Travel Nurse Eduation

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · May 2, 2015

I guess a little more info is needed. We know you travel- what kind of work do you do when you travel? L&D, ICU, M/S?

CardinalSyn · May 2, 2015

Everything? The needs of hospitals are so varied. To list a few: telemetry, ER, ICU, NICU, staff nurse, Nurse management. They want you to have 1 year of experience in a speciality and I've done telemetry the most prior to traveling. I have years of experience in several other fields as well.

Recruiters tell me all the time they have many nurses with education higher than a BSN, but I've never been able to get one to specify what exactly that means. One other TRN I've met pursued an MBA and she works almost exclusively as a management fill in. I do not favor or dislike any one field, with the exception of OB which is not my cup of tea.

elkpark · May 2, 2015

What do you want to do with a graduate degree? You say that stopping your education seems "counterproductive," but you say that you love travel nursing -- where do you want your career to go from where you are now? If you really enjoy travel nursing, do you need any further academic credentials? What else do you want to do, professionally, that requires a graduate degree?

Any graduate degree in nursing is going to cost you too much time, effort, and money to do it just for the sake of doing it.

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · May 3, 2015

If you want a highly paid career as a healthcare travel professional, consider obtaining a post graduate degree as a Cardiac Perfusionist.

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · May 3, 2015

I just met a bunch of traveler nurses who are coming to my hospital to assist with the transition to a new computer system. A few of them have masters degrees in Nursing Informatics so they can help nurses develop a new work flow routine when this program goes live. They assist with patient care, charting and navigating the new electronic health records. They even help the physicians in the transitions. They travel all over the country assisting with situations like these. Sounded like a fun job to me, and anything with computers will surely be in demand.

Good luck!

CardinalSyn · May 3, 2015

This sounds amazing, I have a computer science degree as well as my BSN and was considering informatics at one point. I may look into that pathway. Thank you for the posts everybody.

HikingNinja, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN, NP · May 3, 2015

I'm finishing my MSN ED this summer and then hope to complete a pmhnp and then DNP. My eventual goal is locum tenens with some online teaching in between. Have you thought about an NP degree?

NedRN · May 3, 2015

There are several "travel" nursing jobs that require graduate degrees or extra experience, typically in management. There are a lot of "travel" nurse managers, directors, and DON. These are more removed from direct patient care, although some nurse managers have a very hands on style. An MSN is also useful for nurse educators, but I've never met a travel educator outside of those who are introducing products or services for a private company. Infomatics also has a lot of "travelers", again, usually for private companies, as compared to working directly for hospitals.

I'm using quotations for "travel" as few of these jobs are traditional 13 week contracts. But they are contract work, and traditional benefits such as housing are often provided. Branching out as a private consultant working for yourself or a specialty company can come from some of these kinds of jobs in management or IT.

NPs have travel opportunities, usually in primary care. This can include ER, hospitalist type services, office, and urgent care. Some work in surgical services, second assist for surgeons and rounding on patients or preop. Probably some other areas I'm not aware of as well.

halfpastjune · May 29, 2015

Posting this here and elsewhere. Not wanting to take over this board, but I'm somewhat in a similar boat.

(NedRN, I love your posts because you always have the (rational) answers.)

Feeling way conflicted. I undoubtedly want to travel. At current, I have a BSN with cardiac telemetry experience.

Life goals are as follows:

Work as a traveling RN (as in, for the majority of my career, straight into retirement).

(However) I don't know that I'll be happy with acute care/bedside nursing forever (love it for now, though).

My heart is in public health, community health, cardiology, women's health, gerontology, and hospice, as well as research (Alzheimer's, epidemiology). Prob is, I don't want to give up the acute stuff too soon for the non-acute things.

I have the following decisions to make and need help/advice figuring out which best allows me to complete all that I want to do. I'm 35 now, I want to travel through my 30s-60s...

Would it be better to:

A) take a position in labor and delivery now, and delay the NP. Then I would have Cardiac and L&D under my belt.

B) remain in cardiac, go for the NP while it's still cheap and easily attainable. It would take 3-4 years, and traveling would have to be put on hold.

If I delay the NP, times will change, & most programs will have switched to a 5-yr BSN to doctorate. I'll get to travel, but I'll lose contacts in the way of MDs and NPs that can write my letters of recommendation, provide my clinical connections.

If I go for the NP now, I worry about what opportunities are out there in the way of traveling as an NP (*so I guess this line is the main point). I just don't want to be over-qualified in the sense that there aren't enough traveling NP jobs, and wind myself unable to take the BSN positions bc of the degree...

halfpastjune · May 29, 2015

And I'm looking at FNP, btw.

NedRN · May 29, 2015

Advanced practice is the future of healthcare. Not enough docs and doc cost more than double for the same work. I think the cheap education now is smart. It will be easier at your age than if you wait. My personal belief is that NPs are underpaid now but that that will change and your later career will be well compensated for your education now.

If you just want to chase money, you may do better with just L&D as a sole career.