ChristopherB

I'm an ICU RN with over a decade of experience. I was offered an ICU position at Tampa General in 2019. Their initial offer was lower than expected, around $33/hr, and after telling them that It was a huge pay cut from another state with a low cost of living, they raised the offer to $37/hr to start.

I've been a critical care nurse for almost 13 years. I've been thinking for a while about going into Nursing Education or Nursing Informatics. I still haven't decided which one. Previously to going back to school to become a RN, I worked in the IT field. I started out with my own PC repair and building business. Then I worked for a consulting company and worked on Y2K projects(yes I'm that old), DOD contracts, mainframe computer code documentation projects, and some other things. After that I was the network administrator at financial institution and ran online banking, email, LAN/WAN at multiple locations, and also managed network security. After that I worked for Xerox at various customer sites doing work involved with network printing and UNIX. During that time I obtained some Microsoft certifications, but all of them are obsolete now. If I got back to school for an informatics degree, would it also be very beneficial to also obtain some Microsoft, Cisco, and/or IT security certifications to make obtaining a job after I finish a master's degree or is that unnecessary?

I saw this in my old posts. It doesn't clarify anything. I was NOT a resident of a compact state at the time(PA Resident) and I didn't become a resident of a compact state until several years later. You seem to be completely missing that fact.

As a man, I can say its not just men who sexually harass other men. I've experienced sexual harassment from female coworkers. Everything from inappropriate comments about my physical appearance and inappropriate sexual comments to inappropriate touching and grabbing. When it was witnessed by other female coworkers, they laughed and thought it was funny. It started within my first 2 months after graduating when I was still a new nurse on orientation. One of my preceptors looked up up and down then said to me, "You have strong legs. I like men with strong legs. They can thrust hard and give it to me hard. That's what I liked my husband at first." If I said anything close to that to one of my female coworkers about her physical attributes and sex, I'd be out of a job and probably facing a lawsuit. At that hospital I experienced several other incidents of inappropriate sexual remarks and a few inappropriate touches and grabs. I left to do travel nursing and continues to experience inappropriate sexual remarks and inappropriate touching and grabbing at work at several other hospitals. In addition to that I had an experience in the last week of one of my travel nursing assignments where a married female coworker sat on my lap, put her arms around my neck, and told me her husband was out of town. She invited me to come over that night after work and spend the night with her. I told her I don't get involved with married women. She said a few other things to try to convince me to come over that night, but I declined repeating that I don't get involved with married women. Later in the shift she told me the offer still stands if I change my mind.

I've been at my current hospital for a little over a year. Previous to that I did travel nursing for many years. The first 6 months I worked at my new hospital, I felt miserable quite often at work. I was getting sinus headaches, coughing, watery eyes, occasional fevers, etc... I was coughing when I was at work frequently for the first 6 months. Everyone at work said its just the bugs of being in a new hospital. I tried multiple allergy medications, Sudafed, ibuprofen, etc... Also, I kept getting upper respiratory infections. I went to see the doctor and received prescriptions for antibiotics. I tested negative for the flu. I've taken more sick days in my first year at this hospital than I have taken in the previous 5 years. Things improved for a few months then got worse again. I started coughing, getting headaches, and watery eyes again at work. I also got more upper respiratory infections. The unusual thing is that sometimes when I leave the unit I work in for a while, I stop coughing. When I get home from work and take off my scrubs and get a shower, I stop coughing. Some of my coworkers aid they have had similar issues at work, but they haven't lasted as long as mine. I'm pretty sure its something at work making me feel this way. I'm not sure if its an allergy or a reaction to something else in the environment. I've tried to eliminate everything else. I scrubbed, mopped, vacuumed, and bleached everything I could in my apartment. I washed all my clothes, towels, bed linens, etc... in the sanitary cycle of my washing machine. I bought a new car(not because of feeling sick, because my car was 10 years old and high mileage). I worked 3 days in a row last week and have felt sick all weekend. I started to feel better Sunday afternoon. Sunday night, I did laundry and washed my clothes and my scrubs from my previous week at work. I started coughing when I was putting my clothes in the washing machine. My coworkers and unit manager are great. I also like the doctors I work with. Other than feeling sick often at work I enjoy working at my current hospital. The only thing I haven't done is see another allergy specialist for more testing to see if I have new allergies. In the past I only had allergies to certain pollen and mold. If seeing a new allergy specialist doesn't help me I don't know what else to do. I'm at the point where if I don't find out what is causing these symptoms at work that I'm going to have to look for another place to work. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what caused it?

