So you want to be a Travel Nurse

By TodaysNurse

Travel nursing has been developing into a popular career option for nurses. For those that aren’t familiar, when hospitals or healthcare clinics face staffing shortages or have a high volume of patients, they hire travel nurses to temporarily come in and make sure that patient care upholds the high standards of the hospital. The prospect of traveling across the country or even the world, all expenses paid, sounds more like a vacation than a career option.

Unfortunately, some of the hype has been glorified; obviously no vacation requires 36-50 hours of work per week. That doesn’t mean that travel nursing isn’t a great option and opportunity for certain people. If you’re currently in the process of evaluating travel nursing as a possible career option for yourself, consider the pros and cons of travel nursing against some of your own goals and personality.

Perks of Travel Nursing:

One of the most obvious benefits of travel nursing is the traveling itself. If you have a strong desire to travel the country, or sometimes even the world, this is a free ticket. In addition, when working with travel companies and recruiters, you often get to accept or decline offers based on your specialty or where you’d like to travel. This means that you will never be forced onto a unit or into a city that you are not eager to visit.

Another large perk of travel nursing is the monetary benefits. In most cases, your salary will include travel expenses and housing. If you are currently paying rent for an apartment, imagine how much more income you will have for spending and saving with free housing. In addition, travel nurses often make a higher wage than clinical nurses.

Finally, travel nursing may be a great way to explore your social and career options. If you find a city or a unit that you really love, there are often options to extend a contract. If you’d like to build new relationships, travel nursing is a fantastic way to meet people from different parts of the world with different points of view from yourself. In addition, travel nursing can develop your technical skills. If you are traditionally a cardiothoracic ICU nurse, but have agreed to work on an neurosurgery ICU unit, you will develop different skills that make you a better nurse overall.

Drawbacks to Travel Nursing:

Assignments range from a few weeks all the way up to a year. If you really like your experience at a healthcare facility, it can be challenging to pick up and leave. The average travel nurse contract is for 13 weeks; essentially the exact time when you’re finally familiar with the city, hospital, and comfortable with your coworkers. When you devote 40 or 50 hours per week with the same people, you are going to form some strong friendships. Leaving close friendships is always a tough thing to do. Conversely, if an assignment isn’t what you’d hoped it’d be and it’s a one-year assignment, the rest of that year will drag by slowly. You are required to finish any contract that you start.

If you aren’t good at forging new connections, avoid travel nursing at all costs. Travel nursing is a lonely beast. Imagine that you are thrown into a new city. You don’t know where anything is, and you don’t have any family or friends there. Will you thrive or cave into isolation? A natural introvert may be comfortable with this isolation.  A person with an outgoing, adventurous, and spontaneous personality will get out and thrive. However, a person who isn’t comfortable in their independence and isn’t overly confident will often be forced into a state of unnatural introversion. This can have a massively negative impact on mental health.

Self-Reflection is the Key:

It is absolutely crucial that you understand your own drives, motivations, goals, and personality before committing to travel nursing. Travel nursing is not a way to ‘find yourself’. You must understand yourself before committing to this type of task, otherwise you could harm your own mental health and well-being.

Ask yourself critical questions, and most importantly be honest with yourself. Why do you want to do it? Are you running from something? Are you trying to get out of a rut? Do you want to travel? Are you comfortable with leaving family and friend networks behind at home? What are your career goals, and how do they align with travel nursing?

How to Get Started:

You must be a registered nurse with at least two years of clinical experience to be considered (some companies only require one year). If you meet these qualifications, you likely won’t have any trouble finding a job. The challenging part is finding a recruiter and company that you trust with your time, future, and that truly understands your goals. If a recruiter at a nursing company does not take the time to get to know your goals, drives, ambitions, and personality, run away. Your recruiter is responsible for making your contract; that means benefits, weekends, hourly rate, time off, requests off, etc. If your recruiter understands what is important to you the most, they will argue for that part of your contract more. For example, maybe you want as many weekends off as possible to explore your new city, so you’ll take a slight hit in something less important to you like the health package.

Do your research, read reviews, and be honest. If you have questions for recruiters or companies, ask them. If you have demands, don’t be afraid to list them. It can be easy to turn into a ‘yes man’ when facing an exciting employment opportunity, but you will thank yourself later for being vocal during conversations with recruiters and with health care facility negotiations. Take your time, ensure a contract has your interests at heart, and happy travels!

 

9 comments on So you want to be a Travel Nurse

  1. Socorro says:

    Hello just wanna know. This is an International Nurses Association, do you accept a nurse registered from other country to apply as a travel nurse?

  2. I am a registered nurse and how will I join travel nurse?

  3. I appreciate how you mentioned that travel nursing is beneficial because you get to work in various places, allowing you to have a fulfilling career and see the world at the same time. My friend is thinking of pursuing a career in nursing, but she’s worried that she won’t be able to fulfill her desires to learn about other parts of the country and the world. I’m sure she’d really benefit from finding a travel nurse staffing agency that can help her find meaningful jobs wherever she’d like to go. Thanks for the information!

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So you want to be a Travel Nurse

Travel nursing has been developing into a popular career option for nurses. For those that aren’t familiar, when hospitals or healthcare clinics face staffing shortages or have a high volume of patients, they hire travel nurses to temporarily come in and make sure that patient care upholds the high standards of the hospital. Read more here.

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