Considering traveling, have some questions

NedRN · Mar 20, 2015

Lot of questions! I think most of them you can figure out with a bit more thought.

Lonely? Have you made friends with the travelers at your facility? If so, you can do that with staff while traveling. Special interests, hobbies, religion? Great way to meet like minded anywhere.

What do most staffers want, day or night? So where will be most of the needed positions be? That's right, nights. Yes, it is possible to work days only but there may be fewer choices. When you are a proven traveler, you will be more competitive for day shifts.

Travelers are there to take the workload off of staff. Different managers handle patient assignment differently. But when they do not distribute assignments with an even hand, it is more likely that travelers will have the more difficult assignments.

I have been to assignments where travelers were only given easy assignments. The rationale was that difficult patients were learning opportunities and staff should benefit. But I can easily imagine a manager assigning staff with known skills to hard patients rather than new to them travel nurses.

pinktermite · Mar 20, 2015

I have a bit of experience with that whole "crappy assignments" thing in the ER. I have traveled as an ER nurse for a long time and now specifically ask in the interview if I'm going to be babysitting psych patients or endless er holds. I just don't take jobs in those places. If you don't ask the questions then you can't be surprised at the outcomes. I will work shifts other than contracted. I will work overtime. I will do a lot to help out, but I won't be a just a body. You can tailor whatever you want to what you are willing to do if you ask the right questions. Most of your job offers, btw, will be nights...or mids...days? It happens but rarely. If you want days only then you picked the wrong profession, unless you are willing to go places that might not be desirable. Traveling is great overall, but like every job, has its drawbacks for the uninitiated as well as the experienced.

Trjl · Mar 21, 2015

I cannot totally speak to how they work with Travelers in the ER, but I can say, expect your first assignment or 2, to not be the best. So don't judge all of travel nursing on that. When you are new, not all hospitals will take someone who has not traveled, so often you get placed at hospitals desperate for workers. That could be one of 2 reasons. You could get lucky and it be a rural area, that just doesn't have the population of nurses living there to staff, so they need extra help, and they might be okay to work with. Or 2, bad management and that may not be such a nice place to work. Eventually, after you have a few assignments under your belt, more hospitals will consider you.

Yes, there are many more night shifts available as a traveler. However, like you, I cannot function if I work nights. Part of the reason I travel is to enjoy myself on my days off, and I want to be awake. So I have refused to even look at night shift. So yes, it will limit the number of jobs you have to choose from. But if you are willing to be flexible, and go to a location you had not considered before, you can probably find day shifts. I have only traveled for about 2 years. I have taken assignments in towns that would have never made my list, but they ended up to be great places to go and stay. I have been able to find something good and fun with each assignment.

I would only say travel would be lonely if you are someone who likes family around all the time. Every place you go to, you will be new. It would help if you are someone who can entertain yourself. Because at least for the first few weeks, you may not have someone to hang out with and need to be able to get out on your own and have a good time. You have to have enough independence in the beginning to get out and learn your new town. Look up activities that you are interested in and you can meet new friends that way. Of course, there are always your work friends, but you may need to have the initiative to invite them out because you do not have months to hope they will initiate a friendship outside of work. I think if you are a social butterfly, your life outside of work, may be a bit challenging, but not something a traveler could not overcome. I do keep more to myself outside of work, but that has allowed me to do things that I wanted to do, in my own time frame. The only one thing that not having a friend has been a bit awkward is going solo to a restaurant. However, I have still done it, and eaten at some mighty fine restaurants in towns I have been to. Thankfully I don't let being by myself stop me from doing things. After all, I travel to see the US and play the role of tourist while getting paid.

I got Travel Nurse magazine for several years while i was contemplating travel (it is on-line now). Remember most travel stories seem wonderful and enticing. Travel nursing is challenging. I find my own housing (which I prefer to do) and it is a pain to deal with. Every 3 months, you are packing your car and driving to the next location. Then you have to set up a new place. Go through the same orientation classes and tests every 3 months. You are the newbie on the unit and have to deal with learning a new system, new rules, new personalities, etc... So if you don't take things too personally, just do the best job you can, don't get involved with the politics at work, you will get through. Remember, you can always start travel nursing, since you have no ties keeping you home, and if you hate it after 1 or 2 assignments, you can always quit and move back home to a permanent position. No harm done. It can be great and I have enjoyed being a travel nurse and do not plan to stop any time soon.

texasrn91 · Mar 25, 2015

Thank y'all so much for the information! It was really helpful. Maxona, I pretty much started at the crappiest hospital in my area, so I'm used to working in understaffed and under bad management. A lot of travel nurses have actually left my hospital after a few shifts because it was so bad. So at least if I get somewhere to a bad hospital, it won't be completely foreign to me haha. But thank y'all for y'alls help. It is something I definitely want to try at least once or twice.