Shady refernce but I NEED THEM. ADVICE PLS.

[ACyellowRoseofTX, ADN, RN]

I've been an RN for almost a year but worked similar settings as an LPN for 3 years. I'm very aware of all the opinions on low experienced nurses traveling.

An agency wants to send me on my 1st assignment mid-July. That's great but I need a good reference from my salty charge nurse. She is pretty much the only charge nurse I work with.

My situation is complicated by the fact that recently I had weightloss surgery, something that my charge nurses wants badly and is a process they have started but has had at start all over again due to not being able to have time off work. I was able to get uber amount of time off with breeze. She has very noticeably changed in her behavior towards me and has also asked me a few times how I was ale to get so much time off work but she wasn't able to. I'm sorry to say, but I do believe there is a level of jealously.

It also doesn't help that she also has a very heavy background in traveling. I feel in someway, if I use her as a reference, she is going to sabotage my trajectory into travel nursing. I do feel she would be very critical of me. I have always been highly critical of myself, although I know that I am smarter than I give myself credit for. I live in a small, hell hole of a city and I need to leave! I love what I do! I have endured different environments lacking in common technological advancments and in areas of scarcity where I had to come up with something quick and on my feet. I'm ambitious and I feel that traveling will give me more of a challenge and keep things more interesting in my life.

I'm set to speak to my charge nurse by phone this week.

I figured I could pre-warn my travel agent. I know that references mean everything but for those of you who have been in a similar situation as mine, how have you handled it with prospective employers and your travel agency?

[NedRN]

If you have handled the large responsibility gap (these days) between LPN and RN, you will do fine as a traveler. No offense intended, but some do have difficulty and you need to be on top of things as a traveler. The advice you have read (probably from me) are intended for new graduates without prior relevant experience, or changing to an unrelated specialty and taking travel assignments without proper grounding.

My stock advice is to always get written references. Then you know what they are going to say! And this is far easier for new employers to get than phone references and easier to verify. Take this advice into your travel career and keep a professional portfolio. If all you ever have is phone references, you don't have a professional portfolio that will assist you tremendously with new employers. Your agencies will not give you copies of phone (or written) references they get on you as you would be able to get a different agency easily. I try to get a reference after three weeks, and as many as I can before my assignment is up.

You can download a reference form from PanTravelers. Two available and both can be downloaded in an editable Word doc. Sign up for a free membership, go to resources, and then downloads. These forms are ideal in my opinion, they can be filled out in three minutes with you hovering nearby until it is done (if you don't, they are likely not to be done). Big tip, one sentence of narrative is worth lots of checkboxes so I encourage my referees to write something - I usually make a joking suggestion such as "shows up on time" (very important actually to hiring managers).

Right, back to your real current issue. Give your charge nurse a form (one of those downloads asks for your signature to confirm you have read the finished reference) and ask nicely. Tell her you were inspired by her travels and want to try/have the same adventure.

But don't limit yourself to her, you have more options. You have a manager and director, right? You may never interact much with them, but they do have a personnel file on you and it is part of their job description to write/give references. A staff nurse will do in a pinch but you do want to go up the food chain as far as possible. I work in the OR so I interact often with the manager and director - you may have to go out of the way to get to them.

Another suggestion: a physician you work with! Personally I think a manager reference is more professional but I have an ED travel friend who stocks his portfolio with the most amazing physician references attesting to his professionalism and skills. Works for him and he gets letters on stationary - I assume dictated and put on his desk to sign by staff.

Good luck! Don't start off on the highest paying assignment - that's a red flag. Instead, get one at a traveler friendly facility and unit well within your comfort zone or below for your first assignment. Even then, you will find it challenging. Don't worry about the money for the first few assignments, you aren't that competitive anyway until you have one or two assignments on your work history. Then you will know your own abilities at a new to you facility and can take tougher higher paying assignments if that is your goal.