New Grad RN Travel Nurse

NedRN · Jul 12, 2017

No medsurg experience? It will be very hard.

darnellescott · Jul 12, 2017

I have medical surgical experience.

NedRN · Jul 13, 2017

How could you have sufficient medsurg experience receiving a license in January, and completing a three month travel assignment in LTC since then. Three months at best (if I have done the math correctly, this is the seventh month of the year, right?), when the standard requirement for a traveler is 2 years. As I said, it will be very hard. You don't know yet what you don't know about medsurg, practices at other hospitals, nor the obstacles and competition you are facing as a medsurg traveler. Do you understand you will be competing for good (or merely decent) medsurg assignments against nurses with many years of experience, and years of proven travel experience? If you find an agency and a facility willing to hire you, you may come to regret it. I can only think you have a really bad recruiter saying you can do medsurg travel.

I'd suggest taking a staff job for at least a year. Or continue in LTC.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Jul 14, 2017

This is CRAZY o0. Stay where you are for at least 6 months then apply to a hospital inpatient telling the employer you would like to work in an acute care setting.

Gary Mendoza · Jul 14, 2017

Before you think about taking a travel med/surg position. Imagine the worst patient you've ever had, now imagine having eight of those patients without any help/support, no techs and no nurses willing to help you. No one to help you with call lights, no one to help you with anything. Not only are you endangering yourself and your license, you're endangering patients without enough experience and knowledge.

Keep in mind that travelers only get anywhere from 4 hours to 3 days of orientation (depending on the facility) to learn the charting system before being on their own. Many times travelers are given the worst patients and many times they have to deal with attitude from the staff. Add on top of all that having to learn all the nuances of Med/Surg nursing that takes years to learn and you've got a recipe for disaster.

I've been traveling for over 5 years and there's no way I would have traveled without at least one year experience, but I highly suggest two years minimum.

Please, please, please don't do this to yourself and your patients.

Have patience, get the proper experience so you can have a successful traveling career.

SOS XD · Jul 15, 2017

Thank you! I am bridging to RN and hoping to travel. I am considered excellent by everyone who works with me and would like to stay that way. Thank you for posting good advice.

Nwalde729 · Jul 22, 2017

Since when could you start traveling with no experience?! New grad right from school traveling?! Are u lying on ur applications? Bc im a travel nurse and every agency has required me to provide at least 1 year current experience with current manager references. And I've been a nurse for 13 years.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2017

I'm confused...how do you have three "specialties" 6-7 months after becoming licensed? Were you an LPN for a couple of decades before January 2017? If you are a brand new *nurse* and claim to have med-surg experience, you would have to have done what, 2-3 months' orientation and then work on your own for a few months before jumping ship? And that still doesn't account for your psych experience... to be able to say you specialize in psych, you need to have worked in psych long enough to be proficient.

Again, unless you are a veteran LPN, to say you are anywhere NEAR ready to accept travel assignments is not operating in reality. You could be a good nurse and have all the potential in the world -- but at this point you are a novice.

If I squint I can possibly see an LTC assignment working... but only because it's the norm to provide minimal orientation even to new grads. On the other hand, a new grad employed by the LTC facility, while given minimal orientation will still benefit from the ongoing professional relationships with experienced and knowledgeable colleagues.

In med surg, the norm is to give new grads weeks to months of floor orientation, plus classroom training. A traveler needs to be ready to function independently with a few hours' training -- a few days if you're fortunate.

Don't do it. It's an exceedingly bad idea.

Argo · Jul 23, 2017

Either this person is full of it OR they are out there making travelers look bad. If a traveler comes across as looking bad to a room full of travelers imagine hoe their working "peers" think of them.... the biggest problem is that he doesnt know what he doesnt know, That's dangerous.