Hello all,
I'm an L&D nurse looking to get into travel nursing, but have run into some problems in regards to my experience. I wondered what any of you might be able to offer in terms of advice or your personal experience, especially anyone who has been in my particular position.
I have 18 months of L&D experience, just shy of 4 years total nursing experience (my first job was in a SICU--good experience, but not for me). I work at HUP in Philadelphia, a large teaching facility. The nurses here (except for a handful, cross trained for our triage area), DO NOT do cervical exams. My first choice of location to move to has been San Francisco. Large teaching facilities there, as I'm told, do not want to hire first time travelers. So I've expanded my search to outlying areas, other small towns. This is where I've discovered (as many are community hospitals), that all the nurses do cervical exams (and place FSEs and IUPCs), leaving me unqualified!
So basically I'm stuck with the catch-22 situation of: can't get a job at a large teaching facility in the city (as a first timer), but can't get a job at a smaller or community hospital b/c of my sheltered existence at a large teaching facility! It's kind of funny really.
Is my hospital as outside of the norm as it seems in that we (the RNs) don't do vag exams? (or place internal monitoring instruments)
Just wondering if any of you has had this same combination of situations, and if they were ever successful in finding a travel job?
I realize this may be more of a "travel nursing forum" question (and I did post there as well), but I wanted insight from L&D nurses in general as to where my facility stood on the spectrum.
Thanks for any input!