Travel Nurse

[JDGNurse]

Hello. I was wondering if anyone can give me information on how they liked being a Travel Nurse. I have heard that the pay is usually very good, but was wondering about housing, and what is the usual length of the assignment. If for some reason the position did not work out for me, do I have to pay a penalty to not finish out the assignment? Thank you.

[gnovime]

I'm a longtime travel lurker but looking at taking my first assignment in the next few months. I've been researching travel for years though and the biggest thing I'd recommend is just browsing through this travel forum to look at people's experiences and insights. Everyone will have different experiences and travel is not right for everyone. Travel can be well paying but not always, sometimes depending on the area you're paid better to be permanent staff. Travel is better if you like short term and seeing new places it seems, if the pay is good then that's an extra bonus to the equation. Make sure you have at least 2 years experience in the specialty you want to travel with. There's other sites like PanTravelers, Highway Hypodermics, Gypsy Nurse... take some time to read through all the info.

I'm pretty sure penalties for quitting a contract really depend on the contract and company, you need to read all the fine print, some will try to get you for housing if you're using agency housing. If you bail out of a contract though you're likely to be blacklisted by the hospital/group and possibly your agency, depending on why you're terminating early.

[JDGNurse]

Thank you, I will check into these websites as well. I have some more research to do before making a decision on the best way to do this, and housing considerations as well.

I think switching to PACU in the Same Day Surgery setting will now not work in my favor, even though I have past experience with ICU, telemetry and orthopaedics.

Thanks again for your input!