Work2Live

The best way to "travel" in Florida is as a seasonal nurse. I have found that Southwest Florida has the best rates ($50 or more plus differential as well as a completion bonus). I recently interviewed for a seasonal position in Fort Lauderdale. The nurses have 4-6 patients (more on the weekends because of inevitable discharges...of course, that doesn't mean that you won't receive a couple of ED admissions) and the nursing assistants have...WAIT FOR IT!...15-17 patients on a surgical unit. I am currently traveling in WI and I have 4 patients and my nursing assistant has 4-6 patients. I have been traveling for five years and I would recommend that you work for the facility paying the most money.

I have been a traveler for five years and I recently received the following e-mail from my agency: Cash in on the final days of your assignment this summer with this awesome new bonus opportunity! Earn a $250 bonus for every extra shift you work outside of your normal contracted hours now through the end of August. I have worked for four different agencies in the past five years and I have never heard of anything like this. Any thoughts as to why they are offering these bonuses? Are there that many facilities with chronic staffing issues?

Thanks, again. I am a certified orthopedic nurse. So, I use that to my advantage when trying to secure an orthopedic assignment. As for the morale, I had nothing to do with the comments made by the other orienting traveler. Her contract DOES say no floating and that's her business to sort it out with the facility. I cannot fathom why a facility would agree to that, but, considering how poor the communication seems to be between the agencies and the facilities, I imagine that they simply don't look over the contract closely enough.

Thanks for the input. I always appreciate your advice, NedRN. I hate to say it, but I'm not looking for a challenge. That is the primary reason why I stay in orthopedics. Spine surgeries and total joint replacement are pretty routine from a nursing perspective. I don't like surprises. I also like that many orthopedic surgeries have positive outcomes. I guess that I need to simply view each shift as 12 hours that separates me from my bed and my personal life. Again, thank you for the input.

As a certified orthopedic nurse, I try to ONLY work in orthopedics. I started a 13-week assignment this week at a well-regarded orthopedic hospital. As a traveler, I know that I will have to float, but I do not want to float more than once a week. Otherwise, I wouldn't have accepted the assignment. Any advice or thoughts on floating when you DIDN'T sign up for a float assignment? Another new traveler proclaimed aloud yesterday that her contract states that she doesn't float. The walls had ears and the manager and director called me today saying that they heard secondhand and thirdhand that I made that remark. I corrected them, but it makes me concerned that I'll be floating the majority of my time. Thanks.

There is a lot of good information here. However, I do advise you to include information regarding your family in your cover letter. First off, it is irrelevant. It only becomes relevant if you are offered an interview and, for example, need to work certain days because of childcare, etc. I also recommend that you do not mention anything that indicates that you belong to a "protected class," including race, creed, religion, color, national origin, etc.

I am beat after a long shift of working with challenging M/S patients and not enough resources. So, I'll keep my response short and sweet. Your concerns and feelings are valid. Don't take too many of these responses to heart. A lot of these nurses are evidence that nurses eat their young. If you're not happy in the ER, try a different specialty. Perhaps sit down and write out the pros and cons. Also consider your long-term goals (in nursing as well as in life). I sincerely wish you well. I have been a nurse in A LOT of different areas in the past nine years and I am plotting my escape. There are too many hurdles in nursing as we approach 2016. Life is short. Be happy.

I was a registered nurse before earning the MPH in 2011. I worked in epidemiology for the Florida Department of Health briefly. They needed a nurse for my position because of employee health-related responsibilities. Once I left, they decreased the annual salary from $50K to $40K, hired an individual with the MPH and no clinical background or education, and shifted those aforementioned responsibilities to the other nurse in the department. I highly recommend that you go back to school for nursing. It will allow you to work in any one of our 50 states and it will open a lot of doors. I regret earning the MPH. It opened the door to lower-paying opportunities that require you to work five days a week. Um, no, thanks. The MPH is valuable if you would like to become an administrator. If you do pursue the MPH, focus on either biostatistics or epidemiology. The other tracks tend to be a lot of intuitive fluff.

The beaches are MUCH nicer on the Gulf Coast. :)

I have been a RN for 8+ years in M/S and I was offered approximately $26 per hour in SWFL. 5 years of experience will DEF get you less than $30 in Tampa. Where are you in New York? I have worked as a traveler in a couple of hospitals in the upper and lower Hudson Valley.

