ER or ICU travel nursing...Which one is more marketable?

[positivethinker]

ER or ICU nurse...Which one is more marketable? Post #1

Hi PLEASE HEAP

I'm considering becoming a travel nurse. I have 6 months of experience working in the ER and 1 yr of experience working in the ICU units. I know that travel nurses are not accepted to work unless they have 1 yr in.

I believe my heart is really into being an ER nurse opposed to traveling as a ICU nurse. But for the time being it looks like I'll have to go with the speciality that I have more time in.

How do I go about working on getting my ER experience while traveling as an ICU nurse? I was told that some companies allow you to work per diem to build other nursing skills.

Is it more marketable just to stay with ICU?

Or should I just sign on with a hospital and work in the ER?

I suppose I can get use to traveling as an ICU nurse, but I'm tired of all those llloooonnnnggg nights of just bathing and re-positioning pts every two hours. Or getting pulled to other floors every other night. In ER I won't have to be concered with getting

pulled and I get to work with more of a variety.

Has anyone out there ever crossed trained or was hired out with more than one specialty?

Thank you

[Cruiser]

i have traveled traveled in pcu or icu for the past 3 years. i think you might check with a recruiter or two about the availability of er jobs. icu seems to be always in demand, but the drawbacks are several...as you pointed out. some hospitals who really need er nurses are willing to let icu nurses take an er contract, but often you have to agree to work more than a 13 week contract in exchange for their "mentoring" you. check it out. cruiser