jenjacobi1

Start working on getting your Cali license if you want to travel in Cali anytime soon. It has by far been the biggest headache and it's been SO difficult to get licensed there quickly. In fact, that was probably THE reason I'm moving to Houston instead of Cali right now. It can be expensive and lengthy but if you plan ahead and give yourself enough time to get the necessary requirements then you'll have no problems. It can take anywhere from weeks to months to get it. Most hospitals won't even look at you unless you have your license in hand. I've also heard that Michigan and Illinois take a long time to get licensed as well! Good luck!

I'm currently in the interview stage and will hopefully start my first assignment June 20th or so. So I'm still new at this as well, but I've been working with Cross Country, Nursechoice and NursesRx for peds travel jobs. There seem to be a decent amount of jobs out there especially in California and Texas. Let me know if you want more info on these companies or have any other questions. Happy peds travel job hunting!!

I would wait until you feel more confident to do travel nursing. I'm about to start my first assignment and now after 3 years, I finally feel ready and confident in my skills/nursing foundation to leave where I've worked. I would recommend just switching jobs, b/c as someone has already said, you are not a new grad anymore. You do have some experience. So those hospitals in your hometown may have job openings for people with experience. (They don't have to spend as much money on your orientation now that you have experience.) So go back to your home, get your experience, learn and hone your skills, and then start your travel nursing career! That's just what I would do! Good luck! And always remember...THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS NO UNTIL YOU ASK. Same goes for trying. You have to try and put yourself out there in order to get what you want.

I'm thinking about taking a job in Hartford, CT at Connecticut Children's in June. So I may be willing to meet up and hang out! How far away is Hartford from Stamford, do you know?

I think you should do it. I'm kinda deciding to do the same thing right now, but I'm having trouble finding an assignment in Seattle for the summer. But I struggled with the decision of leaving or not because I do have a great permanent job right now at a great hospital with great co-workers. BUT I decided I can't let the fear of not getting this great job back stop me from living my life and doing what I want to do. For all you know, you will love travel nursing and will NEVER return back to this permanent position in Connecticut. Or you'll find someone, get married, and stay in that city. Who knows what's going to happen. So, I say go for it. Good luck with everything!!

I too would LOVE to know what company you went with and who your recruiter is. Please message me some details when you get a chance. Thanks so much for your help! :)

I'm considering beginning my career in travel nursing and trying to figure out which company I should travel with. I work on a peds neuro/neurosurgery/medicine/rehab floor in the top 5 Children's hospital in the US. I've worked there for almost a year and a half now. I want to begin traveling in peds starting in april 2010. I have a colleague of mine who is traveling with NovaPro in LA right now and she has had a very positive experience so far. Has anyone else traveled with them? Do you like it? Any suggestions? Comments? Thanks guys! Happy Turkey day! :)

I work as a pediatric nurse on the neuro/rehab floor of a children's hospital... I'd be happy to try and respond to some of your questions. I have worked with many newly diagnosed brain tumor patients including adolescent pts and pts with medulloblastoma and I can tell you it is a very hard thing to do. I love working with this population but at the same time you are faced with your own mortality every day at work. As rewarding as it can be and as much as I love developing relationships with these pts it is hard to come home at the end of the day and know that someone younger than you will probably never see their 18th birthday, never go to prom, never graduate college or have children of their own. This is especially hard for me because I am young (23) and I've recently taken care of 2 21 y/o females who are going home on hospice care. It is easy to relate to them and fun getting to know them, but at the same time, very very sad. It is important to mention also that occasionally there are good outcomes. People, including kids and adolescents beat brain tumors every day. It is amazing to see the resilience and the strength of kids and adolscents. While caring for these children, I try to remain as positive as possible and treat them as normal as any other adolescent. We talk boys/girls, joke around about movies/TV, I'll bring magazines from home for them, etc. I do not often discuss the future with them but rather discuss life in a hopeful light (someday when I get married, or my kids will be really cute, etc). Our particular hospital offers a wide variety of things for adolscent pts. We have a teen lounge that has video games, laptop check out, appropriate movie checkout, magazines, etc. We also have a roof top garden that they can visit as well. We do have a child life specialist who provides age appropriate things as well...including movies, board games, video games, magazines, bingo, some nights have life music, celebrities and sports players come and meet people too. On my floor, we try our best to do continuity of care...meaning we try to have the same nurses take care of the same pts but that doesn't always work. And we work 12 hour shifts (7-7:30) and on my floor our pts go to rehab throughout the day which means they see the same therapists 3 hours in the Am and 3 hours in the PM. I don't work on the hem/onc floor so I don't know what all the routine things are but I know on our floor things like blood draws are things we do. On the hem/onc floors those pts get chemo and some kids go to a different part of the hospital to get radiation treatments. I think this kinda answered some of your questions and I hope this helps in your research. Please feel free to email me or reply to this and ask me any other questions.

It's nice to know that ya'll are in the same boat. I've worked as a pediatric nurse for about a year now and I've recently become disillusioned with nursing in a hospital setting. I've always had an interest in public health, but I've been too afraid to pursue further career options. I really like the education and prevention side of nursing as well and am thinking about going back to school to pursue my master's in public health/public health nursing. I was even considering even giving up nursing as a career in general but you guys have helped me realize that I really do want to become a community/public nurse and help others, especially children, in that way. Everything you have described is what I feel or am interested in. Do you think I should work on going back to school and also begin my search for a public health job? Or should I kind a new job then get my master's? I'm not sure how long I want to stay at my job right now and obviously I'm scared to quit my job, but I don't really know what's best for me right now. Any advice?

Hello all! I am very interested in travel nursing in the next year or so. I've only been a nurse for 9 months now and I'm waiting to get some more experience before I start travel nursing. (How much experience do you think I should go before starting? 1 year? 18 months? 2 years?) People have been telling me that travel nursing is almost non-existent now because of the state of the economy and I was just wondering if people were having problems getting travel assignments. Also, I work in peds and I've heard that most agencies want you to have ICU experience. Is it possible just to travel with peds and not peds ICU? Please let me know if you guys know any info regarding these topics. Thanks! :)

I have heard not good things about Barnes from everyone who went there. My sister is the accelerated program and she has had many problems. I work with a few nurses who went there as well and they all report horrible experiences as well. I attended UMSL briefly the summer before my senior year for an externship and I had a great experience. I'm not sure how it is as a full nursing program though. Good luck with your decision. Hope this helps.