Licenses, screening, and immunizations – oh, my! With each travel nurse assignment comes a mountain of compliance requirements. If you don’t have help through your travel nurse agency, staying compliant for each assignment feels like a chore. However, if your travel nursing agency has a QA department, you have a valuable resource at your service. Your quality assurance team should have the know-how to help you navigate the many compliance aspects of this career seamlessly.
Assignment Compliance
First, let’s give a quick breakdown of what compliance requirements you can expect for each travel nurse assignment.
Drug screening & background check
Licensing (if you’re up for renewal or taking an assignment in a non-compact state)
Up-to-date certifications
Up-to-date immunizations
Now that you know what to expect, you can see it’s a lot, especially when each agency and healthcare facility requires a little something different. Imagine all the research it will take to find a place that offers what you need for each compliance piece, scheduling the appointments, and filling out, collecting, and keeping up with all the paperwork. It’s easy to see how helpful a quality assurance (QA) department can be.
But, while lots of agencies have a QA component, it’s important to do some digging into it. Some agencies might give you a list of what you need to have but then say you’re on your own. Others might have recruiters pull double duty to handle assignment compliance or outsource to third parties. And some agencies might have a dedicated, in-house department, so you know you have someone you can call at a moment’s notice when you need help with a compliance requirement (especially when hospitals have last-minute requests just days before an assignment begins).
The Role of Quality Assurance
Compliance is an ongoing process, and all travelers have to meet the necessary compliance requirements mandated by healthcare facilities and regulatory bodies in order to take and stay on assignment.
QA specialists can play a crucial role in verifying credentials, licenses, immunizations, certifications, and any other prerequisites necessary for a successful assignment, as well as helping you schedule appointments, keeping track of paperwork, sending timely reminders for renewals, and assisting you with any necessary updates. Some agencies will even help you obtain the licenses and certifications needed and will pay the fees or reimburse you for them. Check with your agency’s QA team to see what they offer.
Beyond the initial compliance requirements, the quality assurance department serves as a consistent support system throughout your travel nurse assignment that can address any concerns or challenges that may arise regarding compliance and help you navigate through them effectively.
How Can You Make Compliance An Easier Process For Yourself?
By leveraging the expertise and support of your travel nursing agency’s quality assurance department, you can simplify the process of a travel nurse career. When embarking on a new travel nurse assignment, if your travel nurse agency has a QA department, establish open lines of communication with them. Promptly providing them with all the necessary documentation will allow them to verify your compliance status efficiently and get you on assignment more easily. This department should allow you to focus on providing exceptional patient care while your compliance needs are expertly managed.
Nurse certification is a formal process that tests your clinical knowledge, judgment, and experience in a subject or nursing specialty. Certification is the perfect way to accelerate your travel nursing career, increase your salary, and boost your confidence. It’s also a great way to attain personal growth as you strive to live your best nurse life.
This post will cover the basics of nursing certification and explain why each is so important for travel RNs and clinicians who want to take the next step in their travel nursing careers.
The Benefits of Nursing Certifications
The world of travel nursing is vast, and there are many excellent job opportunities available across the country. But on a basic level, earning a nursing certification can significantly boost your career. See below for the benefits.
Better Travel Nursing Assignments
Becoming certified means you have validated, specialized skills in your RN specialty. The more skills you have, the more marketable you are as a per diem or travel nurse. Earning nursing certifications will improve your prospects of getting the travel nursing assignment you want and also make more travel nursing assignments available to you.
Higher Pay & Career Advancement
This also offers the opportunity for upward mobility once you have landed an assignment. The more responsibility you have as a nurse, the more you get paid.
In addition to higher salaries, nursing certifications command recognition and respect within the healthcare world. Your certification proves that you have worked hard to learn a valuable and specialized skill, which makes supervisors and teammates more likely to depend on you and invest in your professional growth.
Personal Growth
Aside from the professional benefits, earning a nursing certification also provides the opportunity for personal growth. The confidence boost from achieving a hard-earned goal can make a real difference in how you feel, which leads to better performance at work and better care for your patients.
