So you want to be a travel nurse? Here's what you should know

So you want to be a travel nurse? Galavanting from state to state, making good money, and having great flexibility right? Well although it is a GREAT job, it’s not all unicorns and rainbows 🦄 🌈 But if you are flexible and adventurous it truly is one of the coolest professions ever! Here’s 5 things you should know before coming a travel nurse.

1. Research, research, research!

There is a ton of information to try to absorb before taking the plunge to do travel nursing! What company do you want to go with? Where do you want to go? How do you find housing? Can your pets come and how hard is it to take them with you? How do you make money?

Luckily these days there are a ton of resources, most notably groups on facebook. You have to be added to these groups but they are worth their weight in gold. Some of the admin of these groups have even be so kind and helpful to actually have compiled files for such topics as housing, hospital reputation, taxes, travel companies, etc.

Helpful Facebook Groups

Traveling the Country, One Hospital at a Time (around 15 k members currently) This one has those files I was telling you about!! This group also has a subset of groups that are area specific, like Traveling New England One Hospital at a Time and Traveling Florida, One Hospital at a Time which makes it nice as well if you are looking for one specific area or to meet up with others in the region!

Travel Nurse Network – The Gypsy Nurse over 106k members, so a wider array of resources from all the members

Insider pro tip:

Use the search function relating to your question. For example, looking to see if someone has experience in the same hospital that you have a potential job offer from? Search the hospital name, city or both. You will usually find some helpful information and whatever you don’t find, feel free to post a question and ask!

2. You have to adapt quickly as a travel nurse

Most travel nurses get around 2-3 days of orientation on average. Some a little longer depending on the hospital and if they want you to do their own specific hospital orientation (I try to avoid these like the plague haha, when you change jobs every 3 months orientation gets monotonous and boring REALLY quickly).

But regardless once you are on the floor/your particular setting, you are expected to be ready to go in 3-4 days. That means absorbing the new computer system and charting, learning your way around the unit, and your new coworkers are all done in a hurry! So you obviously need to have experience in your field before doing travel nursing. I travelled for the first time with 1.5 years experience, but most places prefer at least 2 years. They are not there to teach you how to do the nursing job, they are just teaching you the unit and their way of doing things. So as we used to say in the ER, get your roller-skates on!

3. Be Prepared as a Travel Nurse

Travel nursing can be a flighty kind of job! Not trying to discourage this profession at all, but all I am saying is be prepared! When I say be prepared, that means be prepared for things to go wrong, hospitals to back out of contracts, you to not get your dream job (i.e. location, money, etc) among other things.

In my nearly 3 years of travel nursing at this time, I have luckily not had any major issues but I hear of this enough to where it warrants mentioning. Hospitals back out last minute, positions close, you are holding out for that one job with the perfect money situation, your recruiting company drags their feet or makes a mistake and next thing you know you are out of a job for 6 weeks! I have known a couple of travel nurses to have spent time living in their cars! (This is more the exception than the norm, but still, yikes!)

Top tips for being prepared:

1. Always have a savings account, emergency money to float you at least a month, preferably 3 months. Dave Ramsey’s guide has some helpful tips on how to gauge an appropriate amount for an emergency fund.

2. Be prepared to take a job that is not your dream job/location. It’s all about supply and demand here… its ok to be selective early on when you are 6-8 weeks out before you need to find a job, as it gets closer to time sometimes you have to take what you can get! You still have to get credentialed (which can take some time), find housing(unless you have your company do that for you), drive there and get acclimated. The sooner you can nail down these details, the better and the less stressed you will be.

3. Know your company’s policy regarding cancellation. Some are more helpful than others and back you up, others not so much. BluePipes has some good info on this topic.

4. Research the hospital/facility experience in the facebook groups I mentioned. Again just using the search function for the hospital/facility will bring up the pertinent threads. Some hospitals and facilities might have a reputation for this or some travelers have had been experience here before. (Have I mentioned RESEARCH is key? 😉 There’s a ton of info out there!)

4. Your travel nurse job may not be like your permanent job

Now this is meant to be a broad brush covering many ways your job may not be the same. Yes, you have a general specialty that you will work in, say emergency department. But the way they do things may be different, the hospital may likely be going through a huge management/hospital administration turnover, sometimes you may even be floated to different areas (always ask the nurse manager you are interviewing with about the float possibility), among other things.