I worked three seasons as a seasonal nurse (December - April) in SWFL and I recently completed a travel contract in Sarasota. Florida does not pay well (relative to many other parts of the country). IF you're interested in relocating to Florida, I would highly recommend that you try a seasonal contract (anywhere from 4-6 months). The flat rate (i.e. no health insurance or housing) is $40-45 per hour in SWFL. I know that Sarasota Memorial Hospital (5:1 days, 6:1 nights; Magnet hospital) hires seasonal nurses too. If you have a good relationship with your current employer, remain PRN and work there when you're not working in Florida. I know several nurses that do that.

As a traveler, I will no longer be "on call" for less than 50% of my hourly rate. My time is too valuable. I will either work or be called off...or simply not work for that organization.

I have worked at NCH in Naples as a seasonal nurse for a few seasons. They paid $44.32 for days and $49.32 for nights as a flat rate (i.e. no health insurance or housing). Housing is VERY expensive here during peak season. I have also worked as a traveler Sarasota Memorial Hospital, a Magnet facility. Housing is cheaper in Sarasota.

It is not WHAT you say, but HOW you say it. Grammar and spelling counts too.

I am currently working at a hospital in SWFL. If the patient census is low, they occasionally will put someone on call (versus calling them off) from either 7a-1p or 7p-1a. This has happened to me twice in less than a week. I earn a whopping $2 an hour to be on call. Has anyone ever negotiated a higher on call rate? Is it reasonable to ask for 50% of my usual hourly rate? I work as a med/surg traveler. I never paid attention to the on call rate because, well, I've never been on call. I have better things to do than sit at home for 6 hours for $12 (minus taxes). Thanks!

Great post! I have been a RN for eight years and I have done a variety of things - full-time M/S staff, travel, research, health insurance, and public health - and I have yet to find my niche. I am looking for something that it less stressful than the bedside, but still reasonably challenging. I am back traveling for the flexibility and money, but the stress of learning ANOTHER EHR/EMR and their logistics is becoming too much. I am considering PRN bedside AND PRN home care and working when I want to work. Sadly, there are very few part-time opportunities in my neck of the woods. It's either PRN or full-time.

SWFL: 5:1 days (8:1 for aides), 6:1 nights (11:1 for aides), charge typically does NOT have an assignment, but days is starting to have 1 patient and nights may have a full assignment, unit clerk from 7a-11p; often 10-15 postops M-F; IMO, ortho is staffed better because it's a $$$ maker for the facilities (and the orthopedic surgeons usually do NOT stand for lackluster staffing)

Thanks for the heads up, MsConstrued! A couple of my agencies had M/S (ortho) assignments in Seattle, including Swedish. Reading these posts reinforces my desire to do this work for the HIGHEST bidder.

NedRN will inevitably weight in, but I ALWAYS ask for my weekly net take-home pay before I accept an assignment. The one piece of advice that I have is, if you ultimately enjoy traveling and plan on continuing to do it, explore the various hospitals in that vicinity and consider a seasonal assignment. You can earn a flat rate closer to $50 per hour (no housing or health insurance). I would think that there would be seasonal needs for physical rehabilitation nurses in Florida. Good luck and enjoy your first assignment!

I have a couple more thoughts: 1) Learning Spanish is very helpful in community/public health both domestically and abroad (as is French). 2) Emory's Rollins School of Public Health has a good resource for community/public health employment opportunities: Public Health Employment Connection - public health jobs and resumes Either scroll through the opportunities or select "Search" to the left and type "nurse" under "Position Description."