Basic Certification Requirements for Travel Nursing
Two basic certifications are required to be a travel nurse: Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS).
However, earning additional nursing certifications will dramatically increase your standing in the job market as well as your earning potential.
Important certifications include Acute/Critical Care Nursing (CCRN), Neonatal Resuscitation (NRP), Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), AIDS Certified Registered Nurse (ACRN), Certified Pediatric Nurse (CPN), Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) Certification, and many more.
Plenty of preparation is required to become certified. Check to see if you meet the eligibility requirements, like meeting the minimum years of experience providing care for a specific patient population.
For example, to become certified as a critical care nurse (CCRN) or progressive care nurse (PCCN), you do not need a formal education to apply. But it is helpful to prepare with any available prep courses, study materials, and practice tests so you can get ready for certification. If you’re acing the practice exams for the certification you’re trying to earn, that’s a great sign you’re ready!
While there are many different types of nursing certifications, several highly-regarded ones are common and could be a great place to start. See below to learn about a few different important nursing certifications.
Wound Care Certification (WCC)
Wound care nurses provide care for patients dealing with acute and chronic wounds, assisting with the development of their treatment plans and taking measures to prevent infection.
On any given shift, a MedSurg nurse could care for a patient suffering from an animal bite, a patient with diabetes, a patient recovering from a transplant, and a patient with asthma. MedSurg nurses also may carry a heavier patient load than other specialties, often handling 5-7 patients at a time. They are trained to recognize and understand a large range of medical conditions.
An individual must be a registered nurse (RN) with a current U.S. license, have practiced for at least two years as an RN in a medical-surgical setting, and accrued 2,000 hours of practice within the past three years to be eligible for medical-surgical certification.
Critical Care Certification (CCRN)
A critical care RN provides care for patients with serious or life-threatening injuries and medical problems. Because of the severity of their patients’ conditions, critical care nurses receive specialized training that allows them to remain alert and perform under intense pressure.
With so much on the shoulders of nurses and frontline healthcare professionals in recent years, you and your nursing staff need a firm foundation of strength and support to perform best. Nursing staff shortages, as well as the added stress, have highlighted the importance of continuing to invest in the well-being of nursing personnel.
Given the demanding nature of your job as a nurse, you should always make sure to help yourself, and other staff members stay in the best shape possible. So, if you’re searching for ways to celebrate each other and boost worker morale, here are five practical methods to prolong this acknowledgment and appreciation every hour of your shift.
Celebrate Each Other’ Achievements
In a medical environment among nurses, every small achievement is a big victory worthy of celebrating. When nurses celebrate the achievements of one another at work, they motivate themselves to help patients more, they feel appreciated, and most importantly, they will constantly be reminded that they’re doing a great job in helping society.
Celebrating is more fun when it involves healthy and yummy snacks. All kinds of nuts, protein bars, raisins, fruit, and vegetables, as well as soda, smoothies, or tea, make a great party menu when celebrating each other’s achievements. However, when throwing those little get-togethers, everyone wants to fully enjoy the party without worrying about other things. Therefore, using plastic dinnerware sets will save you from cleaning afterward and allow you to enjoy the moment.
Nurses recognize the critical role that mental health may play in patient healing and rehabilitation, but it’s easy for them to disregard it in their own lives. So, make sure to encourage and remind other members of your team that their mental health is important and should be taken seriously. Since the nursing profession is made up of strong individuals who are committed to caring for others, their own self-care and nurturing become even more crucial.
Therefore, from attending specially designed yoga sessions for nurses to fitness incentives and continuous mental health awareness programs to meditation applications, it’s critical to demonstrate how much you appreciate yourself and each other, both mentally and physically. At the end of the day, the healthy nursing staff will be able to perform at their highest ability and improve patient care.
Recognize Individual and Group Accomplishments
One of the most effective ways to ensure that good work continues in the future is to consistently celebrate nursing achievements. This recognition can take many forms, including a simple and heartfelt “thank you” from leadership at the end of a shift or from other members of the staff.
