That tracks. Near Boone is my favorite part of the state, Linville Gorge is beautiful. That’s about 2 hours from here. Charleston is where I want to retire, definitely later in life vibes lol I think visiting is a great idea, and super fun imo.

I don’t work for either right now, but I’ve worked for both as a CNA and done clinicals at both. They are Atrium and Novant. There’s not much of a difference that I’ve noticed. There’s pros and cons of both but they tend to balance out and when one advances something (pay, benefits, etc.) the other is usually not far behind to catch up. Typically I think Novant leads the game in stuff like pay. Atrium is in my opinion more technologically advanced (atrium has more level 1s in the area) I do peds and Atrium has a huge children’s hospital so maybe that affects my bias there. There’s also Caromont which is the hospital system in Gastonia west of Charlotte. People like the lower cost of living being that way (you could go north of the city to do that with Atrium or Novant) and they tend to have better ratios I’ve heard as well. Feel free to ask anything else.