Too soon to travel?

mtnNurse., BSN · Jan 30, 2019

If you feel competent in your abilities and are ready for the stress of jumping into new places with unknown work environments and to hit the ground running, then go for it! Some agencies won't hire you because they want at least 2 yrs, some 3 yrs experience, but there are agencies out there who only require 1 yr.

I am not a travel nurse and only have 3 yrs experience, so I would be interested in how an experienced travel nurse would advise you.

mtnNurse., BSN · Jan 30, 2019

HouTx in another thread wrote this helpful info:

Quote
Organizations are paying top dollar for people that are supposed to have top-notch skills .... that's how these types of workers are marketed. The hospital provides a minimal "orientation" (fire & emergency procedures, location of critical equipment, bathroom, etc) but should not have to do any additional training.

NedRN · Jan 30, 2019

You might be confident, but why would a manager pick you over someone with more proven experience, especially as a traveler? Not competitive with the field. If you are willing to start travel on crappy low paying jobs, then sure, it will work. Keep your staff job until you have been confirmed, and have a Plan B (sign up with several agencies) if that falls through after you have resigned. If possible, take a leave of absence or see if you can shift to limited PRN requirement.

AdventuressRN, BSN, RN · Jan 31, 2019

4 hours ago, NedRN said:
You might be confident, but why would a manager pick you over someone with more proven experience, especially as a traveler? Not competitive with the field. If you are willing to start travel on crappy low paying jobs, then sure, it will work. Keep your staff job until you have been confirmed, and have a Plan B (sign up with several agencies) if that falls through after you have resigned. If possible, take a leave of absence or see if you can shift to limited PRN requirement.

As always, you give great advice Ned. I don’t expect to make top dollar. I am doing it more for the experience; the money will come eventually. I plan to keep a prn job while traveling. Also, I will attempt to apply to the hospital I worked at while in nursing school for my first assignment. I am familiar with the hospital. Hopefully, it’ll provide a somewhat smooth transition into travel nursing.

NedRN · Jan 31, 2019

Good plan. Absolutely project a confident attitude, but don't oversell it. Managers have lots of experience with confident newer nurses, and that group (typecasting here so don't take it personally) can be scary on the job. It is much more reassuring to a manager if you tell them you will seek help when needed.

HiddencatBSN, BSN · Feb 26, 2019

I’ve been a nurse for 8 years and I just started my first travel assignment and I could not imagine being able to do this if I weren’t more than “competent in my skills.” Like, I’m “frequent preceptor and reaource Nurse” level and think it’ll be ok but just barely. Our orientation is the hospital P&P and 2 days with a preceptor so you really need to know what you don’t know.

HiddencatBSN, BSN · Feb 26, 2019

Also you want to consider that experience is not just exposure to different conditions in a state if the art teaching center but also being able to manage complex assignments with poor resources. The place I’m traveling at is like stepping back 25 years in to the past in terms of workflow and infrastructure and if I was only used to state of the art teaching infrastructure this would be very hard.

Swellz · Feb 27, 2019

Preach, Hiddencat. I thought 3.5 years experience was enough, but I went from a major academic center to a community hospital, from oncology to ED holds/float, and from one "culture of medicine" (from the northeast to Florida, lol) to another, all with my first contract. I didn't know what I didn't know. I would have done a lot better if I'd seen more before I set out as a traveler.

Not to say you can't succeed, just that you aren't as prepared as you could be.

sorensic, MSN, RN · Feb 28, 2019

Swellz and Hiddencat make very good points.

I don't want to discourage you because only you can know what is best for you. The difference between academic centers and smaller community EDs can be quite shocking. They are completely different types of ER nursing.

At 1 year of ER experience, I would say you are just beginning to become proficient at your own hospital's work environment, and you are just entering the "real learning" phase in ER where you start to learn what you don't know.

I remember year 2 to 3 of ER nursing was my largest area of growth. Entering year 3, I can really step back and analyze the big picture. I started to study for the CEN exam this year.

There is also a lot to be said of the experience of working in both a large academic ER (level 1/2 trauma) versus a rural or small community hospital ER. The learning curve between the two can be dramatic enough for a regular full time nurse nurse who commits to working in one for at least a year and then transitions to the other for at least a year.

Depending on what environment you work in, the challenges are just different. I just worked in Canada in a rural ED after working in a larger hospital in the US and we did not have any respiratory therapists to help us. Imagine jumping right in and being expected to manage your holds/admits who are ventilated with no RT and still churning through all of the triage level 4 and 5 patients who are not critical-- with a ratio of 1 nurse to 6 patients.

I highly recommend taking the Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) exam prior to doing an agency assignment as it will solidify where your knowledge gaps are. It will also be a way to shout out to hospitals that you take your specialty seriously despite your lack of experience.