Or a bulletin board highlighting employee training and education achievements, or institution email notifications that outline and celebrate nursing staff’s hard work and commitment. It’s a little investment in effort, but continuously taking the time to genuinely express gratitude and highlight successes, big or small, can help keep morale high by cultivating an appreciation culture.
Create an Employee-Nominated Rewards Program
One of the best methods to encourage engagement and improve your nursing staff is to create reward systems in which they directly participate. Create a system in which you, as nurses, are encouraged to nominate your coworkers for their hard work, fast thinking, positive attitude, or creative methods.
These types of acknowledgment foster trust and support among nurses while also providing supervisors with the insight they may not have had the opportunity to witness personally. Rewards can vary from an employee of the week or monthly highlights, gift cards, lunches, and other awards that can be selected by the nursing staff.
With personalized, unique gifts for nurses and your healthcare co-workers, you can put your team’s values front and center. You might use a popular slogan or a value that you live by as your organization’s logo to show appreciation to one another and boost morale.
The best presents for healthcare workers are frequently both practical and meaningful. Coffee mugs, socks, or tumblers are excellent gifts because they can be used frequently and remind healthcare workers that they are respected and appreciated during their lengthy and challenging shifts. These little reminders throughout the day will help nurses stay motivated, resulting in better patient care.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, nurses face a lot of stress, both physically and emotionally, and it might feel like the negative surpasses the positive at times, but it is in their hands to turn that around. The entire nursing staff always gives their best effort, and it is critical for nurses to support one another and stay motivated in order to improve overall patient care!
In part one of this article series, we talked about the history of travel nursing and when you can or should start thinking about travel nursing. In this part of navigating the road to travel nursing, we will talk about finding a travel nurse agency and finding a recruiter.
Once you have your experience and are ready to entertain travel nursing seriously, it’s time to find a travel nurse agency to work with. A lot of picking a travel nurse agency to work with depends on where you want to go, what benefits you are looking for, and even your specialty.
People often ask me if I recommend one travel nurse agency over another, and I do not. Certainly, it’s nice to have a referral from a friend who has a good experience with a certain travel nurse agency. However, the reason I don’t always recommend companies is because I work with multiple companies at a time, around 2-3 at a time. I suggest you do the same, but not too many to overwhelm you. Working with more than one travel nurse agency allows you to compare and contrast offers and be exposed to a wider variety of jobs.
Not every travel nurse agency is created equal. Different companies have different jobs and offer different pay. Some of the larger companies, for example, Aya, has access to a LOT of contracts with major hospitals, but they may not have the smaller hospitals and likely will not have any smaller local contracts. Some hospitals only have contracts with certain companies, so even though the job is available with travel nurse agency A, travel nurse agency B may not have access to it.
Additionally, different companies have different benefits. When selecting a travel nurse agency, you want to consider what benefits you need. Will you need health insurance? 401 k? PTO/sick pay? Short-term disability?
Most companies these days do offer health insurance, but it may be a very poor plan, so it’s best to do your research before signing with a travel nurse agency if you plan to use their insurance. As for the other benefits, it’s a hit or miss. I, unfortunately, have yet to work for a travel nurse agency that offers PTO! I just know that if I get sick on the job, that comes out of my paycheck, and plan accordingly. But some companies offer PTO, which is an excellent benefit to have!
Finding a recruiter
Once you have a travel nurse agency, you will be connected with a travel nurse recruiter. What is a recruiter exactly?
A travel nurse recruiter is assigned to you personally and, among other duties, is responsible for matching you to the best of their ability with jobs according to your desired location, skillset, and shift preference. They will work with you to get you onboarded, submitted for a job, follow through to the start of the job, and be your point of contact throughout the job.
A recruiter plays an integral part in travel nursing, and it’s important to have a good relationship with your recruiter. A bad recruiter can make all the difference in your travel nurse experience.
