farmerRN

I wouldn't hold my breath on steady work in Wisconsin for travel nursing. Most hospitals have not been hiring for quite some time. As a Wisconsin native, I had to move out of the Wisconsin/midwest to find a decent full time job.

Stay away from Intelistaf! They use to be a decent company when I worked for them several years back, but since they combined with MSN...the company totally went down the drain. I did one assignment earlier this year because the assignment was not far from my home base. Well...come to find out Intelistaf gave a contract that was completely wrong from what I agree with the hopital and my pay was wrong the whole time. When I got "cancelled" on my contract, come to find out my 13 week assignment I signed up for was only meant to be 4 weeks. Pay wasn't that great anyways, crappy benefits. And if you get emails about jobs...half the time they are not true jobs...mostly fishing for nurses. There are alot other great companies out there...keep looking!

As an ER travel nurse who will work his last travel nurse shift tomorrow night...will be "retiring" from travel nursing and going back to staff nursing. I have been a nurse since 2000, ER nurse since 2004, started traveling Jan. 2009. I have ACLS, PALS, TNCC, and my CEN. After almost 2 years, I can say the market is still not turning around, at least for ER. I spent upwards of 4-6 weeks at a time not employed, scraping together per diems shifts either through agency or through a hospital not too far from my home base. I had 2 different contracts cancelled part way through because through some miracle...all my shifts got filled, had 1 contract cancelled 3 days before I was going to leave to travel to my assignment...so there is no steady income anymore doing travel. There does seem to be a few more jobs as of late...but the pay and benefits keep going down. If you are willing to take a cut in pay and benefits to travel, then your luck might be better, but I am not one of those nurses. When I got accepted an assignment several months back, the pay was only going to be 25 dollars an hour!!! I made that as a staff nurse almost 5 years ago and laughed at the recruiter and said bye! Also alot of hospitals have alot of dumb restrictions ... like they will not interview if you do not have experience with their computer system, can only start on a certain day, or will not allow you to request days off!!!?? So starting in January, I will be starting again as an ER staff nurse at a teaching facility. I never worked in one. But I will be making more money after my housing expenses than most travel assignments...better insurance...steady income and vacation pay!! So I guess I wouldn't recommend breaking out in the travel nurse gig if you have a decent job right now. Some specialities are fairing better, like L&D, OR, and ICU...but if you are looking to make money doing it...not really going to happen any time soon as hospitals are in control!

I would say you need some good luck if you want to work at Froedtert. Yes, it does have a good medical/nursing reputation. I have heard many nurses like the 7/70 program. Yes, they do have alot of CVICU positions because last year they opened up a new unit. I applied several times for one of those positions. I don't want to burst your hopes...but unless you have CVICU/ICU experience, you chances are slim that they will consider you. I was an ICU for awhile...but through a nurse that works in the CVICU...the manager did not want to hire me because I did not have the CV experience and my ICU expereince was "so long ago", which was only 6 years ago. It does help if you have a connection at Froedtert. That is one of the biggest issues with Froedtert...because they know everyone wants to work their...they can be snooty about who applies. As for the nursing market as a whole in Wisconsin...its pretty bleak!!

Not too much hiring going on anywhere in the state for new grads or experienced nurses. And the positions that do become open are for part time. There are positions in the Milwaukee area...mostly they are with Aurora Healthcare...which I wouldn't recommend anymore.

I worked for American Mobile only once, on a 6 month assignment in Florida in 2001-02 snowbird season. My information might be a bit dated, but still hopefully helpful. Deciding the best company for each person is different. In my experience, I have found American Mobile average at best with the various companies I have worked with as a med/surg and ER travel Nurse A few perks include the fact they are the largest travel nurse agency out there, so they should have at least a few jobs in your speciality. The travel nurse market is severely depressed right now, and they do have alot of exclusive contracts. The housing I had was decent, had a nice pool and on site fitness center. And they will do more "hand holding", especially if you are new to travel nursing. I was new to med/surg travel nursing when I started. Other than that, American Mobile has more flaws than benefits. Pay rates are particularly low. Recruiters tend to be pushy used car salesmen mentality. Insurance is free, but is crappy insurance. Only provides a couch, table, and bed in their"free" housing...and will charge you all sorts of fees after the fact for anything extra...IE, television or anything extra that is not in the housings rent. And where in Florida actually has a nurse/patient ratio of 1:6!

Don't get me wrong, Travel nursing is alot of fun...but the travel/agency nursing sector has taken a big hit. Not alot of jobs and pay/benefits are seriously depressed. I am coming off the road again and taking a permanent job for awhile. It is quite common to make more right now as a regular staff member than travel nurses.

I would look at Technical Colleges that have nursing programs. They usually have BLS, ACLS, and PALS that are very reasonally priced.

Not too much action in Nursing at any level in the Green Bay area. Things are tight, there area few clinic, home care, and long term jobs here and there, but nothing that great. The hospitals do not LPNs anymore. Might have a little better luck in the Fox Valley area...but not much!

As working the front lines of travel nursing...The travel nurse market continues to be down...(both in pay and locations) most likely will be like that for a long time to come. Of course recruiters will say there are a ton of jobs. That is their job to say that, otherwise no one will apply for travel jobs. I too have looked at Washington state, might be easier to just move there. Unless you are an OR nurse or ICU nurse, good luck...its not that great segment to break into...hence I am thinking of coming off the road for awhile, alot of staff jobs are paying better than travel jobs now.

Do you work at Froedert? If so, I should get to know you! Yes, Froedert puts openings on their website, but unless you know someone who works there, they never will look at your resume! For the past 2 years I have put my name in for ICU/ER jobs...but never get a phone call....even though the postings are on there for months and I have 10 years experience!!

St. Mary's and Meriter have the L&D units in Madison. Both are pretty decent sizes, do not remember the exact numbers. Not to put a damper on your hopes...but nursing in the Madison area is pretty well frozen over! Even the few smaller hospitals like Soughton are not hiring. Just do not have any needs, and it is who you know in the Madison area. The hospitals up to a few years ago had a ton of openings...and now have had hiring freezes for quite sometime. And it is not just in Madison, it is state wide!

Hello all, I am interested to hear about any personal thoughts, opinions, and experiences regarding the University of Chicago Medical Center. Open to all, but anything about the ER and the ICUs would be great! Thanks ahead of time!

At the hospital based oncology clinic, our protocol is 10 ml of saline and 5 ml of Heparin for de-accessing. I never have pulled back when accessing. Heparin itself has a very short half (2-3 hours). So if you flushed it through, it really would not affect anything. It is interesting that the hospital de-accessed your patient when he was coming over for hydration...save the patient a poke!! And that is cool as an LPN you can work with ports...in the clinic I work in, only RNs can work with them, which can be quite a pain!!

It is just the state of affairs of nursing in Wisconsin.....we have a nursing surplus in the state...and hospitals are not hiring...they just keep cutting staff and making the nurses who stay work twice as hard! Not going to be changing for awhile!