SargeRN

Coming from a military background, US Army retired after 20 years. I learned, when I finally got into the position where I was in charge of clinics, that there was NO PAPERWORK that couldn't wait until tomorrow! Patient care issues are a whole other ballgame of course! If you need "quite time" start your day earlier 6-7am and leave at an appropriate hour so that you have done your hours for the day. Come in on Saturday/Sunday spend the day, you might be surprised what your week-end crews are up to :-) and then take Friday off. Anyway you get the idea! Be creative if your facility will allow you too! Sarge

THANK YOU 2 SO MUCH for your responses! I've been traveling for the last year and the travel market is just TERRIBLE right now thus the exploration into a completely different type of nursing. I spent almost 2 hours today over at the LTC offering me the job. I spoke to the current unit manager, who is going up to the ADON position and skilled unit manager, and she spoke to me almost idenically to the problems the unit, I would be taking has, as the DON did! They where both very up front and honest about their difficulites and what they would expect from me over the next llittle while! So much up-front honesty was VERY refreshing!! So I'm VERY HEAVILY leaning toward accepting the position, that is if my travel agency doesn't come up with a contract by Thursday noon. My agency understands I can't be without work, which has been for the last 6 weeks!!! and are as supportive of my pursuit of other options as I could possibly want, and I would miss them horribly as they have become like a second family to me!!!! So that is my current situation and appreciate the responses and look forward to others as well! THANKS AGAIN!! Sarge

Good Morning all! I've been a RN for 14+ years and ALL of it in critical care of one type or another. However I've been in the medical profession for over 40+ years in various different capacities. I'm considering, actually been offered the position and have to make a decision within the next 48 hours, as a Unit Manager in one of our local LTC facilities. This is WAY different than anything I've done before and just wondering, WHY should I do this? I have the nursing skills and the management skills I'll have 2 LTC hallways with 60+ residents combined. The one person I did seek some advice from was my Dad as his mother and my mother did spend some time in a LTC before their passing. Asked him what he would have like to see staff do differently and got some good ideas and things to look for when I go back for a HARD look at the facility and staff. Dad does have a bit of a medical background though not as a licensed individual. Was looking for advice from a family members prospective. I have my own thoughts as to why but from those of you that do this on a daily basis, Why should I do this?? No it isn't a trick question I'm just VERY through in decisions I make and looking for more insight! THANKS so much in advance for your thoughts! Sarge

And from a ER Nurse point of view, I started in a small rural hospital and continue to work in small rural hospitals. Just llike the small places that most folks don't seem to want to work in. Everyone seems to want the TV show ER's! Not my thing. Sarge

Internet search the town you are going to then look for hotels/motels and apartments for rent. This has at least given me a starting point. You can ask your department manager if they have any ideas, also HR! Again online look up the local newspaper and look through the classifieds. This all seems to work for me anyway! Or has so far Sarge

GleeGum. unfortumately it is. At least out here in the Southwest and Western states. Sarge

I've been a nurse for over 14 years and a traveler for the last year. I work ER and have had no assignment since my last contract ended on the 25th of JULY! I'm on with 4 different agencies and have not even had a phone call from 3 of them. Have interviewd with a hospital I previously worked at as a contract RN for a possible staff position. My main agency is still looking but everytiime a position gets posted it closes in less than an hour due to so many submissions. I'd stay staff for now it is really BAD out there. My 2 cents anyway! Sarge

Well as my 2nd travel assignment I took a job at the IHS Hospital in Tuba City, AZ. Only planned on doing the 13 weeks and moving on! Wellll I ended up extending for a second 13 weeks and they asked me to extend for another 13! ONLY reason I didn't accept the 2nd extension was the distance home, 600 miles and I'd seen the family 3 times in 6 months! Would I go back? In a heart beat! Great people to work with and the culture was fasinating. Tuba City is a bit on the remote side, 70 miles North of Flagstaff and 70 mile South of Page, AZ. You have to seriously plan your shopping as the one grocery store there leaves a "LOT" to be desired! Housing can also be a bit touchy but once that issue is resolved no sweat. GREAT place to work!! Sarge