I was a bottle cap inspector one summer during college. Yes that's a real job description. I worked in a chemical plant. I'd open a box of 1,000 battle caps and inspect them under a magnifying class for dirt and damage. Then I'd put them in another box. Apparently, if there was dirt in the bottle caps and the bottle caps were used on sulfuric acid battles, the dirt would fall into the bottle and make the bottle explode. Do you know how boring it is to look at bottle caps under a magnifying glass for 8 hours a day?

I haven't had an issue getting Comcast or whoever else was the local cable and internet provider to come and set up cable tv and internet at apartments for travel assignments. Often, you can also get new customer promotions when you sign up that include a discount rate.

I've been thinking about settling down to one hospital again sometimes in the next 6 months. However I've run into a few issues and I feel that I'm sort of "stuck" travel nursing now. In most places, it would be a huge pay cut if I were to stop traveling and take a regular staff job. I've run into the issue with some hospitals that due to hospital or union rules, I'd start at a low salary because I'm "new" to the hospital even though I have almost 8 years of experience as a nurse. In the areas where it wouldn't be a huge pay cut, the cost of living would be high. Many of the hospitals I've enjoyed working at don't pay well compared to the cost of living. Many of the areas I've enjoyed living in have high costs of living compared to the pay for RNs. I've grown tired of the winters in the northern U.S. so that limits my choices as far as where I'd want to "settle down." I prefer working day shift. After working night shift for a few years, I rant into the problem where I had trouble sleeping during the day. I tried night shift for short times while doing travel nursing assignments and ran into the same sleep issues again. However most open staff positions I find are night shift. So, can I find an area where I won't have to deal with much winter weather, where I'd be able to get a day shift position without a large pay cut, and the area doesn't have a high cost of living?

I use to travel with RN Network. However I stopped doing assignments with them. My recruiter was great. Everyone else I dealt with was awful. Also the agency started to become really penny pinching and looking for ways to bill the travel nurses for every tiny thing that other agencies covered as part of their costs. Several times I was payroll deducted for things they "forgot" they were going to charge me for from previous assignments. A few times I was successful in getting the money back from them. After they billed me for an $0.18(yes 18 cents!) overage on my electric bill allowance from an assignment I finished 6 months ago, I decided that was the last straw.

In my experience, there aren't a larger number of travel assignments in the Philly area and the few that I found paid below average for the area. Within an hour of Philly you can find assignments in Trenton and Camden that pay well. The issue is that the Philly area is flooded with new grads and experienced nurses. Also at least one hospital closed in recent years that put a lot of experienced nurses in the job market. In addition to that, the hospitals have a large pool of part time and per diem staff available.

I'm on my second assignment with Fastaff. I work in ICU and not L&D. Overall, I'm happy with Fastaff. I switched to Fastaff after having problems with my previous travel nursing agency. If you have any issues, the recruiters try to resolve them as quickly as possible. Fastaff typically uses extended stay hotels for housing instead of apartments, even for longer assignments. Both recruiters I've been with at Fastaff have been great. Fastaff sent me for the wrong urine drug screen for an assignment and after they sent me back a second time for the right urine drug screen, my recruiters said they were giving me a bonus to compensate me for my time. The next paycheck, I had an extra $100. Also, I did an assignment last year with my previous agency and now I'm back in the same hospital and same department with Fastaff. My pay is $10/hr higher with Fastaff.

Both Fastaff and Nurse Choice do 2 to 8 week contracts.

Maybe they got washed away?

If you use a relative's address, you need to legally chage your driver's license address, voter's registration, RN license address, banking, etc... and return to that address occasionally for it to be acceptable to the IRS.

