Travel Nursing as a New Grad

Specialties Travel

Published

HI there,

I am going to be a new grad here soon and really considering travel nursing. I am curious as to how this all works and the ways to get in to an agency. Anything information would be really helpful and any suggestions as to which agency offers the best deal for new grads.

Thanks!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

I would question the sanity of any travel nursing agency that hires new grads. Travel nurses get one, maybe two days, of orientation to the facility EHR and a unit tour, then they are on their own. A new grad cannot do it. Period.

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No agency offers a deal for new grads. Get a few years experience in a hospital unit, and then you can be a master travel nurse.

You need to be competent enough to be independent.

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Yeah no. If we had a brand new travel nurse in the ICU making heaps more money than me while I pretty much train them I would be P*SSED.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

Please get some experience first, not only for your sake, but sake of the patients... you want some experience/skills under your belt, While being a "traveling nurse" sounds cool, it can be very challenging , even some seasoned nurse find it difficult adjusting at times. Just my opinion.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the travel nursing forum

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Usually the minimum experience is 18 Mos or 2 years. But you want to be confident in your nursing skills to even consider it. Like dudette10 said they only get a couple days orientation.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Our last traveler had 10 years experience and got 2 days of orientation. After that she was expected to take a full assignment. OP- travel nursing is NOT for new grads. Sorry.

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Yeah no. If we had a brand new travel nurse in the ICU making heaps more money than me while I pretty much train them I would be P*SSED.

Travel nurses make just about exactly the same as staff. The hospital pays big bucks for them, but the agency gets the additional fees.

Certainly agree that a new grad should not be traveling, in an ICU, or require staff training. But THAT'S not gonna happen.

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Travel nurses make just about exactly the same as staff. The hospital pays big bucks for them, but the agency gets the additional fees.

Certainly agree that a new grad should not be traveling, in an ICU, or require staff training. But THAT'S not gonna happen.

A few of our travel nurses were making well beyond what we make plus all of their stipends for housing/car/food etc even with years of experience accounted for. I was pretty surprised.

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Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.

Travel nurses are called in for instantaneous temporary staffing. The hospital is usually short staffed and will expect you to hit the ground running and fill the position without much investment on their part. As a staff member working with a travel nurse I expect them to know their stuff. There may be a few idiosyncrasies about my particular hospital to fill them in on but they better know their nursing or they are no help to us. Plus you have to have that extra ability to get along and not criticize the house where you are a guest.

Sorry, not the job for a new grad. (Unless you are an ADN with 2 years nursing experience and just got a BSN but is that really a new grad?)

What happened to the four year program you started in Sept 2014?

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So Original Poster, I think you've probably gotten the point everyone is making here.

I was planning ahead for when I would do travel nursing even back at the end of nursing school too. Although I had the knowledge (common sense?) that I would need at least two solid years of full time dedicated learning in my specialty unit before I could even consider traveling, and that's if you're a fast learner. I know some nurses that are 5 years out of school and still don't feel ready to travel yet.

If you want to work in a low acuity area that requires more of a task management mindset and less of advanced patho and specialty equipment proficiency (like ICU, ED, OR, L&D) you could try your hand at just over one year of experience. I really only recommend this if you're a fast learner and just want to do low acuity med surg patients, even then it's a toss up if any agency or hospital would touch you.

Good luck to you and while you're getting your experience go ahead and dream/plan for where you want to go, places you'd like to see.

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