Recruiters should be responsive and proactive. Recruiters are quite busy these days, maybe not as busy as during the height of the COVID pandemic, but still quite busy. Your recruiter should respond to your inquiries promptly, usually within 1-2 days. Travel nurse jobs are competitive, and it’s important to have a recruiter to timely respond and submit you to jobs when you are ready, so you don’t miss out on the opportunities. Recruiters should also be proactive, anticipating your needs. For example, if they know you are a new travel nurse, they should know that they should take more time with you to explain the process and make sure you understand your next steps. Another example, they should know when your contract is ending and be touching base on whether or not you want to extend or look for another contract.
More importantly, recruiters should be respectful and polite. As in any industry, there are a few bad apples out there. NEVER let a recruiter bully or pressure you into a contract you do not want or feel comfortable with. At the end of the day, it’s your well-being and nursing license on the line. Recruiters should listen to your job preferences and skills and be working with you, not against you.
We hope you found these articles on the road to travel nursing helpful. Below are the links to the other articles in this series.
For more information on finding a job, credentialing, and preparing for the journey watch out for part 3 of this series Navigating The Road to Travel Nursing articles. For part 1 click here.
If you are tired of endlessly researching answers about travel nursing with nothing to show, skip the overwhelm and let me Teach You How to Travel Nurse!
If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:
When healthcare professionals enter the field of travel nursing, they may wonder, “Can I work with two travel nursing agencies simultaneously?” The short answer is yes, although you’ll want to consider the pros and cons of working with more than one travel nursing agency before deciding to do so. Overall, it depends on what experience you’re looking for as a travel nurse, how much you’re looking to work, and if you can handle the demands of more than one agency.
Let’s find out the advantages and disadvantages of working with more than one travel nursing agency and what you should consider as you choose the right travel nursing agency for you.
There can be many advantages to working with two or more travel nurse agencies, including the following:
1. More Opportunities
First, working with multiple travel nursing agencies allows you to take on more assignment opportunities. This is one of the most common reasons travel nurses decide to have more than one agency to fall back on. With more job prospects, you are less likely to deal with the stress of long breaks between assignments and how that may affect you financially.
Additionally, more job options mean you are more likely to find assignments that fully meet your wants and needs rather than accepting subpar assignments that don’t meet your expectations.
2. Salary Increases
If you inquire about a travel nursing assignment from a few different agencies, each agency will likely offer a different salary amount. With this information, you can accept the assignment from the agency offering the highest salary amount, increasing your overall income.
Working with multiple agencies not only helps diversify your assignment options but also allows you to foster close relationships with more than one recruiter.
Your travel nurse recruiter is someone who should act in your best interest and be a constant support system for you. Working with more than one gives you more people to fall back on if you need additional help and support during your assignments. If your travel nursing assignment is canceled, you have more than one recruiter to support you and transition you to a different location.
4 Cons of Working with Multiple Travel Nurse Staffing Agencies
There are some caveats to consider if you decide to work with multiple travel nursing agencies at one time, including the ones listed below:
1. More Paperwork
Unfortunately, working with more than one agency does mean you will likely have to complete and keep track of more paperwork. Many documents and records will follow you throughout your travel nursing career, including records of your credentials and other qualifications. When you work with multiple agencies, you may double or even triple the amount of paperwork you must complete, making it more challenging to keep track of your records.
If more paperwork is keeping you from trying out other agencies, consider developing an organization system that works for you so you can properly keep track of any documents and easily find them when you need them. Then, if an assignment ever becomes problematic, any contracts and legal documentation will be easier to find and fall back on.
2. Taking On Too Much Work
When you work with more than one travel nursing agency, there’s always the possibility that you will bite off more than you can chew. Taking on too much work at one time can be incredibly stressful and quickly lead to compassion fatigue, which is a common reason many nurses decide to leave the healthcare field completely.
While there can be many perks to working with more than one travel nursing agency, it’s not wise if it comes at the expense of your mental and physical well-being. If you find yourself taking on more work than you can handle, it’s likely time to step back and reevaluate whether it’s the right situation for you or if you’d benefit from having one less agency to answer to.
3. Scheduling Conflicts
Scheduling can quickly become conflicting if you’re trying to meet the demands of more than one agency. For example, assignments may end up overlapping, or you may not be able to accept an assignment from one agency all because you already accepted one from another.
