connie12

I am moving back to my home state after 5 years away. I am only doing so to reconnect with family for a couple years and then plan to return to travel nursing. My current job is in a cardiac ICU in which I have worked for 1.5 years and have gotten crap experience because one must "pay their dues" so I yet to take a heart right out of surgery nor learn CRRT. So I am not that confident in my ICU skills to do traveling in that area yet. (I was a previous traveler on med-surg and tele floors). I have two offers on my plate and don't know what to do. Which will make it easier to travel again in a couple years: 1. Well-known university hospital in a big city. Cath lab position. Pay is pretty decent for the area. This hospital's ICUs usually only hires internally so I could try for an ICU job in about a year or later. 2. Another well-know university hospital, this time in the middle of the state. So pay is approximately $7-8/hr LESS than the city hospital. Yes, cost of living is cheaper, but not THAT much cheaper. This position interests me so much more b/c it's in the cardiac ICU, and I'll get to learn LVADs, Ecmo and heart transplant patients which the manager said I'll be trained on from the get-go. Just the money and location stink.... which causes me some anxiety. So... I know where I'm leaning, you probably know where I'm leaning. What are your thoughts. If I was to learn the cath lab, are there cath lab travel nurse opportunities out there? Thanks so much! Connie

I think you should travel now because the opportunity might not come later once you finish your MSN. I believe everything else will fall into place when you are ready. If you can get a job through a staffing company at a later date, then that's a nice cushion. A great way to save money when I travelled was to but into my savings account whatever I would have been paying in rent. When I left for my first travel job (and took the housing), I was paying $1000/month in rent in my home city. I pretended I still had a $1000 monthly rent when travelling and paid myself instead. In 1.5 years, I saved $20K! Of course, except for a student loan, I did not have any other debt. I have been a staff nurse, then travel nurse, then staff again and now taking another staff job. I think having a travel background may have helped me get future positions because it showed I am adaptable. As for traveling alone.... do you make friends easily wherever you work? Travel nursing will be no different. Also, try meetup.com to find local things to do in the area you are moving to. You'd be surprised how much travel nursing can boost your confidence and sense of adventure.

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Diarygirl512, I see you are very experienced with travel nursing. Would you please respond to the other questions I asked too? I took your advice and the other persons advice and am trying to be more flexible but I do want to really do this with my friend. I'm so bummed we might not get a Seattle area job. San Fran is looking grim too. So we just put out requests for Denver and Tucson. I would love to email you and ask you who you work for and what you think of them. If you don't mind, would you please tell me how to do that. Thanks so much!

Hi, just spoke with a Talemed recruiter. Of course, the company sounded fabulous. Does anyone know about this company? If so, please share your thoughts. Thank you!

Thank you for your advice. Anyone else have anything to add. Thanks again!

Hi travel nurses, I need advice and words of encouragement. I am a two-year experienced tele/cardiac nurse who has given up her apartment and given her resignation for Sept 6th at work. I have been in contact with one nursing travel agency since January to begin my career as a travel nurse this September. I have been working with two nursing friends (and ER & neonatal nurse). As the time is getting closer, I am getting very nervous as some problems arise. Many of the jobs posted on the site are not available for 1st time travelers. We have been told one pay rate and then it turns out to be lower. We all wanted to be in Seattle, second choice San Fran. The neonatal nurse cannot get a job in either of these cities. Myself (tele) and the ER nurse can get jobs in the suburbs of these cities but not in the city which is what we requested from the get-go. We were not told that this would be difficult to achieve. I investigated travel nurse agencies and went with who I believed was the most reputable and has the most opportunities. I am using a recruiter that was recommended by someone else. She is nice but not very business-like. Is it in bad taste to kind another recruiter in the same company? I told the recruiter that I would like to have a Sept 24th start date but am flexible. I am getting nervous that a job is not secured. PLEASE someone advise me that securing a job last minute is normal. Thanks for any advice!