Being a travel nurse is something that people are slowly starting to be interested in turning into their career since they are able to expound their experience while being able to explore our beautiful country as they travel from state to state to help people. But despite the passion, people might not know how and where to start. There are some travel nurse solutions by Gifted Healthcare that you could look into, and here are 5 things to consider before becoming a travel nurse to help you out.
Things to Consider Before Becoming a Travel Nurse
- Recruiter
Aside from finding the right staffing company for you, looking for a recruiter who knows your goals, trust, understands, and works for the betterment of you as a person and your career. In this industry, having someone who knows you and knows where you are the fittest would be extremely beneficial for you.
When you are looking for a recruiter fit for you, you have to really be thorough and lookout. Don’t be afraid to ask any questions that would help you in determining your personality and would be able to fit your communication style since you are going to be working together as you make your way and be a travel nurse.
- Contract terms
Before you sign anything and put your commitment into an assignment, it is important that you go through the terms of your contract and bring up possible issues that you may have when it comes to it.
Your pay rates and the length of your assignments are all included in the terms and conditions of your contract. You need to understand your contract because the contract that you would have is different from the contract that permanent staff nurses are offered since you are only going to be there for a traditional length of 13 weeks.
- Housing
There are a lot of housing options that are available to you, depending on where your assignment is. There are a lot of companies that would be able to offer you free and private options, but they would also give you the option of arranging and paying for your own housing, giving your a monthly housing subsidy instead since your housing may depend on if you are bringing someone with you or if it’s simply just your preference.
- Staffing Company
As you begin your journey as a travel nurse, you are going to have to look for a staffing company that you trust to represent you and help you go forward in your career. When you are looking for a staffing company to work with, you have to look at the overall reputation of the company, their experience, if they are certified, all of the roasters, locations, facilities, and specialties that they could give you for your assignment, agreements with the said facility, and your pay rates and benefits.
- Experience
Experience is also something that you are going to have to take into consideration when you are planning on becoming a travel nurse for your career. This would depend on any facility, specialty, and region that you are interested in, but you need to rack up on experiences so that you could pop out compared to the rest of the nurses who are also applying for that temporary job.
The most common requirement that most facilities have for travel nurses would have to be at least 18 months of experience in the specialty that you are applying for.
How do You prepare for a traveling nurse job?
- Research
When you are preparing to start your journey as a travel nurse, you have to do your research. Research on some agencies that you could partner with, some of the benefits that each of these agencies offers if you need savings that you could use to fall back into, and other different locations that you may be interested in possibly working in.
- Plan ahead
You may notice that most travel nursing assignments usually last 13 weeks, so while you have time, you could consider having to plan ahead of time so that you could sightsee around the new environment that you are going to temporarily work in, all of the new possible restaurants that you are interested to try, and some other facilities or places that you could visit so that you could do your hobbies, like hiking trails.
- Connect with other travel nurses
The best people to talk to in order to better prepare for your adventurous journey as a travel nurse than travel nurses themselves since they are the people who are already currently doing the job that you are interested in getting into. There are some social media groups and conferences that you could use to connect with them and ask around for the best agencies and other questions that you may have.
- Get more experience
A lot of travel nursing agencies require you to have at least a year of nursing experience before you could officially call yourself a travel nurse since you are going to have all of the basics down before you are going to be trusted to handle other assignments as you are thrust into more nursing jobs.
As you prepare yourself to be a travel nurse and make it your career, you have to remember that being a travel nurse means that you are comfortable with change since you are going to have to hop from one hospital or healthcare facility to another.
