How do Travel Nurse Spouses find Jobs?

One of our Gypsy Nurse Network Group members asks;
“My significant other would like to travel with me, but he would like to earn some money too. Granted, it doesn’t have to be an elaborate salary, but he would like to earn a little along the way. Finding a ‘normal’ job with each assignment, I take would be futile. Any suggestions for the travel nurse spouse?”

We hear this question a lot as more and more couples are traveling well before retirement age. So, we’ve compiled this list from a multitude of conversations on our Facebook Network Group about travel nurse spouse jobs:

Spouse Job Ideas

1. State or National Parks

This is great, especially for the RV traveler. Many times you can get free space to live in return for giving part-time hours to the park.

2. Stay-at-home parent

Probably one of the most important jobs a person can have! As more and more families are traveling, the trend of homeschooling is increasing. Why not take the whole family and let the other parent be the teacher? There are tons of great resources for the ‘road-school’ parent.

3. Seasonal work

Retail: When the holidays begin to peak, many retailers hire seasonal staff to help take on the extra load.
Tourism: Ski Lodge, Park Department, etc. Anywhere that you have a seasonal influx of tourism, there are opportunities for seasonal work. This can also result in discounts and ‘employee perks’ such as ski passes and discounts.

4. Local Temporary Staffing Firms

Depending on your skill set, you can find jobs at local manufacturing, clerical, call center support, and just about anything you can think of.

5. Substitute Teaching

There are never enough teachers! You don’t need a teaching degree. I would suggest applying before you get to your assignment due to background checks, etc.

6. Uber or Lift Driver

Uber is taking over the taxi industry in a BIG way. I’m unsure of the specific requirements, but if you love to drive and enjoy people, this might be the job for your spouse.

7. Freelancing

ODesk, Fiverr, and other “gig” opportunities – these are great for the freelancer to work remotely on a multitude of projects. These are mostly graphic design and web related.

8. Bartending

Bartending can actually be fun as well as a decent source of income as well as immediate cash via tips. Licensing is pretty simple in most states.

I hope this quick list of jobs for the travel nurse spouse helps to stimulate some ideas! Do you have other suggestions for the traveling spouse? We would love to hear them. Please post in the comments so they can be shared with other Gypsies!

Finished the travel nursing guide and are ready to look for an assignment?

Check out our travel nurse jobs!

This article provided by: Cross Country Nurses

Are you a travel nurse who is thinking about bringing your travel nurse partner on an assignment, or wondering whether that’s even possible?

Well, first of all, it’s totally possible and secondly, we highly recommend it! The process and logistics of traveling together become easier when you have a recruiter you know and trust, and who knows you, as well. Just tell your recruiter you want to travel with your partner and he or she will try to find a facility with openings for both of you. It’s easier than you may think.

There are a number of reasons to bring your partner with you when you travel, but when your partner is a travel nurse, the reasons only multiply.

Here are some of our favorites that you might not have considered before:

You Can Explore New Cities and States Together

If you and your travel nurse partner typically travel separately, it can be hard work to keep your bond as strong as you’d like it to be. Plus, you’re seeing all kinds of new things and having new experiences that you probably wish you could share with him or her. Well, when your partner travels with you, you can! During your downtime, you can explore the coffee shops, bookstores, bars, art galleries, parks, sports and concert venues and so much more, together. You may even want to create a unique hashtag that you can use to organize your photos by each new travel location on social media.

Homesickness Will Become a Thing of the Past

Travel nurses are drawn to exploring unknown territory, when it comes to both clinical settings and geographic locations. Unfortunately, sometimes a downside to that can be loneliness. You begin to miss the loved ones you leave behind, especially if you are on assignment somewhere without much to do. When your significant other comes with you on assignment, however, you’ll have so much less to miss about being home. Additionally, loneliness has been shown to have negative effects on your physical and mental health, so bringing your significant other has health benefits, as well.

Your Assignment May Be More Successful

This is probably obvious, but if your partner is with you on assignment, you aren’t missing them throughout the duration of your contract. This means you’ll probably be in a good mood, getter better sleep and make smarter choices when it comes to eating and exercise. Or maybe the opposite is true: you’ll eat tons of restaurant food and never have time to exercise! But the point is, you’ll be happier and that will carry over into your work life, which means your assignment will definitely be more successful.

