5 Considerations for OR Travel Nursing
Operating room (OR) nurses work closely with patients, surgeons and other members of the healthcare team before, during, and after operations and other invasive procedures. The demand for OR travel nurses is consistently high. However, there are several factors that OR nurses should be aware of in order to properly manage a travel nursing career and set expectations.
Operating Room Travel Nursing Job Outlook
OR nursing made Healthcare Traveler’s list of the 7 most in demand specialties for travel nursing. Agencies routinely have a backlog of unfilled OR travel jobs which is an indication that demand continues to outrun supply. Moreover, there’s evidence to suggest that this trend will continue at least through the foreseeable future.
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According to the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN), there are two trends poised to drive future demand increases for OR nurses. First, the average age of OR nurses is 53 and 25% of OR nurses plan to retire within the next few years according to a survey of AORN’s members. Second, AORN asserts that there is a growing number of ambulatory surgery centers in the country and a trend toward more office based operations. They believe that these trends increase demand for OR nurses and will continue to do so for some time.
Experience Requirements for OR Travel Nurses
OR nursing is a diverse field. Jobs may require scrubbing, circulating, or both. They may require experience with specific types of cases like eye surgery, ear/nose/throat, or cardiovascular surgeries. They may even require experience with specific types of equipment such as the da Vinci Surgical System. As a result, the qualification requirements for OR vary greatly.
Due to these specific requirements, OR nurses should pay special attention to their submission profiles to ensure that their skill sets are depicted thoroughly. Pay special attention to the Skills Checklists you complete to ensure that they allow you to assess your OR skills comprehensively. If a skill set is missing from the Skills Checklist, then be sure to add it somewhere on your application or resume.
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Also, do your best to find out what specific employers are looking for and highlight those skills prominently on your application and resume when applying. While these are useful tips for all travelers, they are particularly important for OR travelers.
OR nursing is also highly specialized. As a result, hospitals often maintain higher minimum experience requirements for OR nurses than they do for other specialties. The standard minimum experience requirement for travel jobs is 1 year of experience within the last 3 years in the specialty applied for. While experience requirements are sometimes higher for all specialties, a higher percentage of OR travel jobs require 2 or more years of recent OR experience.
License and Certification Requirements for OR Travel Nurses
BLS and ACLS are standard certification requirements for OR travel jobs. As for all specialties, it is highly recommended that these certifications be obtained through the American Heart Association (AHA). Very few employers will accept certifications from other organizations and virtually all employers will accept AHA certifications.
As for all travelers, it is highly recommended that OR travel nurses obtain a state RN license prior to seeking assignments in the state. The vast majority of employers now require that a state license verification be provided in order to even consider a candidate for an open assignment. Their concern is that delays or denials when applying for the license will result in delayed or cancelled assignments. Therefore, it’s important to formulate a plan when determining where you want to travel as an OR nurse.
There are several other certifications that are often required for OR jobs. For example, PALS certification is often a requirement. Many operating rooms perform procedures on both adults and children making PALS certification a necessity. Meanwhile, a small percentage of OR jobs require a CNOR certification. And if you’re a First Assist OR nurse, then facilities are increasingly requiring a CRNFA certification.
Travel Nursing Pay for OR Travel Nurses
OR is classified under the specialty bill rate in virtually every agency/hospital contract. This means that OR bill rates are in the category of specialties commanding a higher bill rate. The difference between the standard rates and the specialty rates is typically between $2-$8 per hour, but it can be higher in some circumstances.
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Bill rates for OR vary widely throughout the country. They can be as low as $54 per hour and as high as $77 per hour. You may even find some bill rates outside this range. Crises bill rates for OR can sometimes be as high as $83 per hour. As you can see, there is no general pay range that can be provided for OR travel nurses. This makes it very important to understand how pay packages work in order to negotiate the best compensation packages.
It’s important to note that hospitals offer OR travel nurses completion bonuses and crisis bill rates more often than the average. This is due to the fact that it is often more difficult for hospitals to find qualified OR nurses than it is for them to find other specialties. This means that travel nursing as an OR nurse can be more lucrative than average especially if you know how to land the highest paying travel nursing jobs.
On-The-Job Issues
There are some on-the-job aspects of OR jobs that OR travel nurses should be aware of in order to properly set their expectations. First, a much higher percentage of OR jobs require 8 hour shifts. Many operating rooms maintain standard business hours so their team members must do the same. You will certainly find assignments with 12 hour and 10 hour shifts, it’s just that there is a higher percentage of 8 hour shifts for OR travel nurses.
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Second, OR jobs often require call. This means that the OR nurse must be available during some of their off-hours to accept call-in requests from the facility. On-call bill rates are typically between $3 and $12 per hour. So agencies typically pay anywhere from $2.50 to $10 per hour for the nurse’s on-call hours. Additionally, it’s common for the call-back bill rate to be a little higher than the standard bill rate, so make sure you consider this during your contract negotiations. In any case, you’ll want to make sure that your contact includes clauses specifying the on-call and call-back rates.
OR is a great specialty for travel nursing. There are plenty of assignments available and the bill rates are solid. However, due to the highly specialized nature of the field and the various experience and certification requirements, many OR nurses may not be able to qualify for all of the available assignments. This reduces the pool of available assignments. In this scenario, OR travel nurses may need to maintain a higher degree of flexibility in order to maintain consistent employment as a travel nurse.
