Traveling Cath Lab RN

[Mmorgan1921]

I have been working in the lab at a small town hospital. At our hospital we rotate between both cath lab and IR. We have a 24 hour STEMI program and do most everything in the cath lab with the exception of rotoblader and other high risk cases d/t we do not have OR backup in house. We do pretty well everything in IR with exception of safari and cerebral interventions. I circulate and monitor cases, I do not scrub but I am trying to get the hospital to train me. Also thinking of getting RCIS. My wife is really wanting to be able to stay home with the children, so I am thinking of traveling for a few years before the kids start school. I was just wandering how much can I expect to make as a traveling Cath lab RN, and if anyone has any advise? Thanks.

[NedRN]

It is difficult to answer questions about traveler compensation as it is so different from staff compensation. Probably your take home pay would be the equivalent of $45 to $60 an hour fully taxed staff pay as long as you are careful with housing costs. Lots of ways to porifice compensation. Bill rates will be around $70 an hour depending on area of the country. Your specialty is one of the hottest, so your pay will be better than most travelers, despite the lack of experience in the most critical procedures.

Scrubbing is a plus perhaps, but considering the acute care that cath lab RNs provide, mostly you won't be scrubbing anyway. If I can be snarky here, as an OR nurse who does scrub and circulate, technique is pretty bad in the cath lab. It may not matter (infection rates may be fine despite technique), but the cath lab is not the place to learn good scrub technique. My last assignment we had to cover AAAs in IR prepared to open the patient so I had to do a lot of grimacing as the IR field was contaminated over and over again.

[dance4life]

I did Travel without scrubbing in the Cath Lab but, that was because it was the hospitals policy that you couldn't unless you were signed on with agency for a year.