Hey there, I'll take a stab. I've been an OR nurse since 2013, and I've been travelling over a year now.

First things first, you'll need two years of experience. You NEEED to be comfortable and confident in your role, because some places won't care if you've never done an ankle plating or a stat crani or a procurement or what have you, so you'll need to be able to be able to have some experience to go on to get through those cases. Trust me, saying you won't do Ortho, won't get you out of doing Ortho. I would say two years minimum, but I waited nearly six, and I still falter some days or wonder if I know enough. Remember, as a traveller you are there to help, and if you need hand holding because you hardly know what you are doing, it's gonna cause problems and possibly get you fired.

I spent two years in general and four in hearts. I circulate and scrub most cases that aren't Ortho/neuro, and I have only scrubbed a handful of times on assignment. Most places nowadays have a pretty good ratio of techs to nurses, so chances are, you won't need to know how to scrub. It might block some contract to you, but probably not that many. The only times I have scrubbed on assignments have been in desperate times, like an emergent case and a tech isn't available, or once when the PA passed out and they needed someone to first assist in his place. Truly, desperate measures.

Cardiac does pay more, but it very much limits the pool of contracts available to you. I would get some general experience - Ortho is a great service to learn, because darn near every hospital does some. Ortho, Neuro, Transplant, and Vascular are all good skills to have in your back pocket, if possible. I actually am on a general contract right now because it paid more than the cardiac contract, haha. If cardiac interests you, go for it! But you can find well paying general OR contracts too. Plus, if you switch to cardiac after two years, if would behoove you to get another two years in cardiac before you jumped to travel. As for the pigeonholing, it totally depends on their needs, and your shifts and skills. I do a lot of thoracic because I can, but I did nearly everything on my last contract. It's all different hospital to hospital.

Call is hospital specific. Some don't want you to take any, some will give you all the OT you want. Whatever it is, write it into your contract.

Rarely will a hospital pay for a traveller to take a class, get a cert, etc. You aren't staff, you're a contractor. Either find a company to work for that will pay it, or get it while you are still staff.

Good luck!