You May Be Able to Double Your Housing Stipend

If your partner is also a travel nurse, you may be able to double your housing stipend if you both work for agencies that provide them. Why not rent a swanky apartment in a hip area of town and be within walking distance to all the action? Or maybe you just want to live somewhere with more square footage or in a more luxurious building or neighborhood. If splurging on a fancy apartment isn’t really your thing, you could use the opportunity to save some extra money but putting one of your stipends in the bank. The rules regarding housing stipends can vary between agencies, so make sure you clarify your options with your recruiter before you sign a lease.

Finished the travel nursing guide and are ready to look for an assignment?

Check out our travel nurse jobs!

This article was provided by Travel Nurse Across America®.

Becoming a travel nurse family

My wife and I got together when she was still in nursing school. When she decided that she could tolerate me for the long haul, one of our first decisions was to work towards becoming a travel nurse family. We talked endlessly about the adventures we would have, always caveating our excitement with the knowledge it wasn’t always going to be a day at the beach, but we knew the positive would outweigh the negative. We read all the information on travel nursing we could get our hands on (The Gypsy Nurse being one of the best sources we came across). She contacted several recruiters and worked on getting her license in a compact state. We did our homework on how to travel with our young son, and on how to keep him on track educationally. Finally, with equals parts of excitement and trepidation, we were ready to hit the road.

It has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

All the adventures we’ve had, all the people we’ve met, and all the opportunities to get to know each other better, have meant more to us than can be expressed with mere words. But today we had an experience that explains it as well as I’ll ever be able to. A travel nurse family always has a lot of stories to share, but this will go down as a particularly special one for us.

My wife is just about at the end of her current assignment.

My wife is just about at the end of her current assignment. As of this writing, we’re three days from heading out of town. She was off today, so for lunch, we went to a local hangout for some home-style cooking. When we walked in the place was full. There was a gentleman sitting by himself, that when he saw my wife, waved us over and offered to share his booth. He was the widower of a patient that my wife had taken care of when we first arrived. While at home, she had suffered a stroke and hadn’t survived it. The man recognized my wife and was happy to share our company. It was a bittersweet encounter, but one I will never forget. We laughed as he told stories about all the stuff he did to make his wife mad, and all the things she did to make him happy. It was hard to hold back tears as he talked about the hard times they had, and how it drew them closer and made them an invincible team. You could tell he was very impressed with my wife and the care she provided the woman he loved.

As we sat talking, a lady sitting across from us overheard our conversation. She was a retired nurse who had worked at the hospital my wife was assigned to. She joined our conversation. She said she was happy to finally be getting some rest, but missed the craziness sometimes. She and my wife talked shop, while our young son entertained her husband and the man we were sitting with.

The restaurant was only opened for lunch, we all sat around talking for so long some of the cook staff came out to the dining area. One of the cooks, a kid who would be graduating high school this year (the first boy in his family to receive such an honor), started talking to my wife and her new friend about nursing. He was especially interested in the prospect of getting paid to travel. He said he hadn’t thought about it before, but it sounded like something he wanted to consider.

When it was time for everyone to leave, it was hugs and social media information shared all around. Our son had managed to steal everyone’s heart, and everyone had a hard time letting him go. The gentleman whose wife my wife hadn’t taken care of, thanked us for making his day. He said good ones were harder to come by lately. The young man that was about ready to make his family so proud, said it was the best day he had ever had at work. The retired nurse said she was looking forward to following our exploits online and would love to see us next time we were in town. If we ever go back there, we have a lot of visiting to do.

Days like this make me remember why we do this thing we do. It also makes me remember just how special my wife is, how special nurses are. This day was made possible by my wife, and the opportunities afforded to her as a traveler. It’s a good life, and we’re grateful for it.

I know that many travel nurses travel with a spouse or significant other and began wondering what it was like for those that tag along. There isn’t really any support system for this unique group of people, and I wanted to provide insight into what it is like and the daily challenges for this group of people.

What is a tag-a-long? I originally found the term when I was researching travel nursing blogs. I found a blog of a self-proclaimed tag-a-long and loved the term.

Since the last Tag-A-Long Travel Nurse interview, I figured out where I had found the term. Ryan S. blogs at TagALongNurse and has agreed to provide another Tag-A-Long interview. I’m happy to have found the source of the term. I felt a bit like I plagiarized, not being able to reference where I found the term.

