daisybsn

Hi there! I have a friend who is a new traveler.She had to have dental work done in the day & she had to work that night and she had an allergic reaction to the mess & is worried the hospital won't accept her sick note from the dentist. Bc if they call out it has to be a doctor's note. I've never called out so I don't know if a dentist note will work or not. Anybody been in this situation?

I worked at Kaiser in San Diego. Great facility & I LOVED San Diego!! So much to do there & such a fun city!! You're going at the perfect time of year.

Glad to hear you loved it there! Unfortunately there were no openings there in the timeframe I needed. So I decided to go with Kaiser West LAMC bc I wanted to be more so in that area of LA & close to Santa Monica. Fingers crossed that I have a good experience there.

Hi! I just wanted to see if anyone has run into this issue. I was planning on taking AMN housing bc my next assignment will be in West LA. I hear traffic is horrendous & I wanted to live in the West LA area & near where I will be working. My recruiter called to tell me my stipend is only $2400/month & with the stipend & meals & incidentals my take home would be a little over $1500. She said all their corporate housing apartments are charging well over the $2400 budget & closer to $2900 bc she believes it's summertime. She asked if I wanted to do my own searching for a place. I've been trying to look for guest houses but not having much luck. Don't want to rent a room out in someone's home bc I've run into issues before w/that. Couldn't AMN still be able to go over their stipend budget & still pay for the housing?

Hi there! I'm an L&D travel nurse, and was interested in working at UCLA for my next assignment. I've heard good things about it and how people really liked it there. Just curious if anyone else has done an assignment at UCLA, and what their experience was. Or if anyone has done an assignment at other hospitals in the LA area, I'd love to know where you worked and how your experience was. Thanks!

I worked as an L&D staff nurse in Dallas, TX at Baylor University Medical Center for almost 2 years, and even went back to Irving, TX to work at Baylor Irving for a travel assignment. Yes, Texas does not have any unions, and you do work really hard when you're there. However, everyone I worked with was really helpful, and some nights could be busy and rough, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. You're bound to have hard/busy shifts no matter where you work. Several of the travel nurses I spoke with who traveled to San Antonio and Austin didn't have anything negative to say about the hospitals they worked at. Only negative I heard was that the city of San Antonio itself didn't have enough things to do on an off work day because the ones I spoke to are in their mid to late 20s, and wanted to do a lot of venturing out and exploring the city. Everyone's experience is different. I think you should give Texas a chance because if you take a 13 week assignment, 3 months will fly by and as nurses we can survive anything for 3 months.

Hi there! So I'm an L&D travel nurse with AMN, and I'm currently doing my 3rd assignment in San Diego. I personally would like to go to Seattle in June for 13 weeks, and then the Phoenix area afterwards. I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for hospitals in the Seattle area. I'm also torn between working in AZ at either Chandler Regional Medical Center or Banner Good Samaritan because a few travel nurses I've spoken to said both hospitals were great. Just curious if anyone else had any input from their experience working there.

Actually I took the stipend which is why I didn't completely understand why I would be charged that amount. I agree $18/hr is a lot.

Hi there! I just had a quick question regarding my travel company contract. I'm working with AMN for a short 9 week assignment. There are 2 different weeks I could only work 2 days for that particular week. Reason being was the current hospital I'm at has the 1st day of the week start on a Monday, not a Sunday because of that the week of Thanksgiving I could only do 2 days (I had a 5 day long wedding I had to attend), and my last week there I can only do 2 days b/c I have to make it home in a certain timeframe to make it to my next assignment. I didn't realize that even though the days off like that were approved by the hospital, I would have to still reimburse the travel company at a rate of $18/hr for the hours missed. I thought that only applied for calling in sick. Just curious if anyone else has run into this issue. Is AMN the only company who does this? Are there other companies who don't penalize you for needing 1 extra work day off for the week? Thanks!

What exactly is the NCC certification? Because I may look into that if it makes things easier than worrying about doing both intermediate and advanced.

