BigT

They stated that I did not get the bacterial meningitis so they are not responsible for a non event. I had to have an injury to be covered. I am not asking for anything for my pain and suffering from the testing, just the actual testing costs to exclude me from having this highly communicable disease. I had a fever of 102 and a crushing headache so there was real concern I was infected.

What do you mean? What happens?

So I was working as a travel nurse for TITAN Medical on assignment in OHIO. As a Neuro ICU nurse I was taking care of a pt that was comatose. As it turns out the pt had bacterial meningitis which is highly contagious and was not in isolation. During the incubation period for the disease, I started exhibiting the symptoms of the disease. I contacted human resources for Titan Medical and was told I need to go to a hospital and be evaluated. When I went to my local hospital I was told I have two options, to undergo a lumbar puncture where they will extract my spinal fluid for testing or to be hospitalized for 2 weeks on IV antibiotics. I will not be allowed to leave the hospital. After much internal debate I opted for the spinal tap. Fortunately I did not have the bacterial meningitis. I suffered a spinal headache for over 3 days and lower back pain for over a month afterward. All the paperwork was filled out and sent in to Ohio Workers comp and then they denied the claim. I could not believe it- it must be some mistake. I appealed the claim explaining in detail how this was all a result of the work related exposure and was only asking for the medical bills to be paid, nothing for the pain and suffering and lost time from work. It was denied again! Then I started getting the bills-- over $5000 of bills for 6 hours in the ER. I submitted them to my insurance which was through the same travel company and they paid $150 of them. I was livid. I have contacted the travel company Titan Medical, Dawson which was the company that was acting as the vendor manager, and Miami Valley hospital in Dayton Ohio. Everyone is denying any responsibility and I keep getting passed around to someone else to contact. Does anyone have any advice? It looks like I will need to get a lawyer unless someone else has some options? Any advice? Thanks T

NursesRX is an AMN company and they are known for having contracts ranging from very favorable to them to down right oppressively costly to the traveler. I would NEVER officially accept an offer without having the contract in front of me. I have said " I am agreable to this offer pending the details of the contract are also acceptable to me." Be careful, lots of recruitment companies think we are cattle that they can prob and poke as they please to get us where they want us.

So I was just thinking today, I wonder how other travel nurses find there next assignments? In the past I have usually just called up my trusted recruiters and started asking questions. But I am really intrigued by the newer media types (facebook,twitter..etc) influence on getting new travel assignments. I have found my last couple assignments via them (facebook), so what has your experience been with them? If you use facebook what groups are your go to ones? Some of the ones I use are Travel nurses- job opportunities, ICU travel nurses, and this newer one Travel Nursing: Crisis rates and Emergency needs. If you do not use these newer media types what are you using?

I choose to get my own insurance from an exchange so as to not be tied to any one particular agency just to keep insurance going. Choosing your own insurance leaves one less thing to worry about when choosing your next assignment. I think it helps keep all the offers on a more even playing field.

I travel in a fifth wheel and beleive its a better approach. I had this same question when I was deciding what to do. What led me to decide on the fifth wheel was the following conclusions... If something happens to the truck its easier to get it to a service station or easier to get it towed than a motor home..... Fuel mileage will be terrible only when towing the fifth wheel- motor homes fuel mileages constantly stink.... If the fifth wheel needs service you can drop it off at a service center and drive away, if the motor home needs service you would have to leave it there and either be stuck there till fixed or haul an additional vehice around.... Fifth wheels can give you more room verses most motor homes.... fifth wheels tend to be easier to sell if that time comes than a motor home. But in the end you need to decide what fits your needs.

Delaware is typically a 4-6 week endorsement process... How long was yours?

A traveler at an assignment I am currently on was fired by the hospital and she has to pay back over $5000 in fees and housing re-imbursements due to her being canceled due to her behavior (complaining about work conditions to her manager). Most contracts do not delineate between forced termination or involuntary leaving due to illness... you are a number and warm body, leaving an assignment is leaving an assignment and a contract is a contract. Be sure to read the contracts carefully.