Different protocols

In my experience, ERs are generally the same around the country but they have different protocols and different ways of running things. Small differences here and there, but they take time to absorb. But makes you more well rounded as a nurse and you get to learn great and different techniques used around the country! (As well as some not so good ones).

Floating

I never personally had to float to a different areas but I have known travel nurses to be floated to different areas of the hospital. Floating as a traveler is not ideal as it can be tricky enough to learn your own unit much less a completely different one you may not have had a lot of experience in or may not even work consistently in enough to learn it.

Turnover

In addition, there is a pretty good chance conditions at the hospital may be on the volatile side, meaning a lot of turnover whether its hospital administration, management, and/or your unit staff. Morale may be low, you may be short staffed (but then again who isn’t these days?!) But that’s part of the reason you are there, to help the unit.

Different Job all Together

Occasionally it may even be a completely different job! For example, at the time of this writing my speciality is Preop/PACU, but I was considered for a vein and vascular clinic and an office job working with pre admission testing for surgery. I ended up taking the pre admission testing job, and although it relates a lot to what I did in preop/pacu, the learning curve was a little longer than normal as I had to learn how to do patient interviews over the phone and all the different things required prior to surgery. I had a 2 week orientation, practically unheard of in travel nursing!

I have heard of some hospitals that will actually train you on the specific unit even if you haven’t had experience. It wouldn’t be anything like ICU, but perhaps something outpatient or less intense, but it happens!

All this to say, number one thing you have to learn as a travel nurse…roll with the punches! It’s a great job for a number of reasons that I will save for another time, but you HAVE to be flexible.

Don’t worry, YOU GOT THIS!

5. It can be a little lonely as a travel nurse

It may seem that this post is a little dismal, but in all honesty just trying point out a few things that a lot of travel nurses have difficulty with. In my personal opinion, the pros heavily outweigh the cons (more on that later) but just so you are prepared.

I assume if you want to be a travel nurse you have to be pretty darn adventurous and independent! But being on the road a lot can get lonely sometimes if you don’t happen to be traveling with a significant other. You are in a town/city where you don’t know anyone, starting a new job, and your friends and family are hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

So whereas normally you can lean on your family, friends, and coworkers that are nearby for support after those tough days at work or whatever may be going on, it may not be the case during your assignment. On the bright side, it forces you out of your comfort zone to get out there and make new friends or go explore your surroundings by yourself! In my opinion, if you take the plunge to be a travel nurse, you are a bad @$$! So remember that and wear it as a badge! Not every one has the cajones (nor the opportunity because of obligations) to take off into the unknown and kick butt!

With that being said, here are some tips to stave off a little of the loneliness.

1. Go explore your town/surroundings. Number one obviously! That’s a big part of why we got into this job right? We have been afforded a unique opportunity to go live in a place for 3 whole months! That means we don’t just to get to do the touristy things (which of course is great to do as well), but we also get to live like a local! Check out the small things, the little restaurants, the local hangouts, etc. A great way to do this is through the app Meetup. Download it on your phone, plug in your location, and find groups with your similar interests. Who knows, maybe you will even meet that special someone!

2. Plan a trip home. I always block out about a week or so either in between contracts or in the middle of a contract to go home. There’s no place like home! A quick trip home is good for the soul and gives you something to look forward to.

3. Plan a road trip to another close destination. It’s a great beautiful country out there, go road tripping for a long weekend to somewhere amazing! Again, something to look forward to! Find a fellow travel nurse coworker to go with you!

4. Pack things from home. You will eventually learn to pack lighter as the time goes on, but a few photos, mementos, your favorite candle, etc to put in your new place will give you a little comfort from home! And of course, if you happen to have a pet that also does wonders. I am traveling for the second time after a 1.5 year hiatus, and don’t know what I’d do without my pup! Has made things a little more tricky with a pet this time, but TOTALLY worth it.

My ride or die dog, Benny. That face! 🥰

Well again this post may seem a little discouraging at first, but take heart! Being a travel nurse is one of the most incredible jobs out there! I can’t tell you how many people come up to me who want to know all about travel nursing and are envious of my life. And I must say, I am almost envious of myself! 😃

I have been to more amazing places in my travel nursing than some people have their entire lives! So go get your travel on!