LPN's travel nurse

horsenurse25 · Apr 13, 2007

Anybody? My girl-friend is just finishing her course and asked me to put this out there... She is hoping to travel nurse in (where else?) California.

Thanks

cherinski · Apr 14, 2007

I travel nursed as an LPN/LVN for 3 almost 4 years and yes it is possible and fun. The drawbacks are that you will have to go to major cities primarily and need a really strong clinical background. I came from ICU, CCU, ER , dialysis, med/surg background of over 20 years and had offers from each facility to be hired as permanent staff on each of my assignments. Each assignment started as a 13 week one with all of them ended up extending the assignment for longer than initially contracted for. The key is in being flexible and willing to learn each facility's way of doing things. There are huge tax savings to be had and wonderful educational experiences at work and in your personal life. Did this in my 40's as a single new empty nester it was great!! Having at least a year of med/surg is critical to any future jobs but especially in the travel nse field.

khrissi17 · May 2, 2007

What travel agency is that??

cherinski · May 2, 2007

I traveled with American Mobile. Had one facility that was contracted with that if census was down they tended to ask if I would go home after doing 8 of 12 hr shift. I didn't always mark my time sheet indicating the facility sent me home and ended up paying back some funds after the fact several months after the assignment was over. If you are sent home after showing up for a scheduled shift make sure you note it on time sheet and/or have a supvr sign off on your time sheet. If any job sends you home after showing up prepared to work you are supposed to get 4hr show up time. Private duty work is the only exception to my knowledge.

msdobson · May 14, 2007

I believe she'll need 6-8 months of experience as a new grad to do travel nursing with American Mobile.

Mike

Brownms46 · May 20, 2007

First most travelers should have at least a year of experience, and most hospitals want 2 to 5years experience. The hospital or facility is the one who sets the requirement for how much experience you should have. Remember there are lots of travel nurses out there, and you are competing with them.

American Mobile pays the lowest of any agency out there, except maybe Cross Country, and a couple of others! I would not refer anyone to them, and in fact as a recruiter, I took nurses from them, and gave them better contracts.

I no longer recruit travelers, but I was a traveler for 12yrs, and I would never even consider a nurse without a year of experience. When I traveled, I saw nurses who could not handle having to hit the floor running, and did not have the knowledge base, to not have to seek out assistant on how to care for a patient, or what to do in this or that situation.

A new grad should not even consider taking a travel assignment. Remember most agencies will throw you to the wolves if you screw up! You are not their first concern, the hospital is. And you get cancelled from an assignment, you will in many cases have to pay back the agencies expenses for bring you to the facility.

Be very careful out there!

msdobson · May 20, 2007

First most travelers should have at least a year of experience, and most hospitals want 2 to 5years experience. The hospital or facility is the one who sets the requirement for how much experience you should have. Remember there are lots of travel nurses out there, and you are competing with them.
American Mobile pays the lowest of any agency out there, except maybe Cross Country, and a couple of others! I would not refer anyone to them, and in fact as a recruiter, I took nurses from them, and gave them better contracts.
I no longer recruit travelers, but I was a traveler for 12yrs, and I would never even consider a nurse without a year of experience. When I traveled, I saw nurses who could not handle having to hit the floor running, and did not have the knowledge base, to not have to seek out assistant on how to care for a patient, or what to do in this or that situation.
A new grad should not even consider taking a travel assignment. Remember most agencies will throw you to the wolves if you screw up! You are not their first concern, the hospital is. And you get cancelled from an assignment, you will in many cases have to pay back the agencies expenses for bring you to the facility.
Be very careful out there!

Absolutely essential advice.

Sahara311 · May 21, 2007

So, may I ask, if u do not recommend AM, because their pay is low, and you were/are a recruiter, who should an LPN go to for Travel Oppurtunities?

I am very interested in Traveling while waiting on entrance to a bridge program.

callin · Oct 22, 2009

I've been a nurse for 23 years, LPN, I took my first nursing job in 1990, 4 years after graduating LPN school. It was different and fun, I went to CA as an LPN on a Health Exam unit, it required me to do VS, draw blood, do hearing and eye exams on occasion, urinalysis, and input results into a computer. They flew me to a destination to meet with their team and its "supervisor" picked me up at the airport. I had only done a bare 6 months in a hospital and then worked nursing homes and physical rehab. I don't know if its still out there, they had units in CA, FL, TX, and NC, which you could switch to after a time of service.

Health Examinetics, 15330 Ave of Science, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92128. 1-800-232-2332

I was there from 6/90-12/90 and then returned home by choice. It called for literally living out of a suitcase, practically a different city every day or sometimes every three days. Hrs of work were different depending on the work site. Our work sites were companies whose insurance paid for us to come in and perform annual or bi-annual physicals. That's where I first learned to draw blood. If interested, I hope its still out there for you.

Also, more recently I did work as a travel nurse. I didn't go far as I didn't want to be away from home 12 weeks,

I worked within my own state, in a hospital, on the telemetry/cardiac floor. I only had 6 months of hospital experince but had 20 years of nursing, mostly nursing homes. I felt rather out of my league on that assignment but they've recently contacted me for more work, so it must not have been too bad.

That company does require one yr of experience and I would strongly suggest Med/Surg. It was

Medical One Staffing of Daphne, Alabama. They do use LPN's.

mcorye91 · Apr 21, 2010

I believe she'll need 6-8 months of experience as a new grad to do travel nursing with American Mobile.
Mike

I just visited the site for American Mobile and they said you need 18-24 months experience. Did it use to be 6-8 months and then changed? If anyone knows an agency that allows you to have less than 1 year experience please let me know! Thank You!

xoemmylouox, ASN, RN · Apr 21, 2010

I know everyone is anxious to get a job, but being a travel nurse without even a year of experience is just crazy to me. You are most likely going to get the toughest cases and you need to know how to handle them. Not only do you want to cover your butt, but we are taking care of others when they need us the most..