New to Travel Nursing - HELP! :)

[tinyfeet28]

Hi there!

I am new to travel nursing and I cannot figure out what types of floors I should be open to working on. I have 2 years experience on an orthopedic and trauma med-surg floor. We see mostly trauma patients ranging from car accidents, falls, gun shot wounds, you name it! I have experience with a wide range of injuries and am familiar with chest tubes, IR drains, JP drains, tube feedings, general med-surg tele, trachs, among other things...

I'm thinking I should be open to working on just about any med-surg floor aside from possibly cardiac and oncology. Would a transplant or pulmonary floor be over my head?

At the risk of sounding conceited, I am a fairly intelligent person and I have no problems asking questions if I am unsure of something. I usually catch on to things very quickly, as well - and I'm uptight enough that I'll definitely be reading and brushing up on the care of the specific patient population with which I'll be working.

Phew! Can you tell I"m stressed? Any suggestions?

~Lynne~

[OkieICU_RN]

Only you can answer that question. If you don't think you'd be comfortable working on a cardiac or transplant floor, then don't. It sounds like you have some pretty good experience so I am sure that any Med/Surg floor would be fine.

Do you have experience with patients who end up with a cardiac problem after their trauma?

I personally wasn't real comfortable working in a cardiac ICU since I did mostly, medical, surgical and trauma ICU. But, in reality, most of those patients ended up with some cardiac problem: atrial fibrillation or an MI. We had to take care of them too, they didn't transfer to another unit just because they had a heart problem now. Now, I don't mind cardiac ICU but I just let the hosptial know up front I have no fresh open heart experience and a couple of other things I can't do.

Best bet is to stick with something you know well and take that as your first assigment. You can branch out later.

[tinyfeet28]

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it.

I think I wouldn't feel that comfortable with cardiac, but I'm not even sure what something like a transplant entails. Obviously with trauma we get alot of chest tubes and trachs - would that be okay experience for a pulmonary floor? I have absolutely no idea.

Is it okay to have the recruiter send my file over and leave it up to the hiring body to talk to me about expectations and skills?

~Lynne~

[OkieICU_RN]

Yes. Your best bet is to let your recruiter send your file out to the hospital and then when you talk with the manager ask lots of information on what kind of patients they get and what sort of skill set they are looking for.

[Maynmom]

The other thing to take into consideration is the skills checklist that you filled out as part of your application process. The hospitals and recruiter do look at this to help determine what area would be a good fit or you.

[tinyfeet28]

Yeah, that's true... my recruiter seemed a little clueless - I don't think she's a nurse. I'll def send my file to the hospital and they can look at the checklist and decide.

Thanks for the input!