Certifications

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.

Considering traveling in the future (maybe a few yrs down the road). I've been a PACU nurse for almost 10 yrs now. How important or helpful is it to have specialty based certifications, ie CPAN/CAPA, at least when starting out as a new traveler?  

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In your practice? Near zero. But on your CV? It sends a message that you are a professional, actively working to be the best you can be. Think about your own hiring preference between two candidates for your own unit? Wouldn't you pick the one with the better credentials? Experience first perhaps, but everything else being equal, certifications and achievements, and education will weigh heavily in your choice. Actual good fit personality wise for your unit is far less important as it is just a short term assignment. Although for a staff position, personality might be the biggest factor.

But it won't be just for your first assignment. You are competing sight unseen with many other travelers for every position. (Mind you, demand is higher than supply in the PACU so you will always be able to find work, but possibly not at the most competitive assignments, those with choice locations and/or better pay). You need extra pluses on your side, especially when a facility is comparing staff and travel experience between candidates.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.
NedRN said:

In your practice? Near zero. But on your CV? It sends a message that you are a professional, actively working to be the best you can be. Think about your own hiring preference between two candidates for your own unit? Wouldn't you pick the one with the better credentials? Experience first perhaps, but everything else being equal, certifications and achievements, and education will weigh heavily in your choice. Actual good fit personality wise for your unit is far less important as it is just a short term assignment. Although for a staff position, personality might be the biggest factor.

But it won't be just for your first assignment. You are competing sight unseen with many other travelers for every position. (Mind you, demand is higher than supply in the PACU so you will always be able to find work, but possibly not at the most competitive assignments, those with choice locations and/or better pay). You need extra pluses on your side, especially when a facility is comparing staff and travel experience between candidates.

Thank you, good to know. I wasn't sure how much weight such things were given when applying for travel positions.

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Just so you know, it is not the agency nor the agency recruiter deciding generally who gets an assignment. They are also competing with other agencies (absent an exclusive facility contract). There is a hospital contract specialist  in the agency that may decide which traveler profiles to submit to a hospital, and then the hospital HR (or often outsourced HR called vendor managers), and then finally the unit NM or assistant manager will get a profile or several to interview. Or just decide without an interview based on your work history, education, credentials, and references. Sometimes the vendor manager is the one doing the interview (which sucks).

Like any chain of decisions, the outcome can be random at times, but the variables you can control like certs can certainly boost your travel assignment options. Getting a first travel assignment successfully completed is a huge win as many nurses are not really well equipped to adapt to a new facility and EMR. This is so important that many hospitals will not take a first time traveler. So you don't want to step out of your own comfort zone for a first assignment no matter the location and pay if there is any hint (from a trustworthy recruiter or in an interview) that it is a difficult assignment. That is for later assignments.

Another thing you can control on an assignment is references. I typically get 3 on every assignment, from as high up the food chain as you can. (I have a ED traveler friend who gets them from physicians - but managers or charge nurses are best in most specialties). 

Then you can pick the references that best reflect you. While you may not have a choice with a single agency, if you use several agencies (I highly recommend it), then your profile becomes highly weighted with good references and you become more valuable (and easier to get going with a new agency). Your agency will also collect references, but a sign of how valuable they are is that they will not share them with you. So you need to get your own. Written ones. Form references make it easier to collect them. There are some examples available for free download (after signing up for a free membership) on PanTravelers.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.
NedRN said:

Just so you know, it is not the agency nor the agency recruiter deciding generally who gets an assignment. They are also competing with other agencies (absent an exclusive facility contract). There is a hospital contract specialist  in the agency that may decide which traveler profiles to submit to a hospital, and then ...

Thanks again Ned. You always have such great info & advice. I appreciate it.

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