There are numerous perks to being a travel nurse. You get to see the many different and varied parts of the country, you tend to enjoy a larger salary then your stay at home contemporaries, if you can’t stand your co-workers you at least have the knowledge that you’ll only have to deal with them for a short period of time before you can move onto a whole new set of co-workers. Most travel nurses have great dental and health plans. You are constantly expanding on your working educations. You get to work with a wide variety of patients. Your traveling expenses are usually paid either by your travel nursing agency or your temporary employer. You seldom have to worry about finding a new home. You are making new friends all over the country. In some cases if you and your best friend are both travel nurses you can work side by side with a familiar face. The benefits are lucrative. You are probably part of a great reward program. Your temporary housing is fully furnished.
The down side to travel nursing is if you are a pet lover. The lifestyle of a travel nurse is not well suited for keeping a pet of your own.
One of the big reasons you will probably have to find a new home for your dog and/or cat is all the traveling you will be doing. It is difficult and stressful for a dog or cat to be constantly moving from one part… Read the rest
For the most part the life of a travel nurse seems to be for nurse that are in the dawn of their careers before they relationships, families, and other responsibilities that force them to find permanent employment. The other time that many nurses become interested in an occupation as a travel nurse is towards the end of their careers, after their children move out of the house, leaving their parents free to pursue nomadic whims.
It happens, especially to the younger nurses, that they are working at a travel nurse assignment and find that they fall in love with the city they are in, they adore their co-workers, or they find the job so rewarding they want to keep it.
When a nurse finds an assignment that they don’t want to give up is consider the contract they signed with their nursing agency. If they signed a contract that has a time line it is going to be difficult to get out of the contract and accept a permanent working position. Nurses that have long term, binding contracts with an agency will probably find that they have to work as a travel nurse long enough to fulfill their contract. Once they have worked out the terms of their contract they can go back to the hospital or medical facility that they enjoyed so much and seek a permanent position.
Sometimes travel nurses will find out that the temporary position they are currently filling is just that, temporary. For… Read the rest
Travel nurses do not find employment working at various hospitals by themselves. They find employment when they have their application accepted at a travel nursing agency. Travel nursing agencies are agencies that match available travel nursing employment up with available travel nurses. Because their financial fate hinges on the nursing travel agency, it is important that travel nurses find a good agency.
The first thing travel nurses have to consider is that it is the travel nursing agency, not the hospital, that pays their salary. The hospital cuts a check to the agency, who then uses that money to pay the travel nurse. Before applying at the travel nursing agency the nurse should ask how often they will be receiving checks from the agency, do they get paid weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, or do they only get paid when the job has been completed. It is important to know how often you can plan on receiving a check so that you will be able to plan a budget. Talk to other nurses who are employed through the agency, find out how happy they are with the agency’s payment plan.
Try to find out how often travel nurses employed through the agency are working. Are they able to find employment twelve months a year if they want it, or do they find that they have long periods of idleness in between jobs. If the travel nurses who are working through the travel nursing agency have long periods between jobs find out if… Read the rest
To anyone who has spent weeks and even months combing the classified section of their local newspapers looking for jobs, or the person working out of a temp agency who can only find employment that lasts for a couple of days or a few weeks it seems incomprehensible that a travel nurse is able to finish working on one assignment, pack their bags, and move seamlessly onto a new assignment in a different state. A good travel nurse doesn’t have to return to their home town if they time their assignments right. It might sound incomprehensible but that is what happens.
If you stop to consider the situation travel nurses aren’t really employed by the hospitals and medical facilities where they are working. Travel nurses are technically employed by the nursing agency. The agency gives each travel nurse a travel allowance. They find and in some cases fund the travel nurse’s housing. They make sure that the travel nurse is legally able to work in each state. Most importantly the travel nurse’s agency is the place where the paychecks come from.
The nurse’s agency is where the travel nurse gets their latest work assignment. Each agency has their own policy for matching travel nurses with work assignments. Some agency’s match new assignments with nurses who qualify for the position and are available to take it. Other agency’s post a job board on their agencies website. When it is time for a travel nurse to find a new assignment they simply… Read the rest
Working as a travel nurse can be a fun career that is filled with new faces and exciting adventures. Working as a travel nurse can also be a very lonely profession.
Travel nurses are nurses who make a living traveling from hospital to medical facility, moving from state to state. Traveling nurses temporarily fill positions at hospitals and medical facilities for a short period of time. Typically travel nurses work at an assignment for three to six months before they move onto another position. If a travel nurse works several back to back assignments if can be years before they get back to their home town to spend quality time with family and friends.
One way to alleviate the loneliness is to work tandem with a friend. Two nursing friends, often a pair who went through nursing school together, joins a agency that specializes in finding positions for travel nurses at the same time. Once their applications have been accepted at the agency the two friends scan the agency’s available jobs and find two assignments available at the same hospital or medical facility. If they are unable to find jobs in the same facility the friends might be able to find assignments in the same town.
Travel nurses that work in pairs know that when they leave on a new assignment that they will see at least on friendly face when they get to a new town in a new state. When they start their new job they know… Read the rest
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