Decision time

[PMKNSE, MSN, RN, APRN]

Planning to start traveling in June and will be leaving my staff position that I've held for 7 years. Anyway, there's been a lot of nurses losing their jobs and not being able to find jobs in this area in the last 6 months at all the local hospitals. The reason given is the change in reimbursement has forced them to let go of staff. So I'm wondering if any of you travelers have noticed less jobs being available to you? Specifically for Tele nurses. Really want to start traveling and have saved money in the event I have a delay between assignments, but an extended delay would be problematic, and with the virtual hiring freeze in this area I don't know that I could get my job back. I'm not picky at all about where I take assignments (location wise), I really just want to see the United States and learn as much as I can in different facilities. Any advice or experience would be appreciated.

[aandersonrn]

It depends where you hope to go. I am a tele stepdown unit nurse, and have been able to find contracts in WA with just a week between jobs. The other state I am licensed in is KS and they go stretches of months without posting a job, in my specialty.

[Nurse_]

Depends on where you want to go and also be certain to look over your traveler's contract.

I have friends (currently in SoCAL) who are travelers. They were hired for Med-Surg but in their contract they agreed to float on "units of need". Not long did they found out that they'll be mostly tele nurses but getting paid Med-surg pay. They barely work on med-surg, too.

There's a lot of need for Tele nurses in SoCal right now.

[NedRN]

Specialty needs fluctuate, but med-surg has no where to go but down and it has been in a decline for the last dozen years. Increasing acuity and shorter hospital stays are killing the numbers needed. Hospitals tend to steer new nurses there as well, cheaper than hiring travelers or even experienced med-surg nurses.

The specialties that stay in demand (but still fluctuate) are ICU (and NICU), OR, OB, and cath lab. ER too. All of those have super specialties that increase marketability and all of these also pay more than med-surg. Supply and demand, right? Tele is somewhere middling. For the most part, even for med-surg, hospitals want tele nurses.

[wanderlust99]

CA has a ton of traveler jobs, plus there are ratios - 1:4 tele, 1:5 medsurg. I've been able to work in CA for over 4 years traveling. The longest time off between assignments was 3 weeks but that was only because I was being picky with choosing my next assignment. It's usually 1-2 weeks off, sometimes no time off, and I'm pretty picky with where I go. I am ICU, but tele is in demand too.

I also noticed places in the south have less positions than out here on the west coast.