per diem nursing/Advice please

[Cisl4him, RN]

Hi

My name is Cissy. I am about to embark on per diem nursing. I have been an RN for 2 years with 15 months experience in ger-psych long term care. I left my last position and have decided to try per diem nursing. I am confident at this time I can swing the challenges but I am concerned about not having any sort of orientation. Are per diem nurses usually welcomed by the staff? Is it appropriate for me to call each facility prior to my taking on hours to see if I can be oriented for a couple of hours?

Thanks a bunch

[GaRehabRN]

I believe it is different for each hospital. The hospital I recently left would pretty much give you zero orientation for PRN....They wanted you to be experienced enough to just show up and start working. I ended up going back to where I used to work (for 5 years), and even though I had worked there before, I still did 7 weeks of orientation. One week was general orientation, and the other 6 were doing 3 days on each unit. This hospital is very patient and employee oriented, though, unlike other hospitals that are all about profit :-/.

As for being welcomed, again that depends on the unit. The first hospital I mentioned wouldn't even give a brief orientation to the float nurse, so s/he was constantly asking for locations of med rooms, supply areas, etc. Although the hospital I'm at now can have it's "groups", they are still nice and will definitely help you if they can.