Hope that this may answer some of the questions I have received!

[beluka]

Hello again to my fellow nurses. I got several emails following my last posting regarding travel nursing. Yes, the pay is excellent and the experience is awesome. I know that not every one out there can travel year around, but some companies have 4 or 8 week assignments as well as the traditional 13 or 26 weeks. We have a 1 and 2 year old which my husband, a full time Dad, takes care of when we travel. For those of you with older kids, you might want to consider the shorter assignments in the summer. This would allow you to take a mini vacation and get every thing paid for such as housing, travel, and still get great pay, benefits, and bonuses. This is also something to consider if you are tired of the job where you are at presently. You can request a leave of absence from your job and take a working break while making great money and connections. I am with a company that has really treated my family and I like gold. I have been with this company, MMS now on several assignments. Though there are many of them out there, it is up to you which company you chose based on your personal needs and desires. Make a "wish list" of the things you would value from your job such as pay range, benefits, hospital size versus patient ratio, etc and stick with that list until you find the company that matches it 100%! I hope that this helps those of you out a little. Go ahead, get your resumes up to date and submit it. Who knows you may just land that job that you have been wishing for. Good luck!

Here is my previous posting that many of you wrote me with travel questions about.

I was shocked to see what RN's are making out there. A small part of me felt guilty as I sat here tonight and debated on which job to accept in the morning while I read how little my collegues are making. Out of the 3 jobs, one will pay $28/hr for 36 hours while I will only have to work 24. The second pays $30 plus bonuses and housing. And the third pays $34/hr. Two of those jobs are with travel agencies. I graduated in May 2000 and did not take my boards until December 2001. I was immediately hired at $17.50/hr plus diffs. Within 6 months, I was talking to medical travel agencies and got my first assignment in December. It was just 1 week short of my one year anniversary. In 13 weeks, I made nearly $27,000. I did not have to work my tail off and they also paid all my expenses. I have since taken on other assignments and have doubled my salary/year. The thing is my family has been able to do this with me. I wish I could tell you the secret to my success, but I don't know what it is. I thank God every single day for my blessings and hope that those of you that are troubled with your salaries, might get the courage and opportunity to take that leap. I won't say I wasn't scared, but I figured I can do anything for 13 weeks. The worse thing that could happen is I hate it and have to return to hospitals and the politics. Fortunately for me, it allowed my family and I to become closer, take a 2 month vacation, and make terrific and life-long friends throughout the country. If any of you out there would like to know more about travel nursing, feel free to email me. Best of luck to you and who knows, maybe someday I will be at your hospital.

:) :)

[sharann, BSN, RN]

Maybe I am TOTALLY wrong here but your post reads too much like AN ADVERTISEMENT!!!!

I doubt that anyone has e-mailed you. If they have I apologize.In the future if this is the case, then perhaps you should leave out the name of your agency, unless publicly asked. I am sorry if I am wrong, but I don't know...

[live4today, RN]

What does "MMS" stand for? I'd like to know. I've been a travel nurse before, and LOVED it! No hospital politics to put up with...and the bennies and pay made the package a sweet deal indeed. Glad you are loving being a travel nurse, and if you are advertising..........you reminded me of "good times" as a nurse.......once upon a time.

[bluesky, BSN, RN]

Believe it or not, Sharann, just about every nurse I know who has done travel nursing says just about the same thing. The only drawbacks I've heard about are 1) bad if you have older kids- you want to stay in one place with them 2) sometimes housing isn't the best but agency will move you or give a stipend if you can't stand the accomodations.

[LilRedRN1973]

I doubt that anyone has e-mailed you.

I was one of the people who emailed her. So yes, someone has emailed, inquiring about travel nursing. She was VERY informative and I thank her for all the information. She also was kind enough to give me her name and told me anytime I wanted to ask questions or get some advice to contact her.

I don't think her original post read like an advertisment at all. I'm not sure if she included the name of her agency in the original post, but I don't remember seeing it in there. The only reason she included in the subsequent post was because people were asking her about it.

[SirJohnny]

All:

- Would like to hear more about your travel nurse experiences - so keep the posts comming.

- Would espeically like to hear from you that are doing the travel-nurse thing via motor-home. Also, if any of you are are into fly-fishing.

- One of my goals is to do the travel-nurse thing, and combine it with my fly-fishing hobby.

Thanks,

John Coxey