I'm on my last year of nursing and i would like consider becoming a travel nurse when i get my Licence. Is this a good idea to gain more experience in different facilities? and become more competent with my skills?

Everyone is going to tell you something different, but I would not encouragea new grad to go right into locum (traveling) jobs. It isn't practical to go to one place for a few months and then up and learn another facility/policies/procedures etc. Based off of my own experience, i would want to stay in the same place for maybe a year and then go travel. traveling will always be there since everyone needs the extra assistance.

There are agencies that will sign you up with just a year (or even just six months, I've heard) of experience, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to get you contracts. Most of the hospitals using travelers require two, three, or more years of experience in your specialty (and, if they don't, that's probably a big red flag that you don't want to go there). Hospitals and other facilities pay huge amounts of $$$ for travelers, and for that amount of $$$ they (quite reasonably!) expect to get a seasoned, experienced "pro" who is ready to hit the floor running and do the job with minimal assistance or supervision. If they wanted to break in and train new, inexperienced nurses, they'd just hire new nurses. Travelers frequently get just a shift (or less) of orientation and are then expected to be ready to go on their own. IMHO, you're not ready to travel until you are completely over the "new grad," "novice" hump and able to function competently and independently in your "home" unit/setting -- then, think about how comfortable you feel about walking into completely new and different facility/setting and functioning independently. When you feel okay with that, you're ready to travel.

Also, as a traveler, you will frequently be put in "iffy" situations (dangerous or unethical clinical situations, or just attempts to take advantage of you in your contract) by your agency or the facility. They don't care about what happens to you or your license -- if you crash and burn, they've got plenty of other warm bodies, but you only have you. IMHO, it's also v. important for a traveler to be savvy enough about nursing in general to be able to protect yourself and your license from bad situations, and that also takes a fair amount of time and experience in nursing, in general, to develop.

thanks everyone for giving me some details about travel nurse.

There is a separate Travel Nursing forum here that may interest you, if you haven't already looked at it --

http://allnurses.com/travel-nursing/

Originally Posted by patrick.gines

I'm on my last year of nursing and i would like consider becoming a travel nurse when i get my Licence. Is this a good idea to gain more experience in different facilities? and become more competent with my skills?

No this is REALLY not a good idea.

First, the vast majority of travel nursing agencies cannot place a nurse with less than 1 year of experience, even in a good economy. And in this economy, the minimum experience for most placements have gone up to 2-5 years.

Note, I said placement. Many agencies will take your resume, but that does not mean that you obtain a job through them. The contract facilities can pick and choose who they wish to interview for POSSIBLE hire. And given the current shortage, of jobs available, they can pick and choose between a lot of experienced travelers. New grads/grads with only 1-2 years experience are going to be definitely at a disadvantage for ANY job, much more so for traveling.

A traveler must hit the floor running and that requires experience. Many of the positions that I have taken in better hospitals have been related to years and years of specialty experience, when I was placed to cover the floor, so that the regular staff could orient new grads. Obviously no one is going to hire a new grad to cover while new grads are going to be oriented.

A traveler costs a facility at least twice as much as midrange experienced nurse. Thus they could (especially in this market) hire a new grad for staff much cheaper than a new grad traveler.

Having said that, there are places that will contract new grad traveler. Think about the reasons why a facility cannot find local nurse or experienced traveler to work for them, such that they would take an inexperienced new grad traveler.....NONE of those reasons are good. These are the contracts that smart nurses run away from because they are dangerous.

Your best bet is to work hard in your preferred specialty for about 2 years and pick up some float shifts/agency work. By then the economy will have improved (hopefully) and you will be in better position to have a more optimal travel experience and a good base for getting a decent contract.

You definitely need to gain at least 1 year of experience prior to even considering travel nursing. I've found with my staffing agency that I couldn't get the higher paying jobs in the major cities unless I had at least 2 years or more of experience. If you are looking to travel to the major cities (NY, Boston, etc) you need 2 years plus experience, but if you want to travel to Florida or other places, then 1 year is usually accepted.

I agree with the previous posts that recommend years of experience first. It is great to work with travelers because of their experience. We have had several travelers at my hospital and many of them were male. They are a great asset to the team.

You are expected to know your stuff and like someone else said you do not get much of an orientation at all...usually hospital orientation then a couple shifts instead of Weeks that you would get. In our ED new grads get 6 months orientation, try getting that as a traveler.

If I didn't have a family I would love to be a full time traveler so I think it's great that this is something you want to do. I have a few friends that travel and they absolutely love it, one went from working as a flight nurse in Nome Alaska to an ED nurse in Colorado and now is working in WY...what a way to see the country!