Narrow job search with location and/or climate search

[stepaukob]

I've been researching travel nursing for the last year and hope to do this next year.

I have never signed with a company and know very little of current openings or how often sites update positions.

Questions:

After signing with a company will more jobs be displayed withing their website or is it more specific with you telling the recruiter certain areas of the country?

I ask this because certain specialties are in more demand the others. For instance, I could travel doing med-surg and probably go anywhere I wanted but if I were to travel psych my options would be limited. I personally would not want to take an assignment if I hated the work but I also don't want to end up in Alaska in the winter (I don't like the cold).

Also, how quickly do you start looking for the next assignment? I've heard rumors where people start looking about half-way into their current assignment, is this true? I'm wondering how stressful it is looking for that "next position" every few months. Thanks for any info/advice

[suzanne4, RN]

Decide first where you wish to go and then look for an agency that has placements in that area; not the other way around.

If an agency does not have openings where you wish to go and never places anyone in that area, then do not sign with them. You want an agency with a good track record where you are interested in going to.

You select where you wish to go to, you never go to a place unless you have agreed to be placed there. Alaska also has very few placements in the winter and the population drops considerably then.

If you do not have med-surg experience and only have psych, then it will be harder for you to get an offer on a med-surg unit, they want current experience in the area that you wish to work in. There are agenices that have more job openings in certain work areas, such as OR, more in ER than others, etc.

Next assignments and how you schedule them is up to you and what you want to do next, as well as your agency and recruiter. Some do not decide until a few weeks from finishing and others do it as soon as possible.

[stepaukob]

Decide first where you wish to go and then look for an agency that has placements in that area; not the other way around.

Some do not decide until a few weeks from finishing and others do it as soon as possible.

The first part makes sense, I was thinking backwards.

My next question would be how many different agencies would be an unreasonable amount to work with?

I would think (although I don't know) that many of these companies get similar listings of available jobs, is this true? Would a larger company have more access to current listings? Thanks

[TinyNurse, RN]

I always work with at least 3 agencies ( meaning that they have ALL of my paperwork, and I can be submitted in a moments notice).

Sometimes I know the exact hospital that I want to go to, so i'll call the HR or staffing office for the hospital and ask what agencies they work with. Then i'll contact that agency and send them my things to get submitted.

I've found that large companies do have access to more assignments, but their pay is lower because of the high overhead. Some states have hospital associations, so the company must be a part of the association in order to access the assignments.

Best of luck to you.