There are numerous reasons to become a travel nurse for those operating in the healthcare field.
It includes high earning potential, travel benefits, career diversity, visiting fantastic locations, and schedule freedom.
Travel nurses also benefit from scouting locations they may want to live and establishing new, meaningful relationships.
This article covers ten great reasons to become a travel nurse for those considering a career change!
1. High Earning Potential
Travel nurses work on temporary assignments filling vacant positions at short-staffed hospitals and healthcare facilities.
As a result, most places pay travel nurses well to incentivize them to accept these positions.
Some travel nurses make two to three times the hourly pay of staff nurses.
In these cases, they maximize their income by working in states offering excellent pay, benefits, and accommodations.
It enables hard-working travel nurses to earn six-figure incomes and benefits those living in lower-salary states.
For instance, states like Texas, California, and New York pay travel nurses exceptionally well.
The healthcare facilities in these states require adequate staffing to accommodate patient needs, especially in busy cities.
Therefore, these locations highly incentivize travel nurses to accept their temporary work assignments.
It enables facilities to meet patient demands while paying travel nurses a premium for their services and assistance.
2. Freedom and Flexibility
One of the fantastic things about being a travel nurse is choosing from various work assignments.
Travel nurses can accept or decline the job offers they receive from travel nursing agencies.
However, these professionals must display their skills and develop desirable resumes that entice hospitals to hire them.
Highly desirable travel nurses have the opportunity to manage their work-life balance better.
They can choose when to work and when to take a long break.
For instance, a travel nurse may take a three-month assignment to help a hospital in another state.
After completing the assignment, you can take a month or more off before picking another temporary job.
It’s great for nurses who desire long breaks to recover, travel, spend time with friends and family, or enjoy leisurely activities.
Some travel nurses schedule assignments before summer breaks and holidays so they have time off during these periods.
3. Travel Benefits
Travel nurses receive numerous benefits beyond extra pay.
It includes travel stipends, housing accommodations, rental/loaner car services, healthcare benefits, and other incentives.
Some facilities offer permanent positions and relocation pay after an assignment for those considering permanent work.
Nevertheless, working with several established travel nursing agencies is essential to ensure you receive the best benefits.
No one agency provides all of the job opportunities travel nurses can pursue.
Various agencies also provide different benefits due to their relationships with the hospitals/healthcare facilities.
As a result, you must examine different travel agencies and pick the ones that suit your needs if you become a travel nurse.
Travel Nurse Incentives:
- Tax-free travel reimbursement
- 401k contributions
- A rental or loaner car
- High-end health insurance
- Sign-on/completion bonuses
- Increased pay/wages
- Guaranteed pay
- License reimbursement or reimbursement for continuing education courses
- Paid luxury housing
- Relocation pay
- Opportunity to choose your assignments
- Permanent job offerings after completion of an assignment
4. Career Diversity
Every travel job a nurse purses during their temporary assignments is unique and distinct.
As a result, they often accept different roles throughout their careers to accommodate each healthcare facility’s needs.
Travel nurses can work in a hospital’s operating room on one assignment and labor and delivery on another job.
It enables qualified travel nurses to obtain work experience in different departments and disciplines.
Over time, travel nurses develop many unique skills that provide employment and career advancement opportunities.
Staff nurses may work for years in one department, while travel nurses can work in five or six specializations over a year.
In addition to working in different fields, travel nurses may also work for prestigious hospitals with excellent resources.
Working in different settings with various specialists and resources provides insights that aren’t possible from a signal job.
5. Visit Fantastic Locations
Travel nurses have the opportunity to visit unique locations throughout the United States.
For instance, they can travel to New York City, Boston, Colorado, Los Angeles, Texas, San Diago, and other exciting places.
Travel nurses can also pursue work in fascinating cities or take assignments in quiet rural areas.
As you can expect, every location has unique cultures, weather, and activities.
As a travel nurse, you can explore different aspects of the country and pick the climate, culture, and lifestyle that thrill you.
