Jackie B wrote: Hello fellow nurses
I am an RN have been for over 28 years and was an LPN for 4 years before that. I work in PACU or Recovery Room to some. I decide to travel a little over a year ago. I took positions in Austin Texas, Charlotte NC and Ft Pierce FL. Traveling is not for everyone. Depending what area you work in depends if you can find positions where you want. There are limited positions in PACU. 50 for all 52 states and 3/4 were on the night shift. I am licensed in compact states and Florida so I have 20 some to choose from.
Every position I took I had drug testing and background checks that needed to be done. My 1st travel position I had 8.5 hours and pre-testing to do on the computer before arriving. This was your general orientation. Accucheck certification, fire and safety etc.
I have found for myself doing this every 3 months and having new computer charting, new equipment, new policy and procedures that I need not to be traveling. I loved where we went and being able to see the country.
After a little over 1 year we have parked our RV. I accepted a full-time position at a hospital in Austin Texas and my husband has found work at the campground we are living at. He is a network engineer by trade but as we travel he could not find work. In Florida he applied for over 30 positions and the only job offered to him was BELOW minimum wage at Wal-Mart cleaning bathrooms at night. So we both are happier settled in one spot.
Let me know if I can answer anyone questions
Jackie
As I've had all these months to think about it, I think I will just stay put where I work for now. I've found that I make more money where I am than what I would traveling for the most part. I would REALLY love to travel and see the country this way but for now don't want to go backwards in pay. If you count free room and board or a stipend for living, I would make more than I make now, but I already have a paid for house here.
We'll probably just take extended trips at least once a year, small trips in between, until our work life slows down, then maybe more. Good thing about living....you always tweak your ideas for the future.
Anyone have a Nursing Compact License? Am looking at Full time RV travel but will still have to work. Enjoy travel nursing but don't want to have the 10 licenses I had in the past. Hope to have two. One in Florida (non compact state) and one more. (Compact state) Any suggestions for the state??? Had my first license in Iowa and still have family there. Could purchase a home there but then would have to pay Iowa income tax. Have heard of South Dakota as the "RV Home State" but don't know much about it. Then I would have to obtain a SD Nursing license. Don't know how much they would need a travel nurse there, especially in my specialty. Any information appreciated.
The wife has been a traveling nurse for 2+ years. We keep debating whether to "settle down" (we're still in our 20s) or enjoy our lifestyle for at least 4 more years (that's when we'll be 30). We have always joked about living in a RV, so I typed "travel nursing in motorhome" into a google search...and what do you know! All of your information is very helpful. I just want to clarify a couple things:
What are peoples' average camping fees per month (from CA, to WA, to CO, and FL)?
How often do you get stuck with an assigment because where you wanted to go didn't have a RV camp nearby?
Best coach (used or new/under $70,000): A,B,C? I'm leaning towards a Class C Four Winds Toy Hauler.
Anyone RVd while working in the Seattle area?
Thanks and maybe we'll see you on the road.
KeptMan
I have been reading about the compact license states. I am in Maine and have had a license here since 1970. Apparently, I can work in any of the compact license states without having to get a license there with reciprocity...I did that years ago when we lived in Vermont. But, I understand that if I lived in one of the non compact states and got a license in a complact state, that license would only be good in that particular compact state. So, how does somebody get around that? Do they actually have to move to a compact state, establish residency, and then get licensed in order to use that license in other compact states. It is all quite confusing.
Why not just a USA license? It's crazy. It must be a territorial thing with the individual State licensing boards.
I consider myself retired but I maintain my license "just in case". I really woulnd't mind doing some per diem work in a doctors office or other outpatient clinic setting. Maybe when gas is $7 a gallon, I can earn it working as a nurse. I sure as heck don't want to give up camping!!
Wife has a Compact State license, and an Oregon license, and an Indiana license...no problem. If we go to a "non compact" state, then she'll get another license.