Also, if you’re choosing to take on more than one assignment at once, you may find it difficult to create an effective daily schedule based on the demands of each position, leaving you with little to no downtime outside of work.
4. Travel Nurse Agency Policies
It’s important to remember that some travel nursing agencies may have a conflict-of-interest agreement that you must sign. In this case, if one agency finds out that you’re working with another and it’s against their policies, they may terminate your agreement to work with them.
For this reason, read all angles of your employment contract terms to ensure that working with more than one agency is allowed, and don’t make any assumptions before doing so.
3 Ways to Manage Working with Multiple Travel Nursing Agencies
While working with more than one travel nursing agency can come with its challenges, it can be possible. Consider the following tips as you talk with more than one recruiter.
1. Don’t Talk About Your Other Agencies Directly
Honesty is always the best policy, but you also don’t have an obligation to get into the specifics of each agency. While you shouldn’t get into the specifics of other travel nursing agencies you’re working with, you should be upfront with each recruiter so they can place you in assignments effectively.
This way, your recruiters are aware that they may be working around different assignment schedules, but they don’t have an abundance of information that could lead to conflict down the road.
2. Retain Control Over Your Applications
It can be difficult to balance the trust level you have with your recruiters when it comes to submitting applications for new assignments. On the one hand, having too much trust may lead to being put in an unideal assignment. On the other hand, not having enough trust may mean that you miss out on job opportunities.
Because of this, try to retain a certain amount of control over when your applications are submitted to a new travel nursing assignment. One way to do this is to establish clear guidelines with your recruiter and create a system that works best for both of you. This may mean allowing your recruiter to submit on your behalf only when an assignment fits your needs but consulting you first before submitting if the assignment doesn’t have everything you want.
In addition, if you are working with multiple agencies, you’ll want to consider whether you’ll need more control over when your applications are submitted to ensure you don’t run into scheduling conflicts.
3. Be Honest and Upfront
Being upfront about the fact that you’re working with more than one agency can help ensure that your recruiters place and schedule you in the most effective way possible. Having an honest relationship with your recruiter also means they’ll be more respectful of your situation and more willing to work with you, helping create a stronger nurse-to-recruiter relationship.
Most recruiters know they can’t always offer you everything you want in an assignment, and they know there are recruiters elsewhere who can. A great recruiter won’t hold it against you if you decide to work with another agency, but they’d also rather know this upfront.
While working with more than one travel nursing staffing agency is a great option for securing the position you love, our recruiters at OneStaff Medical are here to help ensure you receive a travel assignment with everything you’re looking for. Contact us today to learn more at 877-783-1483.
In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, rates for travel healthcare professionals have remained high; therefore, the market has been flooded with healthcare professionals ready to give a travel career a spin. With the added competition, it’s important to put your best foot forward to ensure you’re considered for the position you want.
Where and how to start? According to veteran travel nurse Kay Slane (RN, BS, CGM) of Highway Hypodermics, there are some key ways to make your profile shine and ensure it reaches the top of the manager’s stack.
Make sure your information is accurate and up to date.
By having your profile ready to go, you can get in front of the line when you see the right opportunity for you and be among the first for consideration when jobs are moving fast.
Make sure your highlighted features are at the top.
Hiring managers are busy people, and time is of the essence. Immediately showing that you meet all the qualifications is the best way to catch a manager’s eye.
Spotlight your previous assignment and outstanding performance as a staff nurse.
Nothing carries more weight than solid experience and proven success.
Be aware that your first assignment will be the toughest for you to obtain.
You are competing against healthcare professionals with long work histories and experience as veteran travelers. But don’t let this bother you. We all start somewhere. Include anything that you feel will help you stand out and move ahead with confidence.
Be careful about putting restrictions on what you want as a traveler.
People frequently ask for all holidays off, a position within two hours of home, and a “no floating” clause, and then wonder why they can’t find a traveling job. When it comes to getting your first travel assignment, flexibility and adaptability is the name of the game.
Be realistic about money.
