Credit: Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash
The healthcare industry is facing a shortage of nurses in hospitals across the country. The concept of travel nurses was created to make quickly fill the demands for medical professionals. Assignments typically last 13-weeks in each location before moving on to the next.
Being a travel nurse is a great way to satisfy your sense of adventure while honing your professional skills. However, being away from home for weeks at a time can lead to homesickness, especially if you have pets at home. Why not just bring your pets with you on your travels? There are steps to consider before road tripping with your pet, but once you’ve prepared, it’s an open road for you and your pet.
Make Traveling With Your Pet Easier
For some people, the best part about traveling is throwing together a bag and hitting the road on a whim. If you travel for your job, more preparation is necessary. Adding your pet into the mix allows you a loyal companion for the travel, but also requires careful thought to make sure your pet’s essential needs are met.
Follow these five tips to make traveling with your pet as a travel nurse easier – on you and your pet.
1. Find Pet-Friendly Housing and Hotels
Before you can even begin to travel with your pet, you need to make sure you have accommodations that are pet-friendly. You don’t want to get to your new housing only to find out that your pet is not allowed. Recruiters can help you find pet-friendly housing in the area you’ll be working.
Depending on how far the travel is and your mode of transportation, you may also need to stop at hotels to rest. Not all hotels allow pets in the room. It’s important to find a plan a pet-friendly hotel stop along your route. Be aware that many hotels that allow pets do charge an extra deposit fee.
2. Transport Your Pet Safely
Would you feel safe driving long distances on busy roads without wearing your seatbelt? Many people make the mistake of not securing their pets in vehicles on trips. If an accident occurs, unsecured pets can be injured or escape the vehicle in the confusion.
Allowing pets to roam inside the vehicle while you’re driving can cause distractions that put both of your lives in danger. Keep traveler and pet safe by keeping pets in a crate
3. Pet Identification
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Pets get lost all the time. It can be even more difficult to recover a lost pet if you’re in an unfamiliar area or en route to a new town. Tags on the collar with the pet’s name and owner contact information is one of the most popular forms of pet identification.
However, collars and tags can fall off or be removed. Microchips that go under the pet’s skin are permanent ways to identify a pet, even if they’ve been missing for years. How many feel-good stories have you seen on the internet about a lost pet being found thousands of miles away through the information on their microchip?
4. Find a Doggy Daycare
Nurses work long hours. Depending on the type of pet, they may not do well when left unattended for hours. Dogs in particular require regular exercise and bathroom breaks that can be difficult for busy professionals to find time to provide. Finding a local doggy daycare or dog walker can provide your dog with the playtime and supervision they need so you can spend your days taking care of humans in need.
5. Explore Area with Your Pet
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Pets get bored cooped up inside just like people do. When you get your new assignments, research pet-friendly activities to do in the area. If your pet is a dog, more and more cities are building dog parks where dogs can run off-leash in a safe, enclosed area.
Exploring the local area with your pet also gives you the chance to make friends with locals and see what the city has to offer.
Pets Help Ease Stress; Help Ease Theirs
It’s been shown that pets can ease stress and improve the lives of their owners. However, that doesn’t make pets immune to stress themselves. Travel can be particularly stressful and scary for pets. The five tips mentioned can help reduce the amount of stress traveling can inflict on pets.
We hope you found these tips on traveling with your pet helpful! Here are a few more articles with great tips on traveling with your pet.
- Frequently Asked Friday: Tips for Traveling with Pets
- Travel Nurse Pets on Assignment
- Traveling with Cats: Tips from a Travel Nurse
