Med-Surge travel nursing requirements?

NedRN · Sep 7, 2015

Try calling agencies and see what they say. Do you not want to work in hospice? There are travel assignments there too.

katelaughing · Sep 7, 2015

Thanks NedRN. I have filled out checklists for Home health/Hospice, and med-surge with an American Mobile recruiter a friend referred me to. We have been playing phone tag so I haven't gotten a concrete answer. I am willing to travel as a Hospice RN, I just thought it would be easier to meet people in a new place if I worked in a facility. Plus, I don't want to lose my MS skills.

NedRN · Sep 7, 2015

Generally speaking, hospitals want to see recent experience in a specialty. You will also be competing with medsurg travelers with recent experience in a specialty that already is very competitive. Many if not most of those will also have telemetry experience which gives hospitals more flexibility in staffing. Your step down experience may be good there. If your hospice experience is in-patient, you should be OK with getting medsurg assignments. It is possible that large agencies such as American Mobile will have internal guidelines that make medsurg impossible to even submit you to hospitals that would otherwise be willing to take you. AM also has some other issues increasing risks for new travelers and I strongly recommend not using them. If you want a huge agency similar to AM, I would try Cross Country. But smaller agencies are a better bet with work history issues. They often know their clients better and what travelers will be a good fit for them.

Otherwise, you are stuck with hospice. If you want medsurg and cannot find a travel assignment, you may have to switch to a staff position in medsurg. I suspect with your prior experience, 6 months as staff would be sufficient.

katelaughing · Sep 7, 2015

This is so incredibly helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply!

I will take your advice and look for good, smaller companies. If you have any recommendations in particular I'm all ears.

NedRN · Sep 7, 2015

I really don't. MSSI pays well, and has great service, but limited assignments. Valley in Sacramento is very highly regarded and would be a good choice for California assignments. Trinity, Millennia, PPR, PHP. But really, there are oodles of smaller agencies. The best predictor of success as a traveler is your communication and trust with your recruiter. That is more important than the agency brand. I suggest calling 15 agencies and picking the best 5 recruiters to work further with. Working with several agencies will help you determine fair pay for your experience and specialty in a particular location. It will also give you a Plan B when something doesn't work out, and give you a wider choice of potential assignments.

It is actually easier to list bad agencies (no matter the recruiter), ones that historically have had issues. That short list would include Aureus, AdvantageRN, On Assignment, and recently American Mobile for some really bad business practices. There are a couple more that I can't think of right now, but with so many choices out there, these should definitely be avoided, especially by new travelers. Fastaff is OK generally, but again not for new travelers. Parallon is the in-house travel company for HCA, and should be avoided (because why work at HCA hospitals when there are so many better choices).

katelaughing · Sep 8, 2015

Wow NedRN, how long have you been traveling? You seem like an expert.

NedRN · Sep 8, 2015

Since 1995.

katelaughing · Sep 10, 2015

I followed your advice, and talked to 5 recruiters, found one I like at Medical Solutions. He said he can get me around the lack of recent acute care experience but I might have to suck it up my first assignment and go somewhere that's not on my top 5 list, which I understand. Have you had any facilities you really enjoyed and where you felt welcomed? For my first assignment, and just getting back into MS, I'm less concerned with location (I've lived all over the world and am pretty adaptable) and more concerned with working with a good group of people. I've seen how local nurses treat travelers a lot of places, and it wasn't pretty.

NedRN · Sep 10, 2015

Indeed. You want your first assignment to be successful. It is not the time to maximize pay or check a box on your location bucket list. A huge benefit of working with a good recruiter is that they may do better at finding a better fit for your first assignment. Maximizing pay at a very difficult assignment should not be their goal or yours.

Once you have that first completed assignment on your work history, more choices will open up to you. You will also have a much better idea of how good a traveler you are and how readily you adapt to new work environments.

Keep talking to new recruiters so you can find a backup or two. While time consuming, it has the additional benefit of learning a lot about what recruiters think are important, and you can start to get a good sense of what is really important to you.

katelaughing · Sep 10, 2015

Ok great, will do! Thank you!

katelaughing · Sep 12, 2015

OK so I thought I found a recruiter I would work well with, but now he seems like a bully and I'm not sure it's the right fit. Maybe the right company, but not the right fit? He's pushy about how soon I have to start "It would be best for me if you could start 9/28."

First he offered me a position at a small facility in rural VT, which is one of my top destination requests (I am looking for rural, not urban). Then he came back and said that his boss reviewed my file and because of the 2 year gap in acute care they don't want me to apply for it. But the recruiter says he went around them somehow to see if he can still get approval. Is that aggressive or shady?

Then he offered me a position at VCU med center on a mixed med-surge/inpatient hospice unit. The work sounds good, but I previously told him I would go almost anywhere in the country except the South, only because I have 2 big black labs who can't tolerate the heat, and I'd also really prefer suburban/rural.

I'm not sure if should 1)ask for a different recruiter, 2)find a different recruiter/company, 3)just take the Richmond job?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.