Dinsey

I was housed in the Mozaic Apartments, literally across a parking lot from Union Station. Twenty minute train ride to the hospital, didn't have to pay for parking on site. The train stop is across the street from the hospital. Some other travelers found their own housing in the Los Feliz neighborhood and walked. Like Ned said, the train and bus systems are pretty good, you can also get around really well with Lyft and Uber. I'd recommend anywhere downtown within a few blocks of a train station.

That is my specialty and I have been traveling for two years. I've never had to take an assignment in general peds, but know that you will be floating to the general peds floors, as well as NICU and PICU. You will always find Peds Heme/Onc/BMT jobs in big cities - smaller towns with smaller hospitals do not tend to have the specialty. California always has jobs, up and down the coast. I see a lot in Texas, a few in the Midwest, and more on the east coast. The big agencies (AMN and Cross Country) let you search their postings (the external sites are not a comprehensive job board) to get an idea of where they staff.

I used the Pan Travelers list of questions plus my own experience to make a list of my own. I have it saved so whenever I do a phone interview I can make sure I have all of my core questions answered.

I have found housing on Airbnb twice, once in the city and another in the East Bay. It's horribly expensive and in fact the working class people are being priced out of their homes. The techies who are living in the $6000 lifts are going to have trouble finding someone to pour them a latte pretty soon.

Look outside of the city. Berkeley, parts of Oakland, Pacifica, Daly City.

Other professions with whom nurses share common tasks: hotel maid, daycare worker, receptionist, therapist, social worker, chauffeur, coffee shop barista, customer service rep, coach, store manager, store clerk, and whatever it's called when someone pays you so that they can yell at you. Nursing is a very challenging people-focused (I mean, we're taking care of people, right?), teamwork-dependent profession. It takes a lot of brains, heart and muscle to do this job well. I think it's the best job in the world but I know from experience that if it's not right for you (or you're not right for it) your patients, your coworkers and you will all suffer.

People come to the hospital because they need help. They're sick, scared and hurting. Their families are emotional. They need stuff and sometimes they need it fast. They complain about things that may seem piddly, like the lack of HBO or salad dressing selection on the menu. Your job is to take care of them and support them and their families though a stressful time. From your self-description this doesn't sound like a good fit. And as well as nurses get paid, I honestly do not think it's worth the money unless you also really enjoy the work. The nurses I know who are unhappy in the profession tend to be burned out and experiencing compassion-fatigue. This can be accelerated in traveling because you're generally working in hospitals that are understaffed anyway.

I mean, from your own self-assessment, I wouldn't want you as my nurse. And I wouldn't let you near my parents or children. Nursing is too hard and complicated a job to do "for the money" or "for the travel" or "for" anything besides the fact that you want to be a nurse. Maybe you should go into medical sales.

I agree that it's probably easier to start with a bigger company. I am also with AMN and I have a great recruiter (referred from a friend) and have had a mostly positive experience. However, as I have traveled I have really picked the brains of more experienced travelers in my specialty for information on better companies, good facilities, etc. I will probably change companies at some point and it will be based on a referral from another experienced traveler.

You don't have to buy a TV or drive a car or get cable. If you can get there by train, plane or boat, they'll still reimburse you up to whatever maximum they state. In many places (NYC, San Francisco) you might be better off without a car. If you need a TV and they don't provide it with the housing then you will either need to bring one or buy one. I have either found my own housing with a TV provided or found housing without a TV - which is currently the case. I do not spend much time watching TV because I'm trying to experience my city, but I do watch some shows on Netflix/Hulu on my laptop (which is much easier to travel with than a TV) I suggest you read the posts on here going back several pages - most of your questions have been asked and addressed recently.

It sounds like you've already made up your mind (about everything) but I hope you listen to what these experienced travelers are telling you. It's not an easy money-grab. I've worked in facilities where my take home pay was less than the staff. It's not an easy job. I had been a nurse for seven years and worked in several hospitals when I started traveling but even just nurse culture state to state is different. I have seen good, competent nurses leave or get fired because they didn't fit the culture. Please think hard about leaving your stable job (you don't have much of your commitment left). Travel will always be there.

I'd think the family of that resident would be interested to know that their vulnerable adult was sharing a room with an employee. There's a lot of fishy business going on there...

I agree with the poster above. You will see staffing done differently facility to facility. Some will have you sign up for the schedule the same way the staff does, some will just assign you according to their needs. It seems easier to just get it in writing. It's also worth noting that if you have specific dates (a wedding, friends in town, etc) those need to be in writing in your contract as well. Some facilities also post positions for rotating shifts, so if you want straight nights or days make sure that is in your contract too.

Once you have all of your documents gathered (and PDF versions stored on your laptop/in the cloud) it gets easier with each assignment. When I change companies I will already have just about everything they need and simply email it to them. It is a lot of work, but so is moving to a new town to start a permanent staff job. Travel is all of that work every 13 or so weeks. But that's what it is, and you have to decide if that work is worth the benefits. Housing is one of the hardest parts. I am traveling with pets as well. In the SF Bay Area I actually paid $50 out of pocket on top of my stipend for housing because I wanted my own place and the pets. You won't always pocket tons of extra cash on housing. On the other hand, I pocketed $400 per month in Southern California, but I got really lucky on housing. The allure and promise of big bucks is not what interested me in travel nursing and I would have been gravely disappointed in the reality if I had gotten into it for the money. I don't work ICU/OR/L&D so I'm not going to get those lucrative contracts. It's scary to let go of stability and take on this lifestyle. It's definitely not for everyone. I've met many travel nurses who do one or two assignments and then decide to go home. Right now, it works well for me and I am enjoying it. Only you can know if it is right for you, and if the effort is worth it.

Have you considered Berkeley or Emeryville? Lots of places on Airbnb.