You can’t demand $5,000+/week on your first assignment, especially in most of the southern states. But that doesn’t mean being taken advantage of either. The best advice is to take it slowly at first. It doesn’t take long to build the experience you need to command the pay you want.
Compare the same job with other agencies to make sure you’re getting a fair deal.
Digital platforms like StaffDNA can help give you an accurate view of the marketplace. By eliminating recruiter fees and putting the healthcare professional in control – allowing them to find, book, and manage the whole process – you get access to the highest-paying positions nationwide. And to ensure an apples-to-apples comparison, don’t forget to analyze what agencies offer in benefits, too.
Know exactly what benefits you are looking for and the wage you need.
Benefits can range from insurance to paid time off to a 401k with or without a percentage match. Make sure that your take-home pay is enough to cover your bills and travel expenses.
Using these tips from a veteran traveler can give you the upper hand in finding and acquiring your best travel assignment. With the right approach, you can have a successful travel career built on physical, mental, and financial freedom.
We hope this information from a veteran traveler was helpful. Do you have any tips or advice to share? Comment below.
About StaffDNA
By creating the first self-service healthcare staffing platform built on the industry’s most advanced technology, StaffDNA has revolutionized how healthcare professionals find their next job. Candidates can see available positions nationwide with complete details and apply 24/7. All onboarding can be handled in the app, and once they’ve started, candidates can manage the entire assignment—from credentials and timesheets to booking or extending a contract. StaffDNA has been designated the first Total Staffing Solution from Staffing Industry Analysts, the global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions. The company frequently makes regional and national Best Places to Work lists, including from Dallas Business Journal and Modern Healthcare. The StaffDNA app currently averages 30,000 unique downloads a month, making it the #1 downloaded app in the healthcare staffing industry.
Written By: Joshua Matthews, Jr. Recruiter, Medical Edge Recruitment
As the market for travel nurses continues to prosper, small towns continue to resort to these methods to meet their staffing quota. This may seem like a great idea for the staff in need, but when the location of the contract is unheard of for veteran travels, what can be done to ease the stress of interesting and unfamiliar territory? When your primary source of income comes from travel contracts, are you to wait for something more familiar to come along? Let’s say you do wait, and it still doesn’t happen. What next?
Let’s explore a very common challenge for an adventurous travel nurse, a contract to a location yet to be explored. Here’s exactly what adventurous travel nurses need to consider before traveling to unfamiliar cities.
Three of the biggest details to come to grips with for a travel contract that leads you to a brand-new location are the facility location, where you will be living, and where you will be spending most of your time away from work.
Your first priority should be to familiarize yourself with the location of your contract. Lucky for us, the internet exists. Even for small-town facilities, there are several resources to utilize in your research efforts:
Location type
Surrounding areas
Facility reviews – both staff and patient reviews are useful
After you feel comfortable with where you will be working, the next step is to find a place to live. Understandably, this process will look different for agencies that supply housing and those that do not. If the agency you work with provides housing, make sure to consult thoroughly with housing management and leave the conversation prepared for what you are getting into. For those that are tasked with finding their own living situations, spend some time researching the topics below:
Safety First – How safe is the area you are moving to?
Commute – Make sure to have a reasonable commute in mind before choosing and stick with it!
Community living – Are there any other travelers at this location, and are they open to building a bond for the contract? Do you have a travel buddy?
Another point of interest that should be a part of your research is where you will be spending the rest of your free time on the contract. Of course, if you are a homebody, there’s no place like (a temporary) home. For those that like to stay active, what kinds of organizations are in the area? Are there any Facebook groups to join before relocating? Will you have the opportunity to engage in any of your favorite hobbies? Having a good sense of what your contract might look like outside of work can be another deciding factor for you to consider.
Finances are always a part of any decision in life. Not only does having a reasonable budget for what you are looking for in a travel contract give you some standards, but it can help the decision process progress smoothly. One thing to note for any travel contract that leads you to a new destination is that smaller towns can be a bit pricey because of the available living situations. Sometimes there just isn’t a lot to choose from, and that might lead prices to cost more than expected.
