How do you feel about travel nursing?

Specialties Travel

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How does everyone feel about travel nursing? Pros/Cons?

:confused:

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, adult med/surg, peds BMT.

I did travel nursing a few times in my career. The first time I had been a nurse for 3 years and did it to facilitate a move out to California from NY- I then took a permanent position for a couple of years- and then went to Hawaii for a year- I came back to NY as a traveler and went on to North Carolina as a traveler. I had several permananet positions after that and then returned to califronia as a traveler.

I met an incredible amount of people and had an incredible amount of experiences that have made me a better nurse and personin general. If you are at a point in your life where you feel you want a change and a challenge then I would highly suggest travel nursing. Be prepared for moving to a brand new place where you may know no one, having to travel (self-explanatory but a shock to some that don't think it through) to go through orientation at a new hospital that may be as short as 2 to 3 days. You must know your stuff- this is not the time to switch specialties. Have an open attitude and know that your new place of employment does not want to hear the words, "At _____ hospital we did it this way." They want you to learn it their way.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I am hoping to do it. My husband is 16 years older than me, so once he retires, my taking up travel nursing could be really fun for the two of us while still providing a good living!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the travel nursing forum

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Specializes in ER, Tele, Cardiac Cath Lab.
How does everyone feel about travel nursing? Pros/Cons?

:confused:

Travel nursing can be feast or famine. Please do thorough research before signing on with any company or taking an assignment with any hospital. There is no excuse these days no to research with the internet . I started travel nursing before the internet was very popular . For that reason i had some very bad experiences. I never cancelled a contract but came close a few times. Blog with as many nurses as you can to prevent getting sucked into a bad assignment.

Be advised alot of hospital are not traveler friendly and will give you the worse of the worse patients every day.

DO RESEARCH !!!

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
DO RESEARCH !!!

Your recruiter can make or break your travel career. Like everything there are good and bad. It is up to you to find out what companies pay well, which have good compensation, which recruiters work for YOU and the ones that try to maximize your benefits not the company's.

Most WILL NOT go out of their way to give it to you. You have to ask. You have to research the assignments, the cost of living in that market, travel and so on.

Travelers usually stick together. Networking is the ticket. Get to know as many as you can. Learn from their experiences and mistakes. A seasoned traveler will not steer you wrong. We all talk about good assignments and the bad hospitals.

Hope this helps.

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