Travel nursing need advice!!

Specialties Travel

Published

I need advice from anyone who has been a traveler and can help me out! It has been almost a year since I've graduated and it's going on 8 months since I've started working as a nurse! I currently work on a surgical trauma unit and have ALWAYS been interested in traveling nursing. It is one of the main reasons I've decided to become a nurse. I thought I should wait until I had at least a year experience before applying to places and since my year is almost here I've decided to start researching now! I want to go with the best company that is going to offer what is best for me. I've heard stories of people who work for traveling companies that have screwed them over so I really need people's honest opinions on what companies are best to work for! I am looking for international, west coast assignments.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the Travel Nursing forum

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I don't know what is best for you, only you know that. There are hundreds of travel nurse companies, and every one of them has long term travelers who think their company is best for them. Start having some conversations with companies and you will learn a lot. Perhaps even change your mind about what best means for you. Bad news... You need more experience. You might even consider a specialty before traveling.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Step-down and ICU.

It is best to pick 2 or three companies to travel with for more opportunities. I have worked for RNNetwork and Supplemental Health. Both are very good to me and I just go with what openings are available and pick the one that I want. It also offers you some room for negotiations!

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You might want to gain more than a year experience since most facilities specifically list nowadays at least 2-3 years of current experience in your specialty.

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Yes, the companies I work for want 2 years experience, some also want 1 year travel experience as well.

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Specializes in Multi-disciplines.

Travel assignments aren't as abundant as they used to be; therefore agencies/hospitals can be more picky about the travelers they want. I would recommend that you obtain 2 years of experience prior to traveling because they want you to hit the floor running! To give you an idea of what my last assignment was like, they gave me two days of 8-hour computer training and no orientation on the floor. I walked in for my first shift and had to figure out how to use new IV pumps, blood warmers, telemetry monitors, and to figure out the paging system without very much help from my colleagues.

I applaud you for starting your research early! The more you read the better. I think if you searched hard enough you could find an assignment with one year of experience, but that would not be ideal. You should question the facility that would hire a traveling nurse with one year of experience. I think that would raise red flags. Just be careful and don't let recruiters run you over or bully you.

Good luck! :)

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Specializes in Nephrology.

That's about the extent of all my orientations, and they keep getting shorter and less informative. It's imperative to have more experience.

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