This article provided by: LRS Healthcare
Travel nurses have an undeniable understanding of what a hard day’s work means.
Not only did you dedicate significant time and dollars to obtain your degree, you likely started your nursing career off with a dose of reality one can only truly understand by walkin’ the walk and chartin’ the charts.
Through this process, many nurses like you have or will endure and eventually be strengthened by:
- Long, unconventional hours.
- Endless patient needs.
- Numerous processes to follow.
- Various interpersonal relationships to navigate.
- Constant on- and off-the-job emotional peaks and valleys to navigate.
The list goes on and on.
These daily realities likely reshape your life as much as—if not more so—than your college career. Thankfully the age-old saying “hard work pays off” is true for nurses able to, somewhat naturally, devote themselves to this lifestyle and embrace the inevitable highs and lows.
And now that you’re in an experienced position to consider travel nursing or are looking back to when that career pivot began for you, we encourage you to look inward at how your strengths might align with these five travel nurse traits that make highly successful travel nurses.
Achiever
Great travel nurses are real go-getters. You have a plan in mind for how you see your medical travel career unfolding and align your placements accordingly. You’ve got the gusto to give your all each shift with the ability to change gears to travel goals and new experiences each placement.
Adventurous
Speaking of new experiences, thriving travel nurses are adventurers at heart. Anywhere on the spectrum from thrill-seeking, life-of-the-party adrenaline junkies to go-with-the flow, see-where-each-assignment-takes-you laid back nomads, living life to its fullest is your bucket list. And how you bullet point that out is uniquely you.
Proactive
Travel nurses understand the bevy of potential Catch-22s that can derail even the best-laid plans. Nevertheless, these folks know the value in being prepared by doing things like seeking continuing education, securing proper state licensing, partnering with a well-respected and heavily vetted travel nursing agency, knowing your floor’s go-to people and multitasking smarter not harder.
Adaptable
Next-level travel nurses know their stuff while having the innate ability to live in the now. You’re mindful, nimble and able to dive into the mix like a professional chameleon putting patient-focused care front and center. Understanding that shift changes happen, working a little late or a little early is expected, etc.
Empathetic
You’re able to walk a mile in coworkers’ Crocs and patients’ shoes with emotional intelligence. Unlike those who lean toward sympathetic reactions, empathic travel nurses have the ability to sense others’ feelings without judgement or alliance. Rather, they use this trait to help associate useful direction to better understand any situation and provide positive support if/when needed.
Finished the travel nursing guide and are ready to look for an assignment?
Check out our travel nurse jobs!
All-in-all, sought-after travel nurses have their hearts and heads in the right place to provide nationwide facilities in need of support with the best care possible. These five travel nurse traits represent overarching strengths that help make that possible while making the most of each location where they’re lucky enough to temporarily live.
We encourage you to bring your best to every assignment and communicate honestly and often with your medical travel recruiter to ensure you’re put in the best position to find personal and professional success each and every assignment.
