Surely, it has happened to you more than once: you are curious about how it would be to be a travel nurse. So, whether you want to travel along the U.S. or feel tempted for financial gains you might obtain, this article will give you five reasons why we think you should try travel nursing at least once.
1) Higher earnings
According to Nurse.org¹, before the COVID-19 pandemic, travel nurses typically earned more than $3.000 a week. Travel nurses can earn generous salaries: this includes some benefits such as health insurance and 401Ks. Also, some jobs will offer a referral bonus to RNs who refer other travel nurses. It’s also important to consider the tax benefits for lodging, meals, and incidental expenditures. So this is the first benefit: You can make more money.
2) Avoid nurse burnout
Nursing can be very stressful. Nurse burnout is something widespread in permanent nurses. If you feel tired of leading with hospital politics, or maybe your career can be stuck in the same place, travel nursing can be the injection of energy you need. Experiencing new ways of doing things in different hospitals, states and working with new people can give you a breath of fresh air to your career.
3) Liberty
One of the most flexible occupations for Registered Nurses is travel nursing: When you work as a travel nurse, you have the liberty to pick where you serve, the days you work, and how long you work. Depending on the hospital and available role, travel nursing assignments often run eight to thirteen weeks.
Consider giving an opportunity to travel nursing if you appreciate having a sense of personal independence. In many circumstances, you will have the freedom to choose when and where to work, and you will be able to choose between tasks that last a few weeks or simply a few days. For example, you could locate a job in a region where you have an important upcoming event, or you’re curious about how living in that city could be.
4) More experience
You can find many travel nursing opportunities across the country: from small rural hospitals to large medical centers in bigger cities where you may have to adapt to the latest technology. You may gain vast experience that you won’t achieve if you stand in your comfort zone. You can learn a lot from different teams, places, and ways to organize the work. Each experience helps you grow as a nurse. A new environment, new colleagues and new clinical skills will make you see a very flexible nurse, learning best practices from different perspectives.
5) New professional and personal connections
Another valuable benefit of being a travel nurse is meeting new people and making connections in each work assignment.
Networking is a great strategy. Some of the people you meet and connect with as a travel nurse can open new professional doors for you or become good friends. Two of the most crucial factors in landing that dream job as a nurse are gaining:
- the best education and experience for the role you are pursuing,
- and the connections to achieve that position.
Final
Travel nursing is something you might try at least once in your life. It’s exciting but scary:
You will get out of your comfort zone and come back as a different person. Also, studying while traveling nursing is possible with online programs, so you can mix both activities and come back from the experience as a completely new person and professional expert.
We hope this article lightens the wick to jump into your adventure as a travel nurse! Do you have any experience as a travel nurse? Are there some other advantages that we have missed in this article? Drop a comment below!
References
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https://nurse.org/articles/how-to-make-the-most-money-as-a-travel-nurse/
