Many people are asking the question: “What are travel nurse jobs, and why are they needed?” Travel nursing is not a completely new idea as this type of nursing was started as far back as 1971. Travel nursing was created to fill a need. Sometimes hospitals were in need of help due to vacations, maternity leave, injuries, or other reasons that could lead to them being short handed. Paid vacation was especially hard on many hospitals when several nurses took time off at the same time, or temporary needs could go up because of travel. One example would be elderly who went from summer climates in the south to spending hot months in the north, then travel back to the south to avoid cold winters. This could lead to busy seasons for hospitals which were then overstaffed when there were less people around. Travel nurses could help solve this issue.
While this type of travel nursing still exists, travel nurses do so much more in modern times. Today, travel nursing not only keeps up with those north and south seasonal migrations, but also serve on a variety of other capacities. Cruise lines, summer vacation lodges, winter vacation lodges, and resorts are just a few of the employers in need of travel nurses throughout the year. These positions are not just limited to being within the U.S. either. Travel nurse jobs now fill a variety of vital gaps caused by nursing shortages anywhere.
Nurses interested in taking on new challenges and seeing new places may want to take a look at travel nurse jobs that can provide both without having to give up the safety of a well liked home or apartment. In many ways, a travel nurse job allows the individual nurse to “call the shots” in that they have flexible hours, can choose to change locations, meet new people, and continue to gain invaluable experience and skills.
Travel nursing enables the nurse to constantly be challenged as they have to keep on learning new skills and staying up to date on the most recent technologies and practices while getting hands-on training across a wide range of hospitals and fields within healthcare. Assignments can range between 13 to 26 weeks on average, giving the nurse time to be acclimated to a new setting to be effective but also still offering new experiences, which can prevent boredom and feelings of ‘being in a rut’.
When you take travel nurse jobs, you become your own travel agent. Since there are over 300 travel nurse companies in the U.S. alone, YOU decide where you want to go, how long, and what kind of assignments you want to take. For example, at this time do you want to work with children? Or perhaps you’d enjoy telemetry or med surg but can’t ask for a transfer at your current facility due to staffing or seniority issues? Well, then travel nurse jobs may be just the ticket for you.
As you think of travel nursing, you must be able to ask these questions; have you had at least one year of acute care experience? Are you ready for something new? Can you work independently with minimal direction? If you can answer yes to these questions, go ahead and look on the internet, local paper, nursing blog or travel nursing websites to start looking for an exciting new career.
Attention all nurses! Experienced RN’s, LPN’s, and LVN’s can have their choice of travel nurse jobs anywhere in the U.S. An expert author in the nursing profession, Marc Arlen, will let you know the requirements of this exciting profession. To learn much more about travel nursing, please visit his website.