[TexasStork]

Hi everyone,
New to travel and to this site. Need some help. I have been a RN 13 years. Moved to LA area last year from Texas. Have been working for a very large, busy L&D dept. We deliver 650 babies a month. I have 3 kids that are 7,4,and 3. My job is very physically demanding. Needless to say I am a tired girl.

Just got an interesting offer from a local travel company to do local travel assignemts.With what they offer, I could be bringing home about $3500 more monthly with the housing stipen that they pay. Am I crazy? Why haven't I done this before and why aren't more nurses doing this? Can you tell me the advantages of doing travel vs. permenant position? Are there really that many disadvantages to travel work?

Open to all suggestions and advice. Looking to start first assignment mid August. Look forward to hearing from you.

Texas Stork

[lia01reg]

where abouts in LA were you? Do you recognise anywhere in the LA gallery here?

Travelling in Thailand

[MissJeanne]

Hi Texas:
I am a nursing student at the local hospital and exactly what you are talking about is about what half of the nurses are doing. We have a local hospital, then another 40 miles away, beyond that, we have to go to Vegas - 100 miles away for travel work (some drive).

The pay is usually much better but our hospital pays you DOUBLETIME for doing a 4th shift if you are an employee, so I suppose this may keep some from making the switch.

Congrats and good luck

[Cameron]

Well, been traveling for about 5 years now. Sadly, all in the same area. So I haven't ventured very far ... yet. Although, I will say this. You are not crazy, and travel nursing does paay very well, Especiallyif you are graduate nurse. Any grad with a yrs exp, that feels comfortable, I recommend jumping ship and traveling. Altough, in your position you have 3 children. The one major drawback I have foun for families is that travel nursing Health care SUX. Example, I wound up with pneumonia one christmas. Ended up paying approx 1,000 bucks outta pocket for chest Xrays and meds/visits to the emerg. care facility i wa going to. Now 1000 buks seems like a lot, and your right its a chunk of change. Although as a single male with little Health care needs it was a drop in the bucket. Although, with a family , and if I was the only health care coverage, ravel nursing would kinda make me think twice. From what i have seen the coverage provided by Travel companies is there for emergency/big happenings and tend to have a high co-pay. Where hospitals tend to cover nurses very ell and tend to have very minimal copays for meds/dr appts. I guess the point being that if you or any of your children are someone who spends a lot of time jumping to and from the Docs office you will end up paying a lot of money outta pocket. Aside from that, the only other downfall travel nursing has is no paid vacation or sick days. If u miss work, you dont get paid. For me being a healthy, single, male very little draw back. Although for some this can be a PITA (Pain in the ass). If you have access to say a husband or wifes insurance plan to cover you, and are someone who like to work and not play hookie then travel nursing is 100% for u. Just because it says travel nursing also doesn't mean you have to run across country to work. Been in central NY for 5 yrs and never driven more then an hour to a work facility.
Hope this helps!
Cameron

Also missJ. You can find travel assignments that pay double time for anything over 36 hours. I have yet to find it worth while for any grad with 1 yr exp to stay as staff. As a begining traveler I was making $45 an hour(housing included for 36 hour/wk). There is no 1st yr nurse making that kinda cash, excluding maybe big city. Although, I was making more then a 20yr exp nurse at that time and more the a Med/surg NP that i worked with. If you have a friend and wanna make the cash you can bank together. Just find whos offering the most, work double time for overtime in the contract and GO!

[SoldierNurse]

TexasStork, this is a rather dated Thread. Can you give us an update on what you ended up doing?

[Nurse Rep]

What was the outcome... have you been traveling. There's some really good information at Nurse Travel Jobs if you're srtill interested...

[onetraveler]

Originally Posted by MagRedC5

TexasStork, this is a rather dated Thread. Can you give us an update on what you ended up doing?

TexasStork: One message, last activity 06 June 2005. I have a feeling the OP might be loooooooooooooooong gone?