Many travel nurses travel with a significant other, a spouse, a close friend, or other family members. These are tag-a-longs. I wanted to find out what it’s like to live the Travel Nurse life as a Tag-A-Long, and here is what I found out.

Thanks go to Ryan, a self-proclaimed ‘tag-a-long” who agreed to answer a few questions. Ryan has been tagging along since May 2012. He and his wife are pretty new at the Travel Nurse scene.

Here is what Ryan had to say about living the Travel Nursing Life as a tag-a-long:

Why did you choose to live a life of Travel Nursing?

My wife and I have always wanted to travel to see other places and people and experience how people live in different parts of the US and eventually the world. We both grew up in Texas, dated in high school, and got married after college. I got the chance to travel to Namibia, Africa, for a semester in college and absolutely loved it. I think my wife caught the travel bug from me after that.

The moment we officially decided to travel happened when my wife was coming up on her first 2 years of experience in nursing – what the agencies usually ask for. We had, of course, been discussing traveling for a while, but one night about a year ago, my wife said, “I’m ready to start traveling.” I said I was too, and we made it official with a spit shake. Haha, it was just a little bit impulsive.

Do you work from Home/Internet?

Right now, I’m planning on starting to work as an extra for TV and movies as we are on assignment in Los Angeles. For our first assignment in Las Vegas, I started working online for Leapforce doing web search optimization for Google and Bing. It turned out I would only get 5 or 10 hours of work a week, so I let that slide. I’m still trying to figure out what I can do to contribute something financially. As I said, I’m going to try being an extra here in LA, but for our next assignment, I’ll look for another online job, or perhaps something temporary in retail or Starbucks, etc.

What do you do when your Travel companion is working? Do you get bored? What do you do to keep active/entertained?

Besides looking for/thinking about work, I have just recently gone vegan a few months ago and really got into fitness. My wife and I go to an outdoor fitness camp called Camp Gladiator, which my wife started going to Texas. I’ve found that as a tagalong, having somewhere to meet people and make friends can really help, and Camp Gladiator has been one of those outlets for me. We have also found a church to attend, and they have been very open and accepting of us. For this assignment, we’re here for 8 months, so we have a chance to build these new relationships a little more than if we were here for only 3 months. However, for future assignments, I also plan to keep tapping into opportunities to make new friends.

Do you utilize local clubs or groups like meetup.com? What is the biggest challenge for you?

My biggest challenge so far has been keeping myself occupied and stifling boredom while my wife is at work. This was especially the case while we were in Vegas (our first assignment). Luckily lots of our friends and family came to visit us – imagine that – but for the most part, it was just our dog and me. I’m really into the video game franchise Call of Duty, so that definitely keeps me entertained. Fortunately, though, I get burnt out on it after a few hours, so it can only last so long. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to meet people in LA, so as I mentioned, I plan to keep on finding places to make new friends at other assignments.

What is the best benefit for you?

My biggest benefit is definitely the opportunity to see places I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to. We got to see Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, NM, the grand canyon, Vegas, and now LA all in 6 months. I couldn’t think of a better way to get to see all of that.

What advice would you give to someone considering the life of a Tag-a-long?
For anyone considering tagging along with a travel nurse, I would say this: Try to figure out what you will do on the downtime beforehand if it is a job, volunteering, a workout group, or a local meetup group. This will greatly help to keep you stimulated and fulfilled. Take on whatever travel and household responsibilities you can. I’ve done my best to take on the role of house husband, and it seems to be working fairly well. I also plan out getting from location to location and what we’ll do while we’re on assignment. Most obviously, treat travel as an adventure. You might give up some of the structure and conveniences you left behind at home, but the payoff is worth it.

How do Travel Nurse Spouses find Jobs?

Spouse Job Ideas

1. State or National Parks

2. Stay-at-home parent

3. Seasonal work

4. Local Temporary Staffing Firms

5. Substitute Teaching

6. Uber or Lift Driver

7. Freelancing

8. Bartending

Check out our travel nurse jobs!

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Becoming a travel nurse family

It has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

My wife is just about at the end of her current assignment.

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Why did you choose to live a life of Travel Nursing?

Do you work from Home/Internet?

What do you do when your Travel companion is working? Do you get bored? What do you do to keep active/entertained?

Do you utilize local clubs or groups like meetup.com? What is the biggest challenge for you?

What is the best benefit for you?

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