Originally called Wilmore City after its first developer, William Wilmore, on its incorporation, Long Beach was renamed for its long, beautiful beaches. If you are looking to work as a nursing professional in a relaxed coastal city with plenty of opportunities, “LBC” — as the locals say — might be the place.
Home to a population of 456,062, Long Beach has the vibe of a California beach town mixed with the vibrancy of an urban environment. If you’d like to learn more about nursing jobs in Long Beach, keep reading to see if this corner of the Golden State might be the perfect fit for you.
3 Facts About Nursing Jobs in Long Beach, CA
- Is California a compact state? No. RNs must be licensed by the California Board of Registered Nursing.
- What is the RN salary in Long Beach? The average salary for RN jobs in Long Beach is $125,350, well over the national average RN salary of $89,010.
- Where can I find information about RN licensing requirements in California? Get up-to-date information on licensure in California by visiting the California Board of Nursing website.
More About Nursing Jobs in Long Beach, CA
The seventh largest city in California, Long Beach is located on the coast and within the greater Los Angeles metro area. If you’re considering looking for RN, CNA, or LVN jobs, you’ll have opportunities for full-time, part-time, contract, and per diem positions with many types of employers from clinical to acute to post-acute care.
Your nursing resume showing cultural competency skills will be especially valued in the most diverse state in the nation. Long Beach itself is quite diverse and offers opportunities for those experienced with a varied patient population. The city’s demographics show Long Beach is about 43% Hispanic, 13% Asian, and 12% Black or African American. Multilingual skills will be valuable as well since 46% of Long Beach residents speak a language other than English at home.
The age demographics are fairly typical for a city this size. You’ll have opportunities to care for older patients (12% are 65 years or more) or if you prefer working with young adult and pediatric patients, those under 18 make up a hefty 21% of the city. Women are just about 50% of the city’s residents.
If your family is like most of the households in Long Beach, you have kids and might be looking for day care or after-school care while you are working. The city offers many childcare options including Head Start Programs, the YMCA, and others. If you need care for furry and fluffy family members while on a last-minute shift, that’s available too.
Working in Long Beach, CA
The demand for nursing jobs in Long Beach, CA, may be due in part to the fact that healthcare is among the metro area’s main industries, along with aviation and aerospace, financial services, hospitality, and tourism.
Furthering the need for healthcare workers are the main hospitals and healthcare centers located in Long Beach. Look for these big names if you are interested in acute-care work in the city:
- Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
- Mary Medical Center
- College Medical Center
- Miller Children's and Women’s Hospital
- Long Beach Community Medical Center
However, the hospital bedside is not the only choice for nursing professionals. There are 329 nursing homes in the Long Beach area that are rated by U.S. News & World Report.
Getting to your Long Beach nursing job might be a little challenging; it is California, after all. The commute in the city on average is just over 30 minutes, a bit over the national average commute time of 27.6 minutes. Yet the Long Beach commute is better than a lot of major metros in the state — nearby Los Angeles clocks in at more than 53 minutes! Nearly 79% of commuters drive to work and just over 6% take mass transit.
Living in Long Beach, CA
There are so many benefits to living in the Long Beach area that residents may forgive the commute, and driving to work with the top down most of the year is just one of them. The climate in Long Beach is typically Mediterranean, with temperatures rarely below 42 degrees or above 91 degrees.
With the beautiful weather comes the many outdoor activities Southern California has to offer. With four miles of beach, a day in the sand, surf, and sun is an obvious choice when you are not working. But with additional options like hiking in El Dorado Park, catching whale-watching tours from the marina, or taking a drive (downtown L.A. is only 25 miles away), it’s easy to get some extra vitamin D in the California sun.
If you are more a fan of the great indoors, Long Beach has options for you as well. LBC has a surprising number of art museums and aquariums, is home to the USS Iowa, and of course boasts the great cruise ship turned hotel and museum, The Queen Mary.
Long Beach has its own flavor and a different dining scene than nearby L.A., if you want a dinner out to relax after a day shift or a day on the beach. Fresh seafood is widely available, but great local restaurants featuring Cambodian food, Filipino cuisine, Korean BBQ, and Guatemalan dishes sit right next to the vegan, vegetarian, hot dogs, tacos, and hamburgers you’d expect from a beach town. Maybe even more important to busy nurses, Long Beach has a plethora of cool coffee shops serving everything from basic drip to the most specialized lavender and horchata lattes.
After you have had a great meal and are fully caffeinated, you’ll be ready to enjoy the arts and music scene in Long Beach, CA. The city has its own symphony, opera, and ballet, as well as the Long Beach Art Walk (the second Saturday of every month).
There is of course that California price tag that comes with living the life in Long Beach, but it’s still much more affordable than many other major cities in California. Even with a median home price of about $785,000, Long Beach is less expensive than Los Angeles, San Diego, or San Francisco. The general cost of living in Long Beach is about 51% higher than the national average.
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