What state are you talking about? Better yet, what company would allow you to submit for a position without the license in hand? This would raise huge flags for me with regard to this travel company. In any case if you do not have your license,or received it in time, you will be in breech of your contract ( which I would re-read to see if your non-compiance with its requirements would make you liable for any penalties and fees) and you will either lose the contract and be out on your own or have the start date pushed back- depending on what the hospital wants to do. Good learning lesson....

Good business deduction if you need it....

I guess I should also address on other aspect of travel nursing that should be considered as well. The emotional toll that being away from your family will take. Yes, a possible job is only a few hours away now, but job market needs change all the time and what happens if your next job is several states away and you cannot economically justify weekly travel back to home? How will you, your wife and children take it? In that light, is it worth it to you? Those are questions only you can answer. Yes you can try to only take more local jobs but then you are severely limiting your options. Indiana is not typically a well paying state (for travel nursing or nursing in general) and typically does not have many open traveling jobs. Right now there is sort of anomaly of needs going on in IN but it appears to be a bubble that will pop rather than a trend...in my opinion. There you go another two cents......

Since you asked for opinion I will offer mine.... I would stay for at least 2 years to expand out my experience base. During that time I would work on a goal to gain experience in all the facets of being an OR nurse. There are various positions within the OR that have different stills sets and being able to be comfortable in all those positions would be a huge asset for you. Let your charge and manager know that you would like to expand your experiences in the OR and see how they could help you do that. Give yourself a challenge till the 2 year mark- become the best OR Rn you can be with the most experience in the most facets of your job. How much longer is your contract? and what type of contract is it? You are right-going out on your own can be a big scary jump, especially being the lead wage earner in the family. Being in the same boat as you, I understand that burden, responsibility and privilege. My thoughts are to get the 2 years of experience and then you will have a firmer base from which to lauch yourself from into the traveling world. OR Rn traveling is a specialty that does tend to bring in more $$ per hour than average travel positions. Saying that, you do have to be marketable, and the more experience in more facets of OR nursing the better for you and gaining subsequent jobs. The last point I will touch on is your recruiter agency. AYA has had a previous track record of not being the best company for travelers under there previous name Access Nurses. Changing the company name does not necessarilly change the company. I would work on the experience till at the 2 year mark and during that time work on getting set up with a few (3 minimum,5 better) travel companies and getting comfortable with your new recruiters. They will be the lifeline on which you depend for your financial future, so if you do not like them now you will be even more unsatisfied when push comes to shove. As you come closer to the 2 year mark, have recruiters send you sample pay packages from the same jobs and see which ones offer the larger amounts of pay, better re-imbursement rates or whatever variables matter most to you..... Also work on getting licenses in other states... the more states the better options you will have when its time to look for your next contract. Some states take months to get a license and others are fairly quick, but usually you cannot apply for a job till you have the state license in hand. There you go...my two cents.... well probably three at least...... T

Thanks for the votes so far. Any other nurses care to vote?

My advice is to get more experience as a RN. I firmly believe that a person needs more than one year as a RN before they go traveling. Do you remember what it was like for your first 3 months as a nurse? Now take that and condense that into 13 weeks and only receiving 2-3 days on average of training. As a new nurse you get months of training- as a traveler 1-3 days. And if you don't know the charting system- oh boy oh boy are you in deep. I mean you no ill will and do wish you the best but I know that even me, at one year of experience, would never have been close to having enough experience to travel. I guess it depends on what your specialty is, mine is ICU, so I can only relate it to that. I have 5 +years as a nurse with almost all of it being ICU and I find traveling challenging to do. That was working in 2 different trauma ICU's as regular staff before traveling btw. Each hospital is different and its own animal. I pray you have a nice travel friendly unit and they are helpful to you. If not- I pray you learn fast and ask questions if you are unsure of what you need to do or how to do it. A word of advice I tell myself all the time- always smile and never show your stress to others...its contagious....

