Travel nurses

[CFrancine, BSN, RN]

So I do acute dialysis in a hospital based program and wanted to start traveling. Thinking it would help my experience and maybe keep me employed if I wanted to stay local, I recently got a PRN job with one of the big two doing acutes. I thought it was a great opportunity and I truly wanted the job.

Well... I just found out there is a a strict rule that I can't travel to anywhere associated with them for at least 6 months after leaving the company (And the recruiter said they won't bend on that at all). I found out they have their own travel division so I called them. They gave MAYBE since I'm only PRN if my DON signs off and I am filling a critical need elsewhere. I'd also have to completely quit the PRN gig to be rehired as a traveler.

So a few question:

1) Did anyone else have trouble finding work with this type of restriction with the big two when starting to travel? I think the fact I do acutes is probably my hurdle, there seem to be more chronic centers. My recruiter said the further out I'm willing to travel, the less this is an issue. But I wanted to be able to drive home to do my PRN requirement (2 days a month).

2)How would you handle this in to not burn any bridges? I actually wanted this job as my fallback because I know they'd hire me full-time in a heartbeat. I've been there less than 6 months so it's far too early to just leave. Should I keep my mouth shut and try to work it out? Or talk to my manager and see if she might be flexible with the requirements (like if I can't do the hours one month, as long as I make them up we're good). Or even the DON and see what her feelings would be, maybe she'd be OK with signing off after a certain a amount of time to be a traveler for the company.