How to become a traveling nurse?

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I want to go into nursing to become a travel nurse. I think it would be interesting and exciting; wondering how many years of experience it usually requires. Anybody with this experience please reply and would appreciate any other words of advice pro or con...

Thanks

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HI

for most company it is only one year. they r so short, a year is the magic #

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If anyone knows how this "traveling nurse" works. What are the requierements, etc... please answer this topic. I'm very interested too.

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Did you finally get the information about traveling nurse? I'm trying to get all the info possible. Thanks

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Most places want at least one year of experience in the specialty you're going to be traveling in, as you're pretty much going to be expected to hit the ground running everywhere. Some people can do this with a years' experience, others take longer.

Just browsing through this forum - reading through as many threads as you want - will give you a lot of information and is a great place to start. At the beginning of each list of threads are stickies that have good tips as well.

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Specializes in ER, Pedi ER, Trauma, Clinical Education.

Have you had a chance to check out the thread entitled "Helpful tips for the Travel Nurse" which was started by diary, dairy? It is a really great forum, and most of us who are already travelers have been posting there. There is a lot of great info there.

You do need to have at least 1 year of experience in your specialty. I would highly recommend at least 2. When you present to these hospitals, you usually only get about 2-3 days of orientation. One day being actual classroom-type, hospital based orientation. The other day is usually on your unit dedicated to showing you how to function on the unit, i.e. where things are and the specific idiosyncratic policies that hospital has. You are still expected to provide patient care, only you have someone who is specifically available to you at all times to be your resource. You don't get a shadow day where you don't have to do anything. You have to start immediately. So, you need to feel comfortable in your field before you begin to travel.

Definitely check out that the thread on this bulletin board about helpful tips. You'll find lots of good info there.

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