[lucy1976]

Hi all, I really need an opinion from people who've done travel nursing....

This is my current situation.. I have a 9a-5pm PACU job a small brand new Heart hospital, There are only 2 PACU nurses, and the only patients we recover are AV grafts, Fem Pops, and some EP Ablations, TEE's and Cardioversion patients. The hearts and thoracotomies go straight to the CVICU. On our busiest day we have 4 -5 patients. I mean, it's a really sweet job, especailly the fact that it's just two nurses and so less people to butt heads with. The whole hospital is very clean and the management is very nurse friendly, i mean even on the Tele floor the maximum patient load is 4 patients,even at night, most of the time they have 3 patients. ( I do pick up extra shifts in tele during the weekends).

My question is, i have a project that i'm working on that will cost me abut $90,000 over the next 12 months, i've been seriously considering travel nursing so i can make $ 8000-10,000/ month including overtime ( I was considering California, or local contracts) I could do tele or Pacu if available. Right now i make a net of $3500.month for 40hrs per week, with ot on weekends i can net $ 5397 for an extra 12hr weekend shift, or $ 7274.00 if i work both saturday and Sunday, i can do without straining too much coz my week days are soo easy.
I was thinking travel nursing would be a good idea coz i can make more with less days of work coz i could work 12 hr shifts.
I don't have kids, so even though 9-5 is a great shift, for me, financially, it doesn't seem very good financially, coz i can't work much OT.

Please give me your opinions, feel free to email me too.

Thanks!

Lucy

[lucy1976]

Any opinion......Anyone??

[Valerie Salva]

What you are netting now is more than a lot of travelers make. Most travel jobs are paying upper 20s to mid 30s per hour. Very rarely, a traveler makes about $40./hr. Travel wages have been flat the last few years. With the new trend of vendor mgmt, traveler wages have even fallen.

I've known a number ot nurses who think travelers just make ungodly amounts of money, and are very disappointed when they learn that this is a myth.

Generally, local agency nurses make much more than travelers. A big reason for this is that they do not require away-from-home housing.