The Life of a Travel Nurse
If you’re reading this blog post, you’ve probably heard of travel nursing – flexible long- and short- term assignments for healthcare workers across the country. You may even know that travel nurses have the potential to pull in higher rates than permanent ones.
That said, do you know what it’s like to be a full-time travel nurse? At Barton Healthcare Staffing, we work with a variety of “full-time travelers”, or travel nurses who take temporary gigs as a full-time career. Getting 100 percent of their income from travel nursing, these healthcare professionals experience a number of unique benefits, such as schedule flexibility, ability to take time off, and more.
Do you think you might be a good fit for the travel nurse lifestyle? Ask yourself the questions below to get an idea!
Am I Willing to Travel?
Full-time travel nurses are willing to go where the jobs are – and they recognize that those jobs aren’t always going to be within 50 miles of their hometown.
This may mean traveling to work in a state that you’ve never been to before, or getting a new license in order to take a job. The idea of traveling to another state can be intimidating at first, but that is why having an experienced Barton Healthcare Staffing specialist by your side is valuable.
Take Jacque B., for example. She had never been on a travel assignment before until meeting Barton Healthcare Staffing “I am on my first travel assignment and [my recruiter] has been amazing,” she said. “[My recruiter] has helped me through the whole process more than I ever could have expected.”
Are you willing to try something new like Jacque? Do you see traveling to different states as an adventure, or an essential part of your plan to visit all 50 states? Keep reading!
Am I Open to New Healthcare Environments?
This one should go without saying – but it’s an important factor to think about if you are thinking of pursuing travel nursing full-time.
Full-time travel nurses, once they’ve worked long enough, may have a few facilities that they work at on rotation – for example, if a certain facility needs them every summer and another needs them for one month every spring.
In the beginning, however, working in new settings and facilities is part of the job – and the best travel nurses take well to new environments, acclimating quickly to factors like the staff, EMR, and patient population.
How Flexible is My Schedule?
In addition to location and setting flexibility, the ideal travel nurse has a flexible schedule, as well – which allows more options when it comes to booking out assignments.
For example, a travel nurse who has full-time availability will have a much wider range of job options than someone who has part-time availability, or such as two Tuesdays a month.
That’s not to say that the second nurse won’t be able to find work, but the first will have a lot more options to choose from. It will likely be the difference between finding a travel assignment right away and waiting a while for the right opportunity to come along.