I am a registered x-ray tech actually beginning school for an LPN. Are there also travel nurse jobs available for LPNs? I plan on continuing for my RN while on the road through distance learning, (Excelsior?) I have most of my general credits for the Associates for my RN, but don't want to spend the additional year tied to my sticks and bricks. My husband is retired and ready to go..so an additional year for the LPN program was a compromise.
Hi, I'm gasolinegypsy. I'm a retired LPN, but did travel nursing for 12 years. My favorite travel nurse company is Professional Nursing Service out of Salt Lake City. they were wonderful to me. I even had a home health assignment there and lived in my boss's basement. For some reason they can't seem to get many LPn assignments. Most of the other companies I travelled with have gone out of business. You might try the Right Solution, Medical Express, Nurses RX, or Mobile Travelers. Part of the time I used my RV and wished I had done that the whole time. Good luck. My email address is gypsyinark@yahoo.com and my name is Barbara
Heading back North today. Got up way too early to start up the diesel and hook up the trailer, so here I sit at the computer. Guess I must not have clicked the subscribe part after my last post. There were a few that I had not read. Thanks for the replies.
I have enjoyed the assignment with the RV, now all I have to do is find the right one for me. Am still checking into the Compact license thing too. Contacted the board of nursing in S.D. and they said I needed to own "real property" in the state, to qualify as a resident and then I did not ever need to work in the state to keep a S.D. nursing license, and could use it as a compact state license. Think I will check out an inexpensive lot somewhere in South Dakota, anyone have a source?
For Keptman, daily rates for an RV spot range from $20.00 per nite to $50.00 from what I have seen. "Season" rates are always higher and finding a spot during "Season" can be difficult. Look at as many RV's as you can before purchase. Rent one for a weekend to find out if it's big enough. I got luck and have a brother who bought a 5th wheel toyhauler a couple years ago and let me rent it this winter. I now have a better idea of what I need and want to have in my personal RV. Now if I could just be in my 20's again.
Hi Rhonda,
I responded to your last post also. My wife has been traveling for the last 2+ years and loves it. I asked her the other day if she wanted to stop and settle down, she just about freaked out. I think she something about getting my own house and if I was nice she would stop be and see me once a year.(LOL)
We are having a blast and will be doing this for a long time. Some of the things said here were right and some things sounded not quite right.
You do not have to continue to work straight through your life or lose insurance. You can pay for extra month or two, at least my wifes company if she wanted more than 30 days off.(doesnt matter to us since I am retired military and get it there)
I beleive that you can only get tax free travel and living money if you own a house and pay more than 250$ a month for upkeep. We just get it added into her hourly wage because we fulltime and the saving is not that much.
The wages you earn are more than any 20 or 30 yr nurse in that hospital.
What we do is she interviews for a job and then says she will accept but if we can not find camping in the area we cancel. She tells them that during the interview and her recruiter calls to let them know. It has only happened once in the two years we have been trying.
I am retired navy so I have a retirement check coming in but really I just love being the house*****. That is what loving my wife calls me(I hope! LOL) and she really hated me having a job this last winter.
If you PM me we will call you or I will give you our phone number and you can call us. It would take six pages of typing to give you all the good and bad. That goes for the others that wanted info too.
Jackie, sorry you did not like traveling. I wondered why your website stopped being updated. We were ones that referred you to Lindas recruiter.
Our website in www.wanderingwileys.com I am still working it. I have been working on it for two years. Its changes every 6 months or so because it is my hobby more than anything. But pics from the places we have been. In two years we have been to Maine, Florida, Washington, Arizona, and Vermont. The most fun have been the month or so we take off between. We would have never been able to see all the things we have if she was working fulltime at one hospital.
* This post was
edited 05/22/08 02:43pm by Gary&Linda *
Gary & Linda
2006 Coachmen Sportcoach Cross Country DP
2006 Jeep Liberty
Offline
