Find out how to become a working travel nurse in the United States today and the advantages and pay for travel nurses.

Travel nurses are used by healthcare companies when they have a staffing shortfall. A travel nurse is what? Travel nurses fill temporary positions as qualified experts in places with high nursing needs. They dash into clinics, hospitals, and other settings, providing top-notch medical attention to people all around the nation.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a staffing shortfall across the country, which increased the demand for travel nurses. According to health officials, there are two main reasons for this change: First, as reported by CNN, hospitals are having a more challenging time replacing departing staff nurses because of their fatigue and disillusionment. According to AP News, many nurses quit their stable jobs for lucrative temporary work that pays $5,000 or more per week when they work with travel nurse agencies.

Researching the duties of travel nurses, reading up on travel nursing tips, and learning about the pay and job outlook for travel nurses will be helpful for students and professionals interested in this career path.

When the population is high, there are more patients than the facility’s current personnel can handle, causing a high census.
A low census occurs when there aren’t enough patients to use the entire nursing staff. In essence, a low census shows that a facility has too many employees right now.

In many aspects, today’s professionals are similar to travel nurses. Medical staffing firms frequently employ travel nurses that specialize in finding temporary employees around the country. Agencies push for secure housing and good pay for their nurses for new assignments in exchange for a portion of what a hospital might remunerate a travel nurse.

What to Expect as a Travel Nurse: Culture Fit

Who works as a travel nurse? Travel nurses frequently take on positions in understaffed healthcare facilities. Facilities anticipate carrying out the typical nurse’s responsibilities with little to no care context. Travel nurses must therefore learn to feel at ease working in these frantic, hectic settings.

For instance, a travel nurse may accept a position at a newborn intensive care unit that is gravely understaffed. Travel nurses may need to pick up these details because the on-staff nurses might need more time or energy to go over every piece of the hospital charting system or information about particular patients.

When hired to fill a temporary role, travel nurses sign a contract. This may persist for days, weeks, months, or even longer. Travel nurses either stay put when their contracts expire or move on to another area and opportunity. Even though most postings last between eight and 26 weeks, the length of their contracts can vary. While some temporary travel nurses work to land a full-time position and find a temporary assignment they enjoy, many keep their flexible schedules and continue to travel.

The benefits of being a travel nurse are numerous. The following are some advantages of travel nursing:

Assistance with passport and work visa applications (if working internationally)
Bonuses
Location preference Competitive pay
No-cost housing
RNs receive higher than the average salary
Coverage for health, dental, and vision
Retiree programs
Choosing which hours or shifts to work
Travel compensation

Travel nursing advice and skills

Travel nurses must develop the ability to pick up new systems quickly, take criticism well, and change easily.

Personal qualities like these can help travel nurses in their work:

Rapid learning capacity. Different standards of practice and technologies are required in some healthcare settings. Travel nurses must swiftly grasp new procedures and technologies.
The ability to persevere amid arduous circumstances. Numerous difficulties come with moving to other states, continually being the “new nurse,” and caring for challenging patients. Travel nurses must be able to handle these difficulties.
Flexibility. Travel nurses can design their schedules in conjunction with the organizations they work with. Travel nurses, for instance, might work nine weeks straight on the other side of the country before taking a month off.
Being at ease working in unfamiliar environments Travel nurses frequently have to adjust to organizations and care teams that lack the necessary resources to function effectively.
A solid network of support. Travel nurses may have to stay away from their families and friends to accept temporary jobs. For a travel nurse to work long-term in demanding assignments, having a supportive individual or group of people who can serve as an emotional sounding board can be essential.

Being a Travel Nurse in Crisis: Pandemic Pressure

Throughout the epidemic, demand for travel nurses has increased. Rising clinician burnout is still a complex problem in the healthcare industry. Burnout symptoms are present in nurses and doctors due to pandemic pressures. These signs of burnout include:

Extreme emotional weariness
Extremely depersonalized
A meager sense of accomplishment at work

The pandemic’s additional stressors, such as unusually high patient mortality rates, a lack of personal protective equipment, political decisiveness regarding pandemic precautions, and divisive public reactions to the vaccine rollout, have undoubtedly put the most strain on nurses.

Hospitals and health systems have depended on travel nurses to fill the gap left by the high rate of nursing burnout. Healthcare organizations are paying exorbitant prices for desperately needed personnel due to a severe staffing shortage.

Getting Started as a Travel Nurse

Current and future nurses may be interested in learning how to become travel nurses after learning what being a travel nurse entails and what a travel nurse does.

The following actions are necessary to become a travel nurse:

obtaining an ASN or BSN
getting a registered nurse license by passing the NCLEX (RN)
gaining practical experience in work
obtaining a license
joining a travel nurse staffing organization
Work for a travel nursing company
Joining a travel nursing agency is the last step to becoming a travel nurse.

Each staffing company will have different benefits, depending on their alliances with particular hospitals or healthcare networks, regions of the country, or even nursing specialties.

Experience the job market as a qualified travel nurse

Travelling nurses have more opportunities because they provide patient services. They are employed by independent employment firms seeking RNs to fill domestic and international roles. Nurses ready to take the risk, quit their regular nursing positions, and work in high-need regions around the nation might expect a rewarding career. It is difficult for hospitals and clinics to maintain their staffing requirements due to the ongoing nursing shortage. Travel nurses can help with ongoing staffing issues and temporarily fill in for absent nurses. Travel nurses only sometimes have to work in other states; some work in understaffed local hospitals. Being a travel nurse can be a rewarding career choice for nurses looking for new experiences, who like to meet new people and travel to new places, and who want to learn about healthcare in other communities.

Find out more about the opportunities Emonics Healthcare has for nursing students!