mom2mands

Yes, but after 2008-2009 at lot of hospitals stopped using travel nurses at all, and when they began using travelers again the pay rate was considerably less.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I already have my CA license and am not being picky about the location assignment, but the time it's taking is making me nervous. And one recruiter is really pushing Kaiser, which makes me wonder, since I've read a number of negative posts about working for them.

I've been a nurse for 3.5 years, the first two on an IMCU, which I loved, and the last year and a half on Inpatient Rehab (move due to hubby's job), which I HATE. I've had several recruiters looking for jobs in tele for me in CA, but there haven't been any offers yet. The recruiters say many hospitals are looking for experienced travelers, but I'm worried. Right now I'm working with recruiters from three agencies; do I need to apply to other agencies? Or should I try to find another full time job and scrap the idea of travel nursing?

I graduated from nursing school in in May and started working last month in a OBGyn unit. My preceptor was nice but gave me zero feedback and we were so busy and stayed late so many times that I never had time to ask her how I was doing, but it didn't feel like orientation was going all that well, I was expected to have had lots of experience with IV starts and foleys, when my experience with both is limited. Anyway last week the NM told me she didn't think the orientation was going well; the next few days were really hectic. One day I was placed with another nurse b/c my preceptor was off and it was terrible. She had no patience and was annoyed when I needed to look up a medication in a PDR, and had trouble inserting a foley. Anyway the other day the NM met with me and said orientation wasn't working out and suggested that I resign. Working there was harder every day and I was thinking about quitting last week but now I'm really freaked out, because 1) I feel like I didn't learn enough in nursing school to make it as a nurse, and 2) my first nursing job was a failure. What do I do now? Will this affect my ability to get another job?

I can totally relate to what you said about feeling stupid. I started working on a OBGYN unit (which includes L&D, Postpartum, and Nursey) in a small community hospital and it seems like every day I work I do something wrong, and there is no positive feedback. It feels like my orientation so far has been very disjointed (we have been very busy) and everything is different from any clinical I had in nursing school, e.g. all the nurses notes are computerized and the MARs on paper only. Today was the worst --I couldn't insert a foley (again, haven't been able to since I started working) and then I left the keys to the narcotic cabinet on the counter by the cabinet instead of putting them back in my pocket, and didn't remember before it was time to pass them off to night shift. True, I've never been anywhere else that used keys rather than a code or fingerprint but still, I've been upset since I left work. I feel like a total failure and can't figure out what's going on (why I keep screwing up)

Hi, You have my sympathy...I took the NCLEX on Wed and it was horrible, not the kind of questions any of the study guides had and it shut off at 75 after I was sure that I had answered an "easy" question wrong so I'm sure I failed and am afraid to look at the results too.

Thank you for the prayer thread. I take the NCLEX next week (7/23) and am worried about passing. I've been studying for the last few weeks, but it doesn't seem like enough, plus my mom just passed away very unexpectedly. Everyone taking the NCLEX is in my prayers!