advice from experienced travel RN's.

amy0123, BSN, RN · Feb 24, 2009

Sorry that this experience was awful. I'm a medsurg nurse. I recall working in a similar environment. Working in CSICU was difficult. Especially with the preceptors I had. All except for one had A-Type personalities and very harsh. I couldn't put up with them. Very non-supportive with ice cold hearts.

Anyway, I've been traveling for 1.5 years in med-surg. Every facility has their own way of managing charts, staff, patient care, protocols. No facility is perfect. They all have quirks. The last place, a small community hospital, I had some troubles with. It was mentioned a few posts ago on the General Forum. Brief: That hospital should not carry incompetent supervisors to act as doctors or over-ride doctor's orders after the doctor had evaluated patient. The supervisor had no reason to yell at me!! for a fresh postop patient that had a new onset of afib and needed to transfer to a monitored unit!

Well at this same facility, starting out was painful. A nurse had too much to do here with little or no assist. We did vitals, fingersticks & bed baths (orthopedic, so many completes). I had a nervous breakdown the first day. The nurse manager was supportive and said give it one more week, if you still don't like it, then you can quit. I got through the first week and stayed after I was able to create a doable routine. Computer documentation and checking computer orders was soooo time consuming. In addition, for the many docs that did not enter electronic orders, we also had to do paper chart checks since the admission date of each patient (we commonly had 7-8 patients with an additional admission or transfer by the end of shift). Keeping track of both paper and electronic was confusing.

I had a clinical liason that worked with my agency. I called her almost every week or so with a list of questions on patient care, staff, questionable situations. She gave me a lot of support and direction. I think I would have quit if I had no one to talk to.

Try reposting in the general forum and/or the cardiac forum for the clinical questions. I think they can be answered quicker there.

neurorn6 · Feb 24, 2009

Sounds like a bad day, all the way around. Some facilities are more travel friendly then others. Some give you alot of support and others don't. You can only do what you can do. If night shift has a cow they will get over it. Just remember, it's only 13 weeks. Always remember to CYA. Just write that you informed the phyiscan and what he said. Everyone can miss a med, it happens.

Hope things get better.

caringchic · Feb 24, 2009

they terminated my contract immediatelly sighting "interspersonal difficulty". One RN who is a new nurse makes for such statement. I was amazed that this could not be used as a learning situation for both of us. I was especially frustrated given my evaluation! Especially when it was not a lack of clinical skill, med errors do happen, thank god it wasnt something more serious. My attitude is nursing sucks, it isnt the pts though. One day last week I got two cards sent to the hospital from prior pts and a plate of goodies delivered from a previous pt...but that doesnt help w/ this. My mortgage is still

unpaid!

I have never been good at getting along w/ catty women, I just dont play games well. I am so depressed I cant make myself apply for another nsg job. I have got to get an attitude adjustment.

I had been calling my recruiter weekly just to make sure all was well, cont to reinforce that I believe in direct communication, she kept assuring me all was well. Then after the fact she tells me she is not clinical at all! Further frustration..

neurorn6 · Feb 25, 2009

Travel nursing can be extremely difficult. You can and will be pulled or floated before regular staff. You will get the worst assignment. I don't care if you are ICU, ER or Med/Surg, we are expected to be at the top of our game. Some of the time, we are the ones with the most experience.

We are all struggling right now. Hopefully things will get better.

crystal013 · Mar 4, 2009

Well, I totally agree.

Travel nursing is hard. My last assignment was terrible. Constantly getting pulled and the worst assignment, then no support when it all goes to crap.

After this last assignment I tucked my tail between my legs and went back to my old full time job, my old co-workers welcomed me with open arms and I don't plan on ever leaving again.

Traveling isn't worth it for me. I can make almost as much money to stay home and less hassle.

I feel for ya caringchic. You gotta have a heart of stone to do it and i just don't have it in me. I hope you find what you are looking for.

caringchic · Mar 5, 2009

thanks, my old hospital is on a hiring freeze right now, so I am currently looking. I just dont have it in me, I am so burned out right now. The only way to get support is as a staff nurse and even at that I am begining to think at a facility backed by a union. Some way healthcare standards have got to be brought to a balance in this country for the pts, the providers/healthcare professionals and the people footing the bill. I think I'll take up truck driving LOL

penthes · Mar 27, 2009

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. As a charge nurse on a newly formed, 12 bed neuro ICU unit, I have quite a bit of experience with travel nurses. Our facility, like many others is cutting back drastically on the number of travel nurses it hires. I am suffering the pain of losing some excellent nurses due to contracts no longer being renewed. I can fairly say that I will miss most of them greatly. I have always tried to be equitable in making the assignments and making sure that every nurse on the unit had as much support as could be provided. I hope that you will continue to pursue your nursing career and give it a try again. Maybe some day you will turn up in my unit and we can laugh about the bad old days!