Hi there! I know this only will apply to Antepartum/L&D nurses, but I was wondering if anyone else was having these issues. Certain HCA facilities are requiring nurses to have intermediate fetal monitoring every 2 years. I have advanced b/c when I first started travel nursing I was at a disadvantage b/c most hospitals wanted advanced, and all I had was intermediate. Even if I worked as full time staff somewhere, it would be expected of me to do advanced 2 yrs after my 1st time of taking intermediate. Well apparently even though advanced is higher than intermediate, these HCA facilities will not take advanced fetal monitoring; they want intermediate. My recruiters were incredibly angry about it b/c they felt that it made no sense at all. One even said he and a few other people got into a huge argument about it the other day because his nurses were having the same issue as me. So there were 4 different hospitals I couldn't apply to b/c of that. Because I'm in a smaller town the closest facility to take the intermediate course would've been almost 2hrs away for a 2 day class. Luckily I was able to find a hospital that only wanted advanced. I just wanted a few other nurses' opinions on whether they feel as though it's worth it to have both advanced and intermediate at the same time. It's just frustrating to know that you may have to take both for essentially learning the same exact thing.

Hi there! I have a quick question regarding RN license renewal. I'm a travel nurse, and applied for licenses in Washington State and California. My California license will expire in 06/2016, but my Washington license along with my home state license will expire in 05/2015. I know that each state has its own requirements for CEUs. Washington State's is 45 CEUs over a 3 year period. So does this mean for Washington State I need to accumulate my CEUs from the date it was issued to me (05/2014), or can I use CEUs from 3 yrs back in 05/2012? Also can CEUs from renewal courses in NRP count? I earned 6hrs from that alone.

So yes I understand from what you're saying that I will burn bridges with this company. However, I know for a fact I will not be returning to this company for various reasons that are too long to even tell. Personal issues I've had with the recruiter, and this is the 2nd recruiter I've had to use with this company because the 1st one was very rude to me when I did not accept an assignment I had interviewed for. You say a low pay is not worth turning down an offer, and I understand that but I've also had several other nurses who have traveled there, not just one, give me vital information that are causes for major concern. Like I've mentioned before a few recent events have happened with my family causing financial concerns, and $24/hr will not help very much, and is going to leave my take home pay at a very small amount for a travel nurse. Even though I knew the assignment in TX had a low pay I was willing to do it b/c family and friends were nearby. The financial issue came up within the past few days, and I need to do something about it which is why I want to go with my other option. I know I'm definitely putting the company in a bind, but guess what I'm not the first to do this and there are numerous nurses who have cancelled a contract for worse reasons. I do feel bad, but I also feel the last comment made about my unprofessionally titled topic was pretty irrelevant in itself. Now you're just choosing to vent out your frustrations rather than give me any helpful advice.

I had a job offer in TX, but unfortunately the pay was terrible. I hadn't seen pay that low since I was a new grad w/zero nursing experience. I toyed back and forth w/going ahead and taking the position or taking another assignment that was to become available and offer much better pay. I know it's not all about the money, but I was hoping to earn quite a bit to help out my family financially. The other offer I was waiting on went through a week and a half before my job was to start in TX. I left a voicemail and email for my recruiter, but she had already left the office for the long weekend. I took company housing, but now she's saying I may have to pay the 1st month's rent for the apartment, and was trying to push back my start date to October. She was almost trying to push for me to start later rather than just letting me go of the assignment like I wanted. I haven't signed my contract either, so I don't know if I'm bound to it or not. Another thing is I've cancelled at an apartment in Houston before for a personal emergency the week before I was to move in, and was told I could get out of it, but would just lose my deposit. Keeping my fingers crossed I won't pay out of pocket for anything. I just didn't know if anyone had this same issue before.

Hi there! I've got offers from separate companies regarding working L&D at St. David's North and Seton Main in Austin, TX. Curious as to what other's experiences there were as a traveler, and if one facility would be better to work at over the other. Any advice would be helpful so I can decide which company to go with regarding each facility.