AmberRose222

Hello everyone! I am a RN with approximatly 3 years experience in Neuro-Trauma step down nursing, EMU step down (seizure), Vascular Step Down, and Med-Surg/Case Management Home care experience. I have also just excepted a casual position in the Emergency Room, which I am super excited about! Let me begin by saying I absoultly love nursing! I could not imagine doing anything else with my life. However, I sadly made significantly more money as a bartender/waitress, As a single mom of 3, I need to put a plan into place to make ends meet as my oldest son will soon be heading off to college I was thinking of possibly doing travel nursing. I was wondering if anyone has experience in travel nursing in PA. My questions are.... 1. Is health insurance available only while you are on an assignment? For example, if I have a two week break between assignments, will I have no coverage for me and the kids? 2. Also, any idea what the housing allowence is in PA? I am hoping this can assist with rent for us. even if it means I drive a few hours to and from assignments. Thanks in advance for any advice/answers!

Thanks so much for everyone's advice. You all have definitely helped me in my decision. I am going to try to take a position on a med-surg first. Where I am locate there are plenty of nursing positions available and I don't think I will have any difficulty. At Joanna73's comment....I was not implying that OR nurses are not as busy. What I ment was it seemed as if it was a different kind of busy. Like everyone mentioned, I was concerned about not getting the experience and skills down pack if I limit myself to the OR at first. I have had rotations in the OR, ER, NICU, ICU, OB, Oncology, Med-surg, telemetry, and neuro units. The impression I got from OR nursing was that the anesthesiologist was responsible for more of the patient care an monitoring than the nurse. I very well could be wrong. I love the patient care aspect of nursing and helping people. So I don't believe the OR is somewhere I would want to stay forever. And yes this specific hospital does hire new grads for the OR with a 6 month orientation. Thanks again to everyone who responded! Have a great day :)

Hello everyone! I just graduated nursing school about 3 weeks ago. Think I have a pretty good chance at landing a position as an operating room nurse. I had the opportunity to observe a fee surgeries while in nursing school and I got the impression that the RN really wasn't as responsible for as much as say a floor nurse. Being a new grad I really just want to take a position that will give me a great bit of experience. The OR does sound like a wonderful start I just would hate to take the position and regret it due to not having enough hands on learning in this crucial time. Thanks in advance for any one who can offer advice or suggestions ?