Best Specialty for Travel Nursing?

bradleyshanetaylor · Jun 5, 2007

i dont know how it works when you are on an assignment for months at a time. but a nurse from my facility does weekend work at other facilities. she says that she loves the units, but she was always dumped on. she always got the patients that nobody wanted or the other staff was just sick of dealing with. when she does work at other hospitals now, she always works in the er.

LadyNASDAQ · Jun 5, 2007

My advice to you is rent a RV, don't buy one. Many advantages and you'll know if you want to work like this or not.

For me, I'd rather have a comfortable apt., get a rental car from the company and just bring some suitcases and have all the housewares provided by the company. I bring a gps and a laptop and I'm good to go.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2007

Hello, I'm an Emergency Room nurse in Michigan. In the next year or two I'm thinking about buying an RV and doing some Travel Nursing around the country. However, because of chronic staffing shortages in ER, I'm thinking about switching to another specialty that might not so stressful as I travel from hospital to hospital. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim

You need about 1 year of a specialty, and for some 2-5 years in it to travel.

As far as "chronic staffing shortages", chances are in most places that request travelers, it is because they are experiencing a shortage. Otherwise, there would be no reason to pay what they have to pay for a traveler. We are expensive and they often want their money's worth, whatever the specialty.

ER is in good demand, though.

ncaru01 · Jul 13, 2011

We get travel nurses where I work. In the ER you can't really get a worse assignment than anyone else. It's dumb luck. For some reason we are just always short staffed. They do the same job as me and make almost twice as much. I am considering traveling myself. I have seen travel nurses just about anywhere around the local hospitals.