First time travel nurse having a difficult time finding first assignment

[ava0421]

Hi all! I'm an RN with a little over a year experience working on a multi-specialty unit (heart/lung transplant, oncology, muscle flap reconstruction and general med/surg overflow). The hospital I worked for spent a lot of time and effort training new nurses and I feel like I gained very valuable experience during my time there.

The problem is that I'm having a difficult time finding an agency recruiter that wants to work with me. I don't know if it's just the recruiters that I've contacted or if it's just a difficult industry to get into. I'm extremely flexible about location, etc. My only BIG request is that it is a day-shift position. I've worked night-shift before and just did not do well whatsoever. I literally slept day and night my entire time off and just felt groggy all of the time.

One of the recruiters I spoke with was super at explaining everything, but basically told me if I don't work nights I shouldn't get into travel nursing.

So I guess my questions are, am I way out of my league?

Is anyone else having a hard time getting work?

Is asking for a day-shift position too big of a request if you're flexible with everything else?

Thanks in advance for any and all replies :)

[NedRN]

I'm going to guess that three quarters of all travel assignments are for nights. I can appreciate that you don't want to work nights, tried it myself once and it was agony.

One year of experience is not enough to be competitive. You need a minimum of two years. You are competing for the best jobs against travelers with 15 years of experience and half of it travel, in an entry level specialty. At some point, you will be able to travel successfully and stick to days. I'd recommend staying where you are and enjoy your day shift. Think about switching to another specialty that is more in demand. Even ED would be better than medsurg.

Here is a tip for a good specialty with no nights (although there is call): operating room. If your hospital is willing to train you there, you may have to sign a contract with a couple year commitment. While you might be competent to travel after just a year of medsurg, it will take at least two years before you get comfortable in the OR, so this would be a long term plan. GI lab would be much shorter and still days. But the more training any specialty requires, the better the pay, at least for travelers.

Why do you want to travel?

[ava0421]

Thanks for the honest feedback and also for your tips!

I knew going in that a yr of experience wasn't a lot. I guess I just thought that being flexible in location and assignment (aside from wanting day-shift) would be enough to get me something.

The reason I wanted to get into travel nursing is simply that I like moving around, seeing new places and getting to experience different cultures/subcultures. I moved around quite a bit before going to nursing school (mostly in Europe but also around the States a little) and am starting to feel almost claustrophobic being in the same area for almost 4 years now.

I also thought it would be a great way to see a variety of hospitals and how they're managed. And a way to avoid a lot of the "unit drama," "cliques," and "politics" if at all possible. Three to six months seems like a good amount of time to see places, get to know people (staff and pt population), but not get too involved.

[NedRN]

Those are great reasons!

You might have avoided the four plus year trap by taking your first job somewhere else. There is a remote chance that you could seek training at a new hospital, (if a new specialty is of interest), but very unlikely anyone would consider you without two or three years where you are.

Amazing what planning we might have done differently in nursing school (or even before) armed with knowledge we now have!

For me, it was the discovery that I could have had an MSN in less time than my ADN took. Turns out to have been irrelevant on my travel path, except I may have worked in a couple more countries.