What is Travel Nursing really like?

[CCURN]

I am selling my house soon and have joined a travel company. I was speaking to a friend at work, who travelled about 14 years ago and she explained to me to horrors of travelling then

What my concerns are,

Will I have 3 really sick busy vented, IABP etc patients in the ICU. Will I get 8 or so Tele patients on days (with no help), and will the assignments that I get be out of my control. To be honest I am use to 1 to 2 patients in the ICU and 4/5 patients on tele (day/eves). Am I going to be in for a nasty shock. Also my friend mentioned that when you apply and interview for a job, the potential company does not tell you the whole truth about the position. Like the example above, I might get to work and have 5 vented patients. I find all this hard to believe. Even when working in the UK, we never got 3 vented patients, they were too sick. I am so use to focusing in on one or two patients, that I worry that I might let something slip, and my patient care might suffer. Perhaps I should know the real truth before I start.

Help?

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I only did traveling home health......sorry I cannot be of more help to you.......are you traveling to the states?

renerian

[CCURN]

Yes I am travelling the states. I actually live in Minnesota, but are leaving, travelling and then moving back to the UK..............

[rncopper]

I think it is more the facility than the company.

I have been in facilities that "dump" on travelers; others are VERY accommodating to them. Travelers may get worse assignments, but it seems to me that those hospitals, even the regular staff has really crappy assignments also.

When you interview with the hospital, ASK the all important questions: ratio, aides?, floating policy, etc.

Good Luck!