Travel questions

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Hello! I'm graduating nursing school soon and I'm really interested in becoming a travel nurse. I want to know from experienced travelers out there:

1) What type of nursing expertise is most valued as a traveler---like who get the most assignments? My interests are L/D, Peds, OR/PACU, NICU, or med/surge. Not sure if experience in one of these fields is better than another.

2) Also, is one year of experience enough to travel?

Thank you!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Moved to Travel Nursing forum

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

You're better off with 2 years experience minimum in my opinion. Your just starting to get your feet wet at 1 year to be honest, and you will be a more appealing candidate with 2 years under your belt.

I hear L/D and PICU are up there in demand, less so M/S. ICU staff I hear tend to get floated a lot to tele and stepdown in addition to working ICU so they frequently work outside their comfort zones.

You just have to see how you feel after a year. Travel nursing is hit the ground running with 2 days orientation to the floor.

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Specializes in Peri-Op.

OR, ER, Cath LAB, L/D and all ICU specialties do not have much issue at all getting assignments. I am OR and can pick which city I want to go to, if it is a big city there will be multiple assignments. Even in small/medium sized cities there seem to be more than one assignment available.

If you are working med/surg, 1 year. Specialty areas, 2 years. I think it is hard to get a grasp for most on things you will run across in big hospitals if you only see something once in a 6-12 month period. When you are in a smaller hospital you just don't get the exposure. When you are learning during your 1st year in a specialty you are kind of over run with info and you forget more than you think you will.

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The higher level of training you have, the more valuable you are. Medsurg is entry level and entry level jobs will always have a lot of competition. You might be able to get by with one year of medsurg before traveling, but not other specialties.

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