It seems that you do have a dilema. Under your current arrangement, it would seem that you are legally an itinerant nurse. Ideally, you should have not rented your permanent house fully, but rented a portion of it so as to retain a permanent address, tax home and address for your compact state license. Having lost your established address and tax home, it would seem that you should establish a new one before you lose your compact license status and your tax home. Losing these will require you to obtain a license in any state you work in and will incur a heavier tax burden as well. I am not a tax advisor nor expert in any nursing license issues but offer my advice for the two cents its worth...

Fastaff is one company that does provide housing in addition to there quoted rates. As far as I know they are the only one. They are a quick responce urgent need company-- so they need nurses fast. If you notice all their jobs are ususally less than a week or two out. This does not allow the luxury of a nurse searching for their own housing, so their default is to provide it in the form of an extended stay hotel. Also alot of their job offerings are only 4-8 weeks. They do NOT provide stipends at all and all your pay is per hour and taxed as such. While you can use the tax advantage of traveling at the end of the year to try and get some tax money back- it will be taken out at a higher rate in the meantime.

Be careful about your stipends as a lot of contracts do prorate your stipend depending on hours worked. So if you are called off, with the proration in the contract, you will have your stipend lowered as well. Point is--read your contract carefully because no two are the same and you do not want to assume anything just because it was in your last contract. I got burned real bad on my first contract without any clause of guaranteed hours or call off clause- a couple of weeks in I was called off one whole week, 2 of 3 days another week and 2 of 3 the next week. After that and the last minute calls of asking me to pick up nights when I was working days, the day after working a day shift--I told them I was done. That lesson was costly in time and money but in the end I now learned what to ask and what was important to me.

I am sorry that you are projecting your feelings of useless because my comment had nothing to do with abilities and everything about being a numbers game. The number of hospitals using LPNs are shrinking and the number of hospitals taking traveler LPNs are even less. It would be akin to a RN posting on here that they specialize in infectious diseases and that is the only thing they wanted to travel for. There is not a whole lot of demand for that type of specialty. The demand or number of openings for any particular traveler specialty has no correlation to how worthy or useful a certain specialty is. All nurses, no matter their specialty or training areas or titles, are a cog in a chain of healing and return to wellness- if you are missing one cog the whole chain will not move very well. My post about a LPN getting a RN license will just increase the odds in her favor to allow more opportunities to travel. Just as a RN with a dual specialty of ICU/ER will have more opportunities than just an ICU RN. Its a numbers game.... I wish you well on your new assignment. T

I looked at that assignment and the pay package you were offered was higher than what I was quoted. From what I have seen for Ohio pay its pretty good. The only thing I didn't like was the overtime rate seemed low. What agency are you using?

As you yourself stated, you lucked out with a LPN job at the hospital you are currently at. Most, if not all hospitals, are no longer hiring LPN's and traveling as a LPN will be harder, if not difficult due to this fact. I would suggest to get your ADN/ASN ASAP and you will have whole larger traveling option available to you. Its probably not what you want to here, but it will allow you the greatest options in the long run.

I just had a similar idea. I am starting a new assignment and have housing for my assigment but I am thinking ahead to other assignments and came up with the same idea as you. The only thing that I was wondering about was how much does it cost to rent rv spot s in various assignments? I found reasonable housing in my upcoming assignment and its only 500 a month. Then I was wondering how much a spot would cost? Another worry is: are there spots close enough to cities that I might take? I am not sure how much research you have done but I am just starting my search so if you have found any info you feel like sharing I would I appreciate it. Thanks for bringing this topic up! T

Some assignments I have looked at specify a 48 hour work week. The particular ones I have looked at have been on the west coast, specifically icu positions. I was wondering if anyone has actually worked these contracts and can let me know-- are you too dead tired from working all those hours to enjoy the days off? I get that they are probably short staffed and was wondering if you are running around and ragged by the end of your 12 hours shifts? or are they tough but definately doable? Do you need to take several weeks after the assignment to recoup? Ever extend the assignment? Thanks T

Which ones would they be? If you would prioritize the states by best to work in/highest pay/off work amenties/ etc... please let me know what criteria you used!

Indiana is not a compact state so I will be applying for/endorsing to states individually. That gets expensive so I was trying to narrow down the cost/benefit list for a certain number of states. This gives me an idea for a poll...... :>).