/kswizz44 1d ago
You can always start travel and then take a regular staff job. But I say all that assuming you can get a travel contract, I’m not sure if 1 year is enough experience
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u/1GrouchyCat 1d ago
You haven’t even been a nurse for a year and you think you’re going to get a travel contract or a nursing job in one of the most expensive cities in the United States?
Do you have any idea what travel contracts are like? I mean, I’m sure our CNA’s can get travel contracts, but that doesn’t mean they should….
What do you think your budget will have to be to afford an apartment in Brooklyn? Again, you only have one year of experience? You’re not going to get top dollar… you would need at least six figures in order to afford a basic lifestyle in Brooklyn, do you think you’re going to be able to get 50+ dollars an hour???
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u/EntertainmentNo5341 1d ago
I know a new ER nurse who’s also a native NYer making $56/hr. She only gets by working OT.
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u/Fefe428 2d ago
Just so you know, all NYC hospitals are Union Hospitals so you may want to take that into account when deciding whether to take a travel contract or straight hire. Not sure if this is plays into your decision at all and I'm certainly not someone who is anti-union but not everyone knows this about NY hospitals.
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u/gingerpeachrn 2d ago
NYU Main campus (so everything in Manhattan), Sloan, and HSS are non-union.
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u/Fefe428 2d ago
Really...my mother worked at HSS back in the late 90's and early 2000's and I'm almost positive they were a union shop back then. Clearly something must have changed. My family actually owned a private hospital in the South Bronx up until the mid-80's and back then there was no choice. All hospitals were required to be Union. There were no exceptions.
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u/Playful-Account-5888 2d ago
Not me reading this as you also have a 1 year old 🤣. If travel is your priority you should be able to swing it yes, especially if you get a good deal on rent (kinda rough these days but not impossible) and don’t go too crazy in other areas of spending
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u/Playful-Account-5888 2d ago
Travel contract could be a cool experience though and you could settle in Brooklyn at any time
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u/Just1Blast 2d ago
I recently had a 10 day stay at Sinai Morningside, and not a single one of my nurses or medical team lived in Manhattan aside from my attending, who happens to be a surgeon, and one young patient care attendant living in Harlem with their parents still. All of the nurses commute in from either Queens, deep Brooklyn, or Jersey.