Advice for traveling nurses
June 7, 2009 by Rn2b
Filed under Licensed Practical and Vocational Nurse (LPN/LVN), Travel Nurses and Travel Nursing
The best advice I can give to nurses coming into a new city on assignment is to join a league or some type of activities club in the area. I joined a basketball league when I went assignment up in Portland, and now that I am in San Diego I participate in Vavi Sports-which is a local social sports club. You make local friends easily, plus get some exercise and invitations to social events.
For me, when I want to make some money (fast) I always get an assignment with a state that either has a compact license with a state I already have a license in, or I go on assignment in a state where I can do a walk through to get a license.
States with walk throughs that I know of include: California, Maryland, Arizona, Washington D.C., South Carolina, Missouri and Hawaii.
Use yelp.com to get tips on restaurants, salons, entertainment venues, bars, outdoor activities, etc…..
I really recommend it. Better than most city guides out there.
The cost of an RV is quite significant ($100,000), but right now is the time to buy because of the recent fluctuation in gas prices and the economy a lot of people are selling them. Your camping cost per night is about $30. Also, insurance is about 2% of the cost of the RV per year. Depending on the state you purchase your RV in you will have to pay sales tax and the RV depreciates rapidly, hence, it is just like most new cars. In summary we figured it would cost us about $2,500 per month to live in an RV (this price includes everything we mentioned above plus fuel).
Many new nurses have choosen to purchase used RVs for their travel nursing gigs, and have had a lot of success with it.