Getting started: psych travel :)

[ponderthescribe]

Hiii! I am so excited to post my first question on AllNurses!

I am very interested in psych travel nursing. I am just rounding my first year of experience as a psych RN with daily experience as charge on a fast paced medical detox psych unit. I am looking/hoping to start traveling in December (once I am closer to a year and a half). So I was hoping someone would be willing to answer a few questions for me :)

A. How plentiful are travel psych posistions? I am so worried that I will move away and get a psych job and my contract will end and then I won't be able to find a job again! More specifically really, how plentiful are travel psych posistions for

B. For any psych travel nurses out there: thinking back to when you were working as a permenant staff member at a hospital (or whereever) before you went into travel nursing. How safe do you feel now, in comparison? I work in a freestanding non-profit hospital now where we can have aggressive codes all day long and then none the next day. As a psych travel RN, will I always be walking into the most dangerous situations imaginable? It's not that I am afraid per say, I just have this idea that Psych is a specialty that would vary greatly from state to state, more so than in other specialties; honestly I feel a little nervous about that.

C. Does anyone have any agencies they would like to recommend for a newer psych nurse looking to travel. Better even still, the name of an agent within that agency :) If you don't mind, what is it you like about your agency/agent specifically?

Thanks so much in advance :)))

[NedRN]

Psych has relatively few nurses so travel assignments are relatively scarce. But there are enough to keep you working steadily, you just won't have the choices available to say an ER nurse.

Bigger agencies will work better for you. Cross Country is the really big one I would recommend. Supplemental (which is also now rather large) was founded by a psych nurse and takes a particular interest in psych. Worldwide was founded by ex-Supplemental personnel and also takes an interest in psych.

[ponderthescribe]

@NedRN Thanks so much for your response. I hadnt considered Cross Country, but I'll definitly look into it. And I had no idea Supplemntal had a psych history; really cool! Have you worked with Supplemental or Worldwide? I feel like I've heard mixed reviews on Supplemental and not great things on Worldwide. Any thoughts personally (if thats not too personal a question)?

[NedRN]

I think any of the agencies mentioned will be OK to work with. I haven't heard the negative reviews you have, although all agencies get bad reviews eventually, bigger ones get more. Just human nature. The gripes about Supplemental are often because they don't supply housing. I have worked for Cross Country (plus personal friends who worked for the others), but I don't really recommend agencies as being good. I'm better at steering travelers away from bad ones. Generally, I suggest having at least five agencies you are fully signed up with and those are agencies with recruiters you communicate well with (normally more important than the agency brand). However for psych, you probably would have to triple the number of smaller agencies to stay busy. That is why I actually named some agencies to try that are more likely to have psych.

American Mobile would have psych assignments too as they are the largest agency (bigger than Cross Country even), but they have had some bad business practices recently (sending travelers who never signed a contract out for collections) so I'm currently discouraging travelers from using them. But if you cannot find good recruiters at the other agencies... There are some midsized agencies you can try as well. Perhaps Emerald, Valley (a little smaller, but great reviews), Medical Staffing Solutions (the Indiana based one), perhaps RN Network.