Family life while on assignment

[WalterWho]

Hi all,

So I'm currently looking into travel nursing. I've thought about it a lot over the years and lately I feel as though it may be time for me to make the move. I have some questions for all the travelers out there who may be willing to share advice:

1. I'm interested in taking specialty assignments, mainly PACU. Is the availability of these types of assignments plentiful enough to move from one to the next and so, or do you find yourself filling in the gaps with odd assignments? If so, roughly how often? 

2. For those of you with families, how far away from home have you worked on assignment? How did you/they handle it? Tips?

3. What should I keep an eye out for in contract terms? Any deal breakers I should be aware of? Any must haves I should negotiate?

4. Finally, if there's one reason alone that keeps you traveling, what is it? What's something you wished you had known before becoming a traveler?

Thanks in advance for all the pearls!

[NedRN]

14 hours ago, WalterWho said:

3. What should I keep an eye out for in contract terms? Any deal breakers I should be aware of? Any must haves I should negotiate?

The vast majority of assignments work out fine, regardless of scary contract language. If you want to learn more about the fine print, I'd suggest doing some reading on PanTravelers.

Traveler's "must haves" vary by individuals and you will not likely even be able to tell what yours are until you have completed several assignments. Typical ones include floating, scheduling, EMR, patient mix, support staff, pay policies (agency issue), and patient ratios. You don't really want to fuss about minor do not likes, just focus on your largest issue (when you discover what it is).

You deal with these issues first at the recruiter level. You want an experienced recruiter for your first few assignments with your needs (like family) and skill levels and successfully completed assignments who is on board with that - not about best pay. A good and honest recruiter with experience placing travelers at the hospital of interest should be able to tell you about working conditions. You can further filter out potentially bad assignments for you with posing questions to the nurse manager during the phone interview.