6. Avoid Office Politics
The healthcare industry is vital to the health and well-being of the communities and neighborhoods they serve.
In addition, countless healthcare workers significantly impact the lives of the patient they help in many positive ways.
Being a nurse is highly challenging, yet, it’s also rewarding and meaningful work.
Unfortunately, some hospitals and healthcare facilities have toxic cultures that make it challenging to enjoy one’s job.
Office politics are commonplace in most careers, including nursing.
As a travel nurse, you benefit from working on temporary assignments rather than remaining at one facility for years.
Accordingly, you can avoid office politics and toxic cultures by declining undesirable jobs from facilities with poor reputations.
You can also decide not to renew your contract if the culture doesn’t fit you when an assignment ends.
Best of all, you can understand what you like/dislike about specific fields and work settings without a long-term commitment.
7. Scout Out Where You Want to Live
As a travel nurse, you’ll work on various temporary assignments throughout the United States or overseas.
As a result, this profession is a fantastic way to scout future locations you want to live.
You can determine whether a particular state/location has the desired culture, amenities, climate, and price range.
Countless people move to a new state, assuming they’ll love it without prior experience or knowledge.
It’s risky to move without understanding the location because it’s relatively expensive and requires a lot of planning.
You also won’t know the culture and moods of the people you’ll meet in an unfamiliar state/city.
Travel nursing is more valuable than packing your bags and moving without knowing whether you’ll like the new location.
You get to spend time meeting people, working in different settings, and learning the costs and culture of the location.
As a result, there is a treasure trove of value in learning about new locations as a travel nurse.
Once you’ve found several desirable areas, you can plan where to relocate.
Some healthcare facilities even offer permanent jobs and relocation restitution for travel nurses who want to move.
Therefore, you can save a lot of money by taking permanent job offers from hospitals looking to hire you full-time.
8. Develop New Relationships and Connections
Working in diverse healthcare settings requires nurses to adapt to different cultures, communities, and mindsets.
As a result, travel nurses learn to develop better people skills to address various problems and concerns.
It also enables travel nurses to form new relationships and connections.
Your connections provide numerous benefits, including learning valuable skills, obtaining jobs, and making new friends.
Those who develop strong relationships may even find people to show them around town to learn about the culture and city.
9. Fewer Occupational Obligations
Unlike staff nurses who spend years working at a hospital, travel nurses only work at a specific location few weeks/months.
Travel nurses must adequately accommodate the healthcare facility, support its staffing and manage their nursing duties.
However, they have fewer obligations because they don’t have the same demands as long-term staff nurses.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities understand that travel nurses only provide temporary support.
Therefore, they’re less likely to require travel nurses to commit to long-term facility commitments.
It includes attending specific meetings, long-term pledges, office politics, and mandatory overtime/shifts for staff nurses.
You only need to manage your responsibilities for the day-to-day or weekly tasks until the assignment is over.
10. Closer Proximity to Family and Friends
Travel jobs require nurses to relocate to other cities, states, and even countries for temporary assignments.
Those whose family and friends all live locally must accept that they’ll be gone for weeks or months.
However, nurses with friends and family who live in different states may benefit from travel nursing.
This profession enables them to pick assignments near family and friends far from the travel nurses’ residences.
For instance, a travel nurse who lives in New York but has friends in Texas may accept job assignments in Dallas or Houston.
It enables them to spend much more time and closeness with those they care about and want to see.
It’s also much less expensive because travel assignments provide housing, rental/loaner cars, and a travel stipend!
Travel nurses don’t have to request time off like staff nurses to go on a short vacation to see friends or family.
They also don’t have to worry about the typical vacation costs.
Travel nurses living with family during an assignment can make much more money.
Instead of receiving housing, travel nurses can take a travel stipend that includes the necessary money to rent a place.
They can then keep the money and stay with family or friends for free.
That said, it’s essential to consult the travel nursing agency to determine whether this option is available.