There are many benefits of travel nursing are that attract passionate nurses seeking to improve their skills. While it is also important to weigh the pros and cons, Utica University can help you prepare to pursue your dreams in travel nursing. Read on to discover travel nurse benefits.
As a travel nurse, you will have the opportunity to travel to different hospitals and medical facilities, filling whatever need that the facility might have for short periods of time – typically around three months. You will typically work for a travel nursing agency that will help you find opportunities and provide assignments for work.
To discover more about what life as a travel nurse looks like, here is some additional information answering, “what does a travel nurse do?”
When it comes to travel nursing, adventure and pay are the two benefits that are most often touted. However, travel nursing has many other benefits, including benefits for your nursing career in general. Here are seven such benefits of travel nursing to consider.
1. Travel Nursing Can Help You Make a Quick Change
If you’re able and willing to make a move, then travel nursing is a quick and easy way to make a job change. You can potentially be up and running with a new job in a matter of weeks thanks to the quick-hire nature of travel nursing jobs. Moreover, you’ll only be committed to your new job for a period of three to six months, so you don’t need to worry about vetting the employer for long-term viability.
Of course, you may be happy with your job, but unsatisfied with where you live. Perhaps your current city is too boring and small, or too hectic and big for your liking. Travel nursing can help you get a change of scenery quickly.
2. Travel Nursing Can Help You Determine Your Ideal Setting
Hospitals come in all shapes and sizes. They have different trauma designations. Some are teaching facilities and some aren’t. Some are world-renowned for some specialty or another, while others are not. All of these variables can affect your professional life as a nurse.
As a travel nurse, you can target any type of hospital you’re interested in to get an idea of what professional life will be like in a particular setting. You can move from setting to setting to find out what works best for you.
3. Travel Nursing Can Help Improve Your Adaptability
Adaptability and flexibility have long been recognized as fundamental traits for success in the nursing profession. Each day may present new patients and new challenges. Hospitals tend to be a more stressful environment than most which leads to increased volatility. Meanwhile, processes and procedures in the healthcare industry are constantly changing.
As a travel nurse, you’ll move to new facilities on a continuous basis. As a result, you’ll be required to pick up new systems and collaborate with new coworkers in each move. This process is certain to hone your adaptability skills which will help you advance your career in the long run.
4. Travel Nursing Can Increase Your Skill Set Quickly
It’s easy to get the impression that nursing is the same from facility to facility. A unit in one hospital may not take the same types of patients as that unit in another hospital. As such, the nursing experience in both of these units might be dramatically different.
Equipment, computer charting systems, and many aspects of nursing vary from facility to facility. Therefore, your opportunity to expand your skill set will be much greater as a travel nurse by virtue of working with many different facilities.
5. Travel Nursing Can Enhance Your Process Improvement Skills
"Process improvement" has been a buzzword in healthcare for quite some time. This should come as no surprise. It’s no secret that various trends have led to nurses spending more time on non-patient-related activities. Meanwhile, hospitals are now driven by federal payment incentives to improve patient care. As a result, improving processes so that nurses can spend more time involved and interacting with patients has become a priority.
Hospitals are looking for candidates that can help them achieve these goals. As central players in the delivery of care, nurses are able to make major contributions in this regard.
As a travel nurse, you will be exposed to a new set of processes and procedures with each new assignment. You’ll be able to see what works and what does not. As a result, you’ll gain a unique perspective that can help you make major contributions to process improvement the next time you take a permanent job.
6. Travel Nursing Can Improve the Marketability Of Your Nursing Resume
One of the most common resume tips you’ll hear these days is to tailor your resume to the specific job it’s being submitted for. This is easier said than done. As this article from BluePipes Blog points out, there are many details that prospective employers are interested in seeing on a nursing resume.
As a travel nurse, you’ll gain experience in many different settings. You’ll work in large hospitals and small hospitals, work with many different computer charting systems, and care for different types of patients. By widening your experience, you’ll expand your resume to coincide with the needs of more employers, thereby increasing your marketability.
7. You Can Build an Amazing Professional Network
Networking is the single most effective way to land jobs and advance your career. A nurse’s ability to contribute to the healthcare delivery system is greatly enhanced by having a more robust professional network. A strong professional network also helps nurses keep up with new trends and provides a support group that a nurse can rely on during tough times.
If you seize the opportunity to connect with your new colleagues and use social media to keep those connections relevant, then you will most certainly build a very robust professional network.
By keeping these seven aspects of travel nursing in mind, you can potentially benefit from travel nursing in ways that can enhance your nursing career.
Pros and Cons of Travel Nursing
Now that you have learned some benefits, it’s time to weigh a few pros and cons of travel nursing.
Pros:
- As a travel nurse you will experience life as an adventure and get to make a career out of it!
- A huge point of interest for prospective travel nurses is having the opportunity to see and live in new places every few months without having to take time off work.
- For nurses who aren’t quite ready to choose just one specialty, travel nursing is a way to experience new roles in different hospitals.
- Travel nursing agencies will typically allow their nurses to have autonomy over where they move and what area they work in. This provides freedom to fit the nurse’s personal needs.
Cons:
- Being away from your support system can be very difficult for travel nurses as they can feel lonely and isolated while always working in new places.
- Living on the road can be difficult when you don’t have time to put down roots and build relationships with people.
- Because you will be changing positions every few months, you will always have to be job searching and on the lookout for the next move.
- With the added freedom of travel nursing comes added responsibilities. Filing taxes is much more complicated and you have to make sure you are always following the guidelines of your contract.
Wondering if you have what it takes to become a nurse? Here are six signs that nursing is the right career for you.
Still wondering if the benefits of travel nursing make it a good fit for you? Making the leap to become a travel nurse can feel like a big decision and should not be made lightly. The Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Utica University can help you discover what nursing path is your best fit.
If you are interested in becoming a nurse and already have a bachelor's degree, contact us today to speak with an admissions advisor.
