What Do Travel Nurses Do and Is It Right for You?

Nursing shortages can have serious consequences for patient care, which is why many facilities turn to travel nurses to fill temporary vacancies. If you are considering nursing, becoming a travel nurse can be a great way to explore the country, meet new people, and learn from other healthcare professionals and environments.

If you are excited by the idea of travel, and you enjoy meeting new people, travel nursing may be right for you. What do travel nurses do? In this post, we will explore travel nursing, its benefits, and how you can become one.

How Does Travel Nursing Work?

Travel nurses accept assignments to work at healthcare facilities in various locations across the country. Typically, these assignments are available through travel nurse agencies, which often handle the logistics of the assignment.

To become a travel nurse, you must apply to a travel nursing agency. Once accepted, the agency will connect you with job opportunities across the country, filling vacancies at various hospitals and clinics. These are short-term assignments typically due to staff shortages caused by illness, parental leave, or similar circumstances. Assignments can last weeks to months.

Once the travel nurse identifies an ideal job opportunity, the agency sets up a virtual interview. If hired, the nurse receives a contract that specifies pay, reimbursements, and other details. The nurse travels to the new location and has a choice of staying in designated travel nursing accommodations or using the provided housing stipend to arrange for their own temporary accommodations.

At the end of the contract, the nurse is free to take a break from work or immediately jump into the next contract. In some cases, a travel nurse may agree to extend an existing contract if the hospital still needs help.

What Do Travel Nurses Do?

Now that you know the answer to the question, “How does travel nursing work?” you may be curious to discover, “What do travel nurses do?” There is no universal answer to this question, as a travel nurse may work in a wide range of nursing specialties.

A nursing specialty is an area of expertise or a professional focus. All nurses can choose a specialty, which might focus on a particular medical condition (e.g., oncology), patient population (e.g., pediatrics or women's health), environment (e.g., emergency room or ICU) and so on. There are dozens upon dozens of nursing specialties to choose from—everything from dialysis nursing to forensics nursing and beyond.

Travel nursing is not technically a nursing specialty but rather a method of employment. This means that a travel nurse could be a certified registered nurse anesthetist, family nurse practitioner, critical care nurse, or any other specialty. Because a travel nurse can have a number of different specialties, there is no set job description for travel nursing. Rather, they perform duties that align with their specialty.

In general, a travel nurse can expect to perform the duties typically expected of a registered nurse, including:

• Patient assessments
• Wound care
• Medication administration
• Records maintenance
• Lab sample collection
• IV and