blackeyedsusan

I just finished an ICU float assignment at Wake Forest. You did the right thing! That place is crazy! Every unit does things differently - almost like working in a different hospital every night. And I heard from other nurses that the med-surg floors are even crazier. They float their own staff to any unit at any time, so you can imagine what they do with travelers. I'm never going back there. And if you're not comfortable floating on your first assignment (which is totally understandable), don't feel bad about it! There are plenty of other assignments out there.

I always say, it's amazing what you can learn to live without for 3 months! Always makes me want to clean out my closets when I get back home again.

I've been an ICU nurse for almost 5 years, and traveled for the last 2 1/2. My experience when I started traveling was similar to yours. But when you're a traveler, you generally don't get assignments that include balloon pumps, CRRT, Swans, or even EVD's. The exception I found to this was at my last assignment at Wake Forest in NC - ended up having patients on CRRT and with Swans. But this was the first time in 2 1/2 years that I encountered that. Be honest about your experience, but also confident in the skills you have. And don't be afraid to ask for a different assignment if something is going on with the patient that you're just not comfortable handling. And ask, ask, ask questions, even about things you think you know - policies and procedures that you're used to at your hospital might be completely different at another hospital.

California always, always, always has assignments. Most people I've talked to love it out there. Maryland, Virginia, Texas and New York are pretty consistent, too. (I did an assignment in Houston, and didn't have any problems with staffing ratios and I was treated just fine. Texas is a big state so there is a lot of variety.) You didn't mention if you have a compact license, but if you do, I would start in a compact state to get the feel of traveling without investing a lot of time and effort in new licensure. (FYI, Maryland tends to pay pretty good, is a compact state, and always has something going on in the Baltimore area.)

There are pros and cons to any profession. One of the things that drew me to nursing was the endless array of possibilities - I can work in a hospital (which includes everything from the OR to the NICU), outpatient center, home care, surgical center, hospice, long term care, physician office, management, health department, schools, etc. Nurses are pretty much always in demand. Any city I go to, it's basically guaranteed that SOMEBODY will be hiring nurses. Rad techs and RT's are more limited in their options. I might get some angry eyes from RT's for this next statement, but nurses have more responsibility. It's just the nature of the beast. RT's are focused primarily on the cardiothoracic system, but nurses are responsible for the whole patient. Don't get me wrong, I have worked with some awesome RT's. But I've also had plenty of shifts when, if I had left it up to the RT, my patient would have had significant complications. Part of this is because the RT might be covering several units at once. (Although I still think that when you work in ICU, you should see the RT more than once in a 12-hr period, no matter how many units they have.) I've heard RT's say that the reason they didn't go into nursing was because they can't handle cleaning up poop. The biggest complaint I usually hear from rad techs is that they can't be in 2 places at once (maybe they're shooting stat XR's in the ED and ICU is calling for a chest xray because they just intubated somebody). Another thing to consider is why you want to go into health care in the first place. Do you want to take care of people? Be a nurse. Do you like technical skills, anatomy, and less responsibility? Be a rad tech. Do you want to be an expert on ventilation and perfusion? Be a respiratory therapist. One last note about nursing: You're pretty much responsible for everything that happens to your patient, whether it was in your control or not. If a CT scan wasn't done when it was ordered, the doc is not going to call and yell at the rad tech. He'll yell at the nurse for not making sure it got done. If a patient didn't get their breathing treatment or didn't go on their BiPap machine when they should have, it will be the nurse's fault for not calling the RT. If the labs aren't drawn, the medications are wrong, etc., it always seems to come back to the nurse. I love nursing, but there are days when I wish all I had to do was show up to work and go take some x-rays.

You might want to check out Shortage Designation: Health Professional Shortage Areas & Medically Underserved Areas/Populations There are government programs that agree to pay significant amounts of your student loans in exchange for several years of work in a medically under-served area after you graduate. I don't know a lot of specifics, but I believe it's available for NP, PA, or MD. Definitely worth checking into - I'm going to get some more information for myself as I head toward NP school. Good luck!

Frontier University looks like a great school...I would be applying there for FNP but they can't admit students from Maryland.

Not stupid at all! I know many nurses who chose nursing as a second career and already had other degrees. My favorite piece of advice is to get your ADN first - then you can start working as a nurse, make a decent salary, and then finish out your BSN completely online. I know there's a big push for nurses to have their BSN, but the patients couldn't care less and (in general) your coworkers won't either. ADN's are just as competent as BSN's.

Surgical/Trauma will probably feel more similar to what you've gotten used to in the burn unit. Since you're a new nurse, I think this would work in your favor. But like jamisaurus said, you need to think about your goals. If you've dreamed of going into pediatrics since day one, then by all means head to the NICU and see how you like dealing with those little tykes. But if you're just looking to get out of the burn unit (which is the toughest ICU I've ever floated to - I know I couldn't even last 4 months), then I would suggest trying surgical/trauma. You'll still get plenty of ICU excitement, but without the 4 hour dressing changes and screams of pain from the tank room.

Thanks for the input! I have heard so many good things about WGU and I was hoping some Capella students would weigh in, but I have a feeling WGU is going to win my vote anyway.

Thanks for the info, meanmaryjane. One question I haven't asked my advisor yet - suppose I need some time off in between the six month sessions? Do you know if I can just pop back in at any time? I'm also wondering what your experience was with the practicum for the BSN. What I've heard so far doesn't seem like it would be too complicated but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

I'm researching online RN-BSN programs and basically have it narrowed down to two: Capella and Western Governors. I've gotten a lot of helpful information about WGU from that particular thread, but I haven't seen as much about Capella. I've spoken to an advisor and we did an unofficial transcript review; with the discounts offered through their ANA partnership, I'm looking at $15,711. (Yes, they were that specific.) So the price is right. I guess my biggest question is, does Capella have a good reputation in the higher education world of nursing? I don't want to end up in the same category as University of Phoenix, which I understand is, shall we say, considered subpar when it comes to nursing education. At this point I don't have any plans to continue on to a MSN or DNP, but I want to keep my options open. I would hate to put in the work for a BSN and then down the road, have somebody say that it doesn't carry much weight because of the school I chose. Maybe I'm reading too much into this - is it even that important for a BSN? As long as the program itself is CCNE accredited, that should be enough, right? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your response, NedRN. I just got a call from the housing department and they are switching me to the housing in Arlington without me paying extra. Yay! I live about 3 hours away from DC, so I'll be using a fraction of the allotted travel reimbursement. They're going to borrow money from that to pay the extra housing. For future reference, what is the best way that you have found to secure your own housing? I've looked online in the past and, short of rooming with strangers from craigslist, I haven't been able to find anything within my stipend.

This is my third travel assignment and my first one with Cross Country. I'll be starting in DC next Tuesday, and just found out about my housing yesterday. Turns out they put me in Alexandria, VA - which can easily be an hour or more away from the hospital, with traffic. My other option was to stay a little closer, in Arlington, but she said I would have to pay an additional $118 per month because it was "over their budget." Has anybody ever heard of something like this? I called my recruiter and complained that I shouldn't have to pay $118 to have housing within a decent commute time. That was yesterday; I'm still waiting to hear back from her if she was able to do anything about it. The biggest reason I switched to Cross Country was because I wasn't happy with the commute times American Mobile was giving me - also averaging an hour. I thought about taking the stipend with Cross Country, but it was only $1,600/month. In DC that will get you a broom closet. I don't understand why it's so hard to get housing within a decent commute time. Does anybody else have this problem?