Reasons to Consider Travel Nursing
Personal and professional growth-not to mention a chance to explore the country-are awaiting nurses who decide it's time to give travel nursing a try.
Now is the perfect time to reconsider, reconnect with your dreams, and realize that as a travel nurse, you could have both: the adventure of travel and the career rewards of nursing.
With the nursing shortage deepening, health care facilities nationwide are scrambling to fill vacancies. Many are turning to travel nursing companies for help-and that could make you a hot property. You know what you have to offer in travel nursing; maybe you're wondering what travel nursing has to offer you. Here are just a few reasons to consider becoming a travel nurse.
Expand your skills and knowledge base
Travel nursing makes nurses better nurses. No matter where you work, you'll be exposed to different ways of looking at nursing practice and you'll acquire new skills and knowledge that will put some muscle into your curriculum vitae. As a travel nurse, you'll have access to a variety of assignments around the country, from small rural hospitals with only a few beds, where you'll be a jack-of-all-trades, to large urban teaching centers, where you can specialize in the nursing area of your choice. Each experience helps you grow as a nurse: At one hospital, for example, you could be learning the latest technique in negative-pressure wound therapy; at another, you could be mentoring staff nurses unfamiliar with this technique.
Take control of your career
Feel as if you're stagnating in your present position? Tired of the hospital politics? Travel nursing may be the perfect opportunity for you to get a needed change of scenery, literally. You're in the driver's seat as a travel nurse. You have the freedom to decide what you want your next assignment to be.
Shop around for the atmosphere that you want. Perhaps you'd like to gain experience working with sophisticated, high-tech monitoring equipment or exposure to advanced, cutting-edge procedures your current position can't offer. Or maybe you're attracted to the slower pace and greater patient contact that a smaller hospital could offer. Working with your recruiter you can tailor your assignments to meet your professional goals and personal preferences.
You can even use travel nursing as your chance to try a different practice setting. If you've always been a hospital based nurse, for example, you could ask your recruiter to look for an assignment in an ambulatory care center, a skilled-nursing facility, or even a managed-care organization. The flexibility is liberating.
Benefit financially
Pay scales for travel nurses are comparable to-and in most cases, even better than-staff nursing positions. Plus, as a travel nurse, you have the opportunity to earn bonuses for completing your assignments, for recruiting other travelers, and so on, depending on which travel nursing company you sign with. One hospital in California, for example, was willing to offer a hefty bonus for travel nurses who would work over the Christmas holidays. On average, a travel nurse can expect to earn 10% to 15% more than a staff nurse, factoring in bonuses and other incentives.
Benefits are attractive too. Medical and dental insurance coverage are pretty much a given. From there, the benefits vary by travel nursing company and may include 401(k) and matching contributions, free housing, travel reimbursement or a travel allowance, various types of insurance (such as life, disability, and professional liability), free or low-cost continuing-education courses, and licensure reimbursement, among others.
Broaden your children's horizons
Have children? Not a problem: Recruiters are willing to accommodate just about any situation, including finding housing suitable for travelers with children. As a result, many travel nurses take their children and their spouses with them on the road. The experience can be invaluable for the children, helping to expand their viewpoint. They have the chance to explore the country in more depth than they could on the typical family vacation, plus they can interact with people from different cultures, something they might not get to do in their own hometown.
Don't want to move your children around during the school year? You can still be a travel nurse. You could request an assignment with an easy commute, say, in the next county or in a bordering state. Then in the summer, when the children are out of school, you can take to the open road.
There's no question that travel nursing will test your mettle and help you grow, both personally and professionally. With just a few days' orientation at each assignment, you'll draw on the confidence you have in your nursing skills and adapt quickly and efficiently to new situations in your new environment. You'll challenge your perceptions and open yourself to new experiences. And along the way, you'll make memories that you'd never have if you'd stayed at home.
Finding the Right Travel Nursing Placement Agency
Despite all these advantages, many nurses describe that they’ve shied away from the traveling profession. Why? Because bad experiences with placement agencies have left them with nothing but a negative impression. They’ve been underpaid or lacked benefits, and I can’t tell you how many nurses have complained to me about inadequate housing or recruiters who were unkind, uncaring, and just plain unavailable. The sad result is that nurses end up jumping from one agency to the next, always in search of the perfect package that’s never there.
In this light, choosing the right staffing agency requires a nurse to consider everything that is offered. Some nurses emphasize pay as their top priority. Others require an excellent benefits package. Many travel RNs are location-specific and want to experience the lifestyle in the country’s hot spots. Career flexibility is often a pivotal factor, along with customer service. The bottom line is, your agency choice depends largely upon one of the four following criteria.
Salary
No question about it, there are some agencies that offer more money than others. So the first thing to remember is that agencies may base salaries upon things like location availability, need-to-fill assignments, and cost of living.
Some agencies must offer noticeably higher rates if they expect to fill certain assignments where nurse-to-patient ratios are very low, or where a facility has extreme patient needs. If you’re a nurse who is attracted by very high dollars, be alert for a potentially desperate situation you might be entering, and the workload it could bring. You may make more money, but you’ll earn every dollar and more.
Location also factors into salary. The California bay area and many larger east coast cities definitely offer more lucrative pay rates. It’s also much more expensive to live in those places, so recognize the relationship that exists between salary dollars and cost of living. I’ve seen nurses return from Hawaii saying they had a great vacation and made a lot of friends—but their purses were lighter, not heavier from the experience. You might get less money in an exotic location and come back with more money from a not-so-exotic location. My point is, your criteria will determine your priorities.
Benefits
What some companies may lack in salary, they make up for with benefits. Many agencies offer benefits programs that revolve around monetary bonuses or discounted luxury housing; and we have even observed a trend with several newer companies that offer entirely free housing to all their nurses. Take note, however, that those agencies may not ante up the really high salaries. It’s a trade-off, so they compensate you with benefits to save you daily, monthly, and annual expenses. Every nurse should be aware of what benefits they need the most, and then ask their recruiters to assist in developing a package that is tailored to their individual needs.
Customer Service
To many traveling nurses, customer service and aid are the most important attributes a placement agency possesses. If you called ten agencies and only talked with one live recruiter, it’s probably best to narrow it down to the agency where individual placement specialists were easily available. After all, if you’re ready to proceed with a new assignment you’ll want an agency that can make it happen fast and has recruiters available who already understand your criteria. In fact, your criteria may change from one assignment to another, so customer service is paramount. Determine what you want and then find out which agencies can make it happen.
Locations
While for some nurses, salary, benefits, and career flexibility might be the number one interest, many others just want the obvious—to travel and see the world. If you’re an adventurer who cares more about the travel experience than the money, then you’ll need an agency that can offer you the locations you want. Not every agency can send you just anywhere. Figure out where you want to go, and then call around to discover who can send you there.
A travel nursing career is absolutely one of the best, most rewarding choices any nurse can make, but it’s important to select a company who will partner with you every step of the way. Before you jump in, do your homework and research all the best placement agencies. Finding the agency that fits your unique wants and needs will drastically increase your chances of success and happiness in your career.