OK I've been a traveler for about a year now. At my last assignment I rented a travel trailer, about a 30', from one of the staff nurses. LOVED the campground scene as approximately 40% of the folks there also worked at the hospital!! I'm considering a 5th wheel and not so much interested in what you all have but what do you tow with. This aspect is probably as important, if not more important than what you're towing behind. OK what is your tow vehicle and why did you pick it?? REALLY I'm not trying to hijack the thread but add to it!! THANKS in advance!! Sarge

I contacted them a few months back and forwarded a resume with copies of all my certs/license etc. Being a Retired US Army E-7, went to Nursing School after I retired. Figured being retired military, and all that time in the medical field, plus working as a street EMT-I before nursing school, and now 15 years as a RN, they'd at least want to TALK to me. NOT A WORD, Not a PEEP, no return E-mail, Nothing, Nada, zip, zilch!!!! And like I said this was 4-5 months or more ago!! Sarge

Check out this web site, you'll have to register no big deal, but once you have you'll be able to check out agencies as rated by the NURSES THAT USE THEM. Other good info there as well. http://www.travelnursingcentral.com/ Sarge

Anyone know if any of the military hospitals in SA use travelers? Of special interest would be BAMC, but wouldn't mind Lackland or Randolph either. Thanks, Sarge

OK so call me dense. I've only been in the medical field for 40+ years and just the last 13 + as a nurse. What the heck is PBDS! Sarge

Small vehicle doesn't always work either! I have a Chevy HHR and there is 70 cu ft of storage in the back with the seats down! That's a LOT of space!! But at 30+mpg I can live with, or out of, it!! Sarge

Gila, Until I have 15 posts I have no PM privledges. Sarge

I agree with redsnapper and add: some of us have been in the profession for a while and are tired of the staff nurse/managment politics, rut and just plain old B..well you get the idea. I've been in the medical profession for 40+ years, including 20 years in the US Army!! I've been a RN for only 13 years and wanted "something different" yet staying in my chosen specialty. Some use it to "find" what they want to do, but me I'm just out to learn different ways to do the job, take care of a different patient base, and most of all HAVE FUN while providing the best patient care I can!! It's another good way to discover what type of hospital you may want to work in. The 1,000 bed major medical/trauma center or the 40 bed, or less, small rural hospital, where "everybody knows your name" Guess to sum it up there are as many different reasons we do what we do as there are us doing it! Sarge

Kick, Kick... STOP PROCRASTINATING per your request.....:chuckle SargeRN OK I'll get in the Drill Sergeant mode...MOVE IT TROOP!!!

Gila, I must be brain dead tonight I can read the PM but not answer/reply. Real e-mail is sargern at msn dot com You know how to decipher it! Sarge, SFC, US Army, Ret

Gila, contact me off forum about "the 'stan" Sarge

Well don't know if I can be much help with the travel part, I'm on my first contract, but let me know on the amateur radio part and maybe I can help there. I'm a General Class and looking to hear from others as to how they incorpreate their ham hobby with traveling, radio, anenna set-ups etc. Sarge

OK so how many of the traveling nurses here are also ham radio operators??? We'll start with that then go from there! Sarge

Last verse only: You know the tune! On the 12th day of Christmas EMS brought to me: 12 Doctors screaming 11 Nurses crying 10 Bedpans leaking 9 IV's beeping 8 Call lights blinking 7 Psychs a leaping 6 Pregnant women 5 GI BLEEDS 4 Traumas coming 3 Sore throats 2 Belly aches And an MI on a gurney By JB, ER RN

Hours and hours of shear furstration and disappointment followed by minutes of total delight and joy. And not just because you're going off shift :-) Sarge I was a soldier*Iam a soldier*I will always be a soldier

As has been said, GREAT days and not so great days! Great patients and not so great patients. Before I went into nursing I was a US Army flight medic(for a year before I retired), worked the streets as a volunteer EMT-Intermediate then as a paid EMT-Intermediate. Then into nursing. Worked OR, really like that but the call back hours were killing me. Then ER for 3 years, took a break and "expanded my knowledge base" for another 3 years in the ICU. Went back to the ER because as a night RN I was the only "experienced" ER nurse on shift, other than the ER staff and was floated to ER some weeks more than I worked ICU! Finally and the most complelling reason, Emergency Medicine gets into your blood and just DOESN'T GO AWAY! Just about ever ER nurse that I've ever known that has left the ER ends up coming back cause they "miss it!' Sarge I was a soldier*I am a soldier*I will always be a soldier