Food might be something you rarely consider when choosing a contract, but restaurant choices may be scarce in a small town. Are you willing to cook some meals? Will the housing you chose allow that? Are there grocery stores nearby? Spend some time weighing the food options for the location before committing. A best practice would be to understand what you take home each week, what your weekly living expenses come out to be, and what you want your savings to look like from a travel contract.
Some of the strongest bonds come from traveling contract to contract with a familiar face. Not only does it relieve some of the financial burdens when it comes to housing and travel costs, but it gives you the sense of being on a team. Travel buddies can come in handy whenever you come across feeling like an “outsider” from the local staff and surrounding areas. Most facilities have more than one need to fill, and some agencies offer referral bonuses for anyone you bring along!
Share your experiences with others!
Nurses are a network who share the same healthcare goal – helping those in need. If you have traveled to an unknown location before, your voice matters! It can be good things that have come from uncomfortable situations that give hope to another nurse. Remember, we are all human beings who share a passion for healthcare. Don’t be afraid to share your experiences and give feedback. Strength comes from challenges and new experiences!
We hope you found this article on tips for adventurous travel nurses helpful. Whether going near or far, there is a tip for everyone. Do you have any tips to share with fellow travel nurses or those just starting out? Comment them below.
Medical Edge Recruitment is the premier travel nursing recruitment agency specializing in providing top talent to clients in the healthcare industry. We connect clinical and allied providers to their ideal opportunities, focusing on building long-lasting relationships through honesty and transparency. In travel nursing, bigger does not always mean better. While we have an extensive network of job opportunities, our experienced team is dedicated to making a personalized provider experience a priority. There are a lot of moving parts in getting set up for a new assignment, but we take care of all the details along the way. Adventure awaits for adventurous travel nurses; let Medical Edge Recruitment show you where to go next!
If you are a new travel nurse or looking into becoming a travel nurse:
Nurses are known as life-savers and are more than three times the number of doctors in the healthcare industry. The difference between doctors and nurses is that while doctors usually specialize in one area, nurses can coordinate the care for all aspects of a patient’s overall health. This makes nurses always busy because they experience more workloads than ever. A traveling nurse even gets more stress. In recent years, there has been a higher demand for travel nurses worldwide as a result of population aging. A traveling nurse needs to learn to balance work and fun so that there is no overworking as well as negligence of nursing duties. Let us see how well to achieve this work-life balance.
Make good use of your free time.
Nurses are always very busy, so you tend to forget that you are supposed to be free of work during your free time. Most nurses keep working all through, especially for healthcare centers that do not respect free time. They could also use this time to do some quick chores or run errands. It is important to know that free time is for you to take part in your hobbies else it would feel like you are working all the time when you are supposed to be free of work. As a travel nurse, there are great opportunities to tour new places. You could even shop and get some footwear and clothes like a cute dress and practical boots. You could also increase your handbag collection by getting new ones. Using your free time to relax your body and ease yourself of all the stress you endured during your working hours is also a good way to utilize your free time.
Make bucket lists for every assignment.
Like I said earlier, traveling nurses have the opportunity to visit new places for every assignment they are to carry out. The journey doesn’t just happen without any planning. There is always some time to organize yourself and plan before moving out. As a traveling nurse, you can inquire about major tourist attractions in the new city before you set off. All the famous landmarks and local restaurants shouldn’t just be for your viewing pleasure. You should make up your mind to explore them. So, it is good to prepare a bucket list for each assignment so that you don’t miss out on any excitement. It will help you stay positive even during tough days simply because you know you have some fun to look forward to.
Choose assignments based on your needs.
Understanding your needs and choosing your assignments based on them can help you balance your work with fun as a traveling nurse. Everyone has their own idea and understanding of a work-life balance, and sometimes you will have to understand how that will work for you to live it. For example, it is possible that you work better at night or you do not mind it as well as working during the day. So, why not work with travel nurse agencies then to find night-shift assignments, thereby allowing you to make use of your day to have as much fun as you would want.