While theRNJedi has a lot of experience and that most of her advice is valuable, I think that she could have been a little more empathetic (the use of the terms "melodramatic" and "wrong" was irresponsible for a nurse manager trying to erase the notion that nurses eat their young). While you are a new nurse and "only" a 22-year-old, sjh4120, it IS possible for you to know what you want from your career. Bedside nursing is not for everyone and you do not need to feel guilty if it is not for you. The best advice that I can offer, as a nurse who has worked in a variety of settings, including inpatient (full-time and travel/seasonal), nursing research, health insurance, and, currently, epidemiology at a county health department, is to continue orienting on the medical oncology unit, BUT to start looking for a community/public health nursing opportunity. Your county or state health departments are a good place to start. If you possess an adventurous spirit (and I hope that you do!), I encourage you to explore the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (Public Health Nursing: Recruitment) as well as the Indian Health Service (Career Opportunities | Indian Health Service (IHS)). I earned a graduate degree in public health and my primary job responsibilities include employee health and communicable disease investigation. I use VERY few of the skills that I acquired at the bedside. Instead, I am acquiring and utilizing a different and new skill set. If you decided to stay for three or six months on the medical oncology unit, I highly recommend that you pursue an internship with a community/public health organization. Take one eight-hour day and volunteer at a non-profit STD/HIV clinic (there is a CDC training for HIV counseling and testing). It may lead to a full-time opportunity! If you are concerned about "losing" your clinical skills, consider staying long enough on your unit to transition to per diem (that may be 9-12 months). The trade-off working in many community/public health environments is that you typically do not have to work on weekends and it is significantly less stressful than the inpatient setting. However, you will earn less than your bedside colleagues. The world is your oyster...just be smart and strategic! I recognize that you were trying to help the OP, theRNJedi, but your post elicited a visceral response from me. I always wonder why being a reliable and competent nurse is never enough anymore. Instead, one has the "wrong...attitude" if they do not want to earn their master's degree and participate on committees. As the economy continues to improve, more older nurses will either retire or transition to part-time/per diem positions. As more and more nurses earn the BSN and/or pursue graduate degrees, there will be even fewer bedside nurses. I agree with you, laflaca. The hospital will DEFINITELY take care of itself. They make business decisions at the expense of employees all the time. It is important to make the best personal business decisions for yourself, sjh4120!

My recruiter approached me with a M/S opportunity at Eisenhower in Rancho Mirage. Does anyone have any input on this hospital? I Love the Palm Springs area. It wasn't on my radar for the summer because of the heat, but my partner expressed an interest. He'll probably leave me in the desert! Ha!

I possess both the BSN and MPH. I am currently employed as a community health nursing consultant at a county health department. I work specifically in epidemiology. My primary responsibilities include employee health and reportable disease/condition investigation. I have worked both as a graduate student and as a volunteer in STIs/HIV/AIDS. If you are interested in remaining in a clinical role within a county or state health department, I would recommend either the MSN or NP. However, if you are interested in an administrative or managerial role, I would recommend the MPH. Regardless of the master's degree that you choose, it is becoming increasingly necessary in larger markets if you want to advance your career. It can also be used to negotiate a higher hourly rate or salary. Please keep in mind that most health departments operate Monday through Friday and, if you live in a part of the country susceptible to natural disasters, you will be called upon to respond to them. I am enjoying learning about unusual infectious diseases (including Ebola and measles), but I find that working five days a week (and a fair amount of down time) is NOT for me. So, I may return to the bedside...in, out, and DONE!

It is VERY possible to earn $50K in six months as a seasonal nurse in Florida. Of course, you will have to work an extra shift every other week. I have worked for three seasons in South Florida and, if you start as early as possible (i.e. October), you can often extend your contract an additional month (and maybe not work as much overtime). I earned an average of $45 per hour (night nurses earn an additional $5 per hour). The biggest challenge in seasonal communities is finding affordable housing. However, there are a fair number of apartment complexes that have short-term 3-7-month leases. So, I suggest that you secure a 6-month contract, get a 7-month lease, take two weeks to settle into your new town/city, find another travel nurse to rent a room to for 3-4 months, and enjoy the last two weeks of the contract on a cruise. THAT'S how it's done!

Thank you for your input, juan de la cruz and core0. I really appreciate it. As I mentioned in my original post, I have no desire to see patients with a variety of diagnoses (i.e. CHF in one room and COPD exacerbation in the next). I think that other members misconstrue that comment to mean that I dislike patients and, as a result, I should be sitting in a cube somewhere. I really enjoy interacting with patients, but, after eight years as a nurse, I have realized that I do not want to spend twelve hours with patients. Considering that a lot of my bedside experience has been in orthopedics and that I am a certified orthopedic nurse, perhaps I should consider that specialty too. I am at a crossroads in my career at this time. I am struggling with what I want to do versus where my experience and education have been. I recognize that I will have to work full-time for a year or two before I feel confident in my skills, but my goal is to work either as a contracted NP or part-time. I have a very supportive partner and, fortunately, at a higher hourly rate (as compared to the bedside), I do not need to work full-time.