ICU Travel Nursing

[jsurn]

Hi all!

I'm a relatively new nurse with about 18 months of CVICU experience at a large Level 1 teaching hospital on the east cost. I'm considering traveling towards the end of this year and was interested to hear about other travel nurses' experiences in ICUs.

- What are your patient assignments like--mostly chronics? Really sick patients?

- Does ICU pay differ really from other units?

- Did you find it to be a steep learning curve?

- Have you traveled to difference ICUs outside of your experience (e.g. a SICU nurse floating to a MICU)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[PNW_NPstudent]

In my experience, I was not treated any differently than the staff nurses in getting patient assignments. Sometimes long term vent dependent pts, sometimes pts with Swan, 10 drips with maxed pressors, ICP/ventrics, etc.

The pay is more dependent on the area of the country. In emails I get, usually ICU nurses get a few dollars more an hour than MS nurses. Again, depends on the area and hospital needs.

Learning curve is not what I would call steep. Realize that you will get, typically, 1-3 shifts for orientation. The biggest thing is figuring out how to chart, where supplies are, what protocols you have, and how to call the docs when you need something. I find the vast majority of nurses are very helpful and appreciative of you being there. Patient care is patient care.

My initial experience was Trauma/Surgical ICU before I started traveling. I took assignments in small and large hospitals and was floated to all the other units, even burn ICU. The only things I didn't take were balloon pumps and fresh open hearts because I had no experience with those. Everything else was fair game.

Hope that helps a little.