When do you know it's time to travel?

[jzprple]

Hello all...I want some honest, straight forward responses here.

I've been an OB nurse since November 2005--I started in postpartum and then began L&D training in January 2006. So I'm getting close to a year of L&D experience and am dying to start traveling soon. For all kinds of reasons. I know everyone says get a year or two of experience before going which I understand. I am wondering though...does this mean I could maybe start an assignment in December or how close to my year do I need to be before I start talking to/working with recruiters? It seems that a lot of people on here have gone through multiple companies or recruiters before finding someone they "trust" but I don't want to waste companies time or my own time by getting my hopes up too early in the process. Help!

[bagladyrn, RN]

Unless you plan on working postpartum only, please do yourself the favor of staying where you are until you have the minimum of one full year in L&D under your belt. If you are in a large facility with lots of high risk experience this may be sufficient, but if you are in a low risk facility, or with a low monthly delivery rate, you may want to wait longer. I know this is not what you want to hear, but realize that as a traveler you are going to a facility that is likely shortstaffed and need you to be able to jump in and manage anything right away on your own. (Case in point - at one facility, an hour and a half after the FIRST time I walked on the floor I was in a crash c-section and then managing a full neonatal code -pediatrician not in house- and follow up until the critical infant was shipped! Very rare case, but would you be ready for that?)

Spend that extra time getting information from every one of the agencies you can, then sit down and compare what all of them are offering. Don't be pressured by any of them to accept something "right now". The jobs will still be there a few months later (trust me on that - the OB jobs have been steady for me for the last 10 years!) and you will be ready to enjoy the experience.