I scanned all my documents in and signed up for a free dropbox account. I keep a copy of the dicuments on my laptop. A copy on a thumb drive, and a copy inthe dropbox account. That way I always have access to them. I scanend in the documents individually and named them so I know what they are. That way I can email or upload the documents when needed.

If you get your own place, be very careful about where you get it. Reading, PA has been getting much worse as far as crime and violent crime goes over the past 10+ years. I have a few friends that work there now in law enforcement and loss prevention. The police don't show up to 911 calls about gunshots any more unless someone was shot or they receive multiple calls about the same incident because criminals shooting at criminals is so common there. The K-Mart in Reading leads the country in the highest number of criminals caught shop lifting among the entire K-mart chain. Avoid getting a place within city limits.

Do you have a relative's house you can use as your "tax home" while you are traveling?

I've been with RN Network for 2 years now, and they use to be great, but things seem to have changed last spring and I don't enjoy working for them any more. The only good thing now about RN Network is that they pay for up to 4 weeks of your health insurance in between assignements. However, it seems that last spring somethng major changed with the company. Here are the things I noticed: There is a major lack of communication between departments. I have to go over every pay stub with a fine tooth comb looking for errors because I seem to find them on a regular basis. I was billed multiple times in one week for my weekly health insurance payment and nobody could tell me why and I still haven't been reimbursed for it. I showed up to work at my assignment and they canceled me, but told me per their policy and per my contract that since I wasn't canceled with a certain amount of notice I had to be pad for 4 hours. The charge nurse, unit manager, and nursing supervisor approved those 4 hours. Nine months later, RN Network docked 4 hours of pay from my paycheck at another assignment because I wasn't working those 4 hours. However, they billed the hospital for me being there for 4 hours. I've had issues with housing and also issues with contracts being canceled within a day or a few days of the start date and the recruiter didn't tell the other departments, so I ended up having issues with my health insurance and documentation. Then I got a call form the training person form the hospital asking why I wasn't in class and she didn't know the contract was canceled. I use to be asked about my housing preferences if I was taking the housing. Now I just get an email or phone call saying, "here is your housing. Not what you need? Too bad." I've accepted contracts with a certain hourly pay rate, then when I get my confirmation documentation/contract, the pay rate is much, much lower, so I tell them I don't want the assignment and they try to get me to take the assignment for 2 weeks before looking for a new assignment. Something has changed with RN Network and I don't like it.

The agency I work for pays for my health insurance for up to a month in between assignments. I haven't had any issues finding assignments only working with one travel nursing company.

I left there in December 2010 to do travel nursing.

Some parts of the country have low demand for nurses while other parts of the country still have a higher demand for nurses. If you are willing to move out of your current area to a different area, then I wouldn't worry too much about finding a job.

I interviewed at a few hospitals in NC last year and this year and they all told me the cost of living is so much lower than where I live in PA that its not really a pay cut. However, when I looked at the actual difference in cost of living, it was definitely a pay cut. Not only did all of the online cost of living calcualtors say that the cost of living in NC was the same of a few percent or higher than where I live in PA, but my own research said the same thing. The cost of food, utilities and rent combined, gasoline, automobile insurance, and commonly used items was all about the same. Automobile registration was also more expensive. For example, I pay $750/month in rent for a 1400 sq. ft. 2 bedroom apartment with all utilities included(except for internet access) on a 1 acre lot with a private swimming pool, off street parking, and I share the land and pool with one other couple who also lives on the property. Its a 6.5 mile drive to work, which is on the other side of the city.

Their orientation program for new nurses is great, or was when I went through it a few years back. On most units, its a 3 to 6 month orientation depending on the type of unit. Critical care internship/orientation periods usually are closer to 6 months.

If I were you I'd apply as early as possible for the critical care internship at LVH. I applied about a year before I graduated. Some of my classmates applied in their last semester and were told it was full.

Chances depend on how many applicants there are and what unit it is. If you have questions about different units, send me a PM. I worked there for 5 years and have many friends that still work there.