Create a schedule that you plan to stick to
As a traveling nurse, it is very possible to forget to have fun if you do not create a schedule that will guide you. A schedule is always very useful for organizing one’s time if you are willing to follow it anyways. Creating a schedule doesn’t take time. All you need is to find out when you will be at work and your free time. You can then decide how you will adjust your activities to help you enjoy your leisure time. With a schedule, you can set aside time for necessary errands and also for the fun activities from your bucket list. There could also be time set aside for exercises to ease out the stress that comes with a day packed full of activities. A schedule helps you to think about your time differently, using it to optimize balance in your daily activities.
Final word
Just like every other traveling employee wanting to balance work and fun, traveling nurses are not an exception. It is difficult to see how a nurse can find time to have fun while working, but it is achievable. The key to a nurse having a great time when traveling and working is planning. All the tips here are tuned in that direction; of course, we know that there are different stages to it. From creating a bucket list to preparing a schedule to utilize your time well, you can create the perfect work-life balance as a traveling nurse.
There’s a lot to love about a career in nursing. You get to spend your life helping people. You have the honor of being present for some of life’s most precious moments, from birth to death. And, of course, you also have the assurance of a steady income and ample job opportunities.
Being a travel nurse, however, brings with it a new and unique set of advantages in addition to all those already offered by a traditional nursing career. Here are the top four ways that travel nursing can help you develop into a better healthcare provider:
1. You Learn Cross-Cultural Competence
By far, one of the greatest benefits of travel nursing is that you get to work with patients from a diverse array of cultural backgrounds. This means that you are likely to experience the unique challenges and opportunities of delivering care in a range of languages, which can help prepare you for clinical practice in diverse communities at home.
Even more importantly, perhaps, travel nursing enables you to experience different perspectives, attitudes, and practices regarding birth, wellness and dying. This can not only help you to expand and enhance your nursing practices, but it can also increase your cross-cultural competence and your ability to understand, communicate, and empathize with patients and families whose views on health may differ from yours.
2. Provides Invaluable Experience with Global Health Systems
Another crucial benefit of travel nursing is the opportunity to experience the global health system from a truly hands-on perspective. As a travel nurse, you are probably going to find yourself working with some of the most marginalized and underserved patient populations both in the United States and around the world.
This means you will be equipped to understand and respond to systemic challenges, including the pervasive health disparities which persist in the US and other highly developed and immensely wealthy nations. Such experience isn’t just going to make you a better practitioner, but it can open up important opportunities to make a true difference at the administrative and policy level.
3. Adventures that Feed Your Soul
Whether you are already a practicing nurse or you’re preparing for a career in nursing, you probably already understand the profound emotional labor involved in the work. When you earn your living as a care provider, you can expect to experience extreme highs and devastating lows, often within the course of a single shift.
This can be profoundly draining to a nurse’s mind, body, and spirit. However, when you’re a travel nurse, you can find yourself in some truly incredible places. This means that, in your off hours, you can feed your soul with new adventures that simply wouldn’t be possible in the more familiar surroundings of home.
4. Adaptability, Resilience, and Creative Problem-Solving
Anyone who’s been a travel nurse knows that the job requires a host of unique attributes, including adaptability, resilience, and creative problem-solving. After all, learning to quickly acclimate to a new work environment and the patient roster is a part of the travel nurse’s job description.
That means you’re going to have to learn to deal with stress, think on your feet, and perform at optimal levels even in unfamiliar environments. You are also likely going to learn to creatively improvise, especially if you are working in underserved and remote communities which may lack the resources you have grown accustomed to.
The Takeaway
There’s a lot to love about being a travel nurse, but perhaps the best thing of all is the myriad ways it can help you develop into a better healthcare provider. From supporting cross-cultural competence to increasing resiliency and adaptability to providing unparalleled experience with global and national health systems, travel nursing gives practitioners experiences that can optimize patient care for generations to come.
We hope you found this article on how travel nursing helps develop you into a better healthcare provider. Have you found that you are a better healthcare provider because of travel nursing? Comment below to share your experience.
