Hey everyone, I'm thinking about trying out travel nursing. I'm from the Western PA area and I was hoping to pick up a local contract first just to see how I like it. I have 15 months of CVICU experience as well as experience taking hearts. I would like to remain in critical care. Can anyone recommend any agencies in the Pittsburgh area? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
pghnurse07 14 Posts Nov 10, 2014 Hey I'm from Pittsburgh, however to my knowledge, none of the hospitals in the area utilize travel nurses unfortunately
NedRN 1 Article; 5,766 Posts Nov 10, 2014 Try per diem locally, that will give you a good idea if travel will work for you.
emb92250 169 Posts Has 4 years experience. Nov 11, 2014 Cross country has positions for Hershey, PA right now that make quite a bit. And you can find fully furnished housing for about $650/mo, which is only half of the housing stipend. I'd go for that if I were you.
jlshort06 33 Posts Nov 15, 2014 I've known Forbes Regional Hospital to use agency nurses before. I don't know which agency it was though. I know this for a fact because I worked there for 3 years as a PCT and met many! Be warned though, that hospital is the roughest of the rough. If you can work there though, you can work anywhere.
lulu523 5 Posts Nov 27, 2014 When you say "roughest of the rough", can you go into some more detail about that? I was looking at some open positions they have, non-agency. Thank you!
thewandereRN 13 Posts Specializes in ICU, Tele, OR. Has 5 years experience. Feb 8, 2015 Did you end up trying Forbes? I'm curious, as I am also trying to do some per diem before I travel.
lulu523 5 Posts Feb 9, 2015 I actually ended up accepting a full time position there as a staff RN in their CTICU. The unit that I work in currently was opened by the same surgeon that is at Forbes, so I figured it would be a similar environment, just busier than where I am currently. I do know there are agency jobs throughout the Allegheny Health Network system. I believe there are some at Allegheny Valley hospital and at Forbes, possibly even AGH. One of the travel companies that I get emails from is Maxim staffing. They have been advertising quite a few Pittsburgh area agency jobs recently.
thewandereRN 13 Posts Specializes in ICU, Tele, OR. Has 5 years experience. Feb 9, 2015 Congrats on your position! I'll likely be ICU agency at Forbes through maxim or msn, and have been trying to find out what it's like there.
lulu523 5 Posts Feb 9, 2015 Thank you! I know earlier someone had posted that Forbes is the roughest of the rough. But I never found out what was meant by that. I know the ICU is opening their brand new unit this month I believe. It is paper charting but they are switching to Epic in April I believe.
