Staff Nursing vs Travel...Pro's and Con's

ColetteFL · Oct 24, 2006

Hi, I saw that noone had replied to your question, so I thought I would respond, however you may not like the answer!

Most agencies, travel or otherwise, will not take a new grad. They want 1 or 2 years experience as a staff nurse in a hospital. And even if there was an agency that was desperate enought to take you, you should turn it down in your own best interest. You have too much to learn, and you need a good orientation. A travel nurse is expected to be able to "do it all". School can only teach you so much. The rest is learned on the job, and the learning never stops. Give yourself a break, find a good staff postion for a year and just consider it a continuation of school - only now you're getting paid!

suzanne4, RN · Oct 24, 2006

i agree with the poster above, if you find an agency willing to take you as a travel nurse as a new grad, run as fast as you can from them. they are only concerned with filling a job slot and not your license. if you notice from many posts here, most orientations are six weeks long for a new grad, or something similar. with a travel position, you get essentially no orientation, perhaps to learn their computer system, you are already expected to have the skills behind you and be able to jump in. that is the reason for the travel nurses and agency nurses, to be able to jump right in and fill empty slots that the facility has.

get a year to two years of goof solid experience behind you, where you feel comfortable with what you are doing, then look into travel nursing. anything less, and you are short-changing yourself.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Oct 24, 2006

another post agreeing that you shouldn't expect to travel as a new grad! get some solid experience before attempting to travel. if it takes you more than a year or two to get good experience in the specialty of your choice, then it's time well spent.

while my opinion of new grads in icu and er is that they need to get some med-surg experience first :), if you want to travel as an icu nurse or an er nurse, take the time to get some good icu or er experience. a large, teahing hospital will offer good orientation and good experience. if you want to travel as an icu nurse, and the only icu experience you have is in a small community hospital that sends all of its sick patients to the city hospital, you're going to be in way over your head!

if your major objective is to travel, just get some good med-surg experience and travel as a floor nurse. but nothing says your first staff nurse job has to be near home -- if you really want to travel, go to some city you've always been fascinated by and get a staff nurse job there to get your two years or so of staff nurse experience! i went to boston early in my career and loved it! (not the job so much, but the city.) it was 1000 miles away from home, and everything was different -- the food, the culture, the climate.

get some med-surg experience on the east coast, then move to the west coast to get icu or er experience. or move from the northwest to the southeast, or from chicago to new york, or whatever interest you. just because you aren't ready to travel yet doesn't mean you can't move every couple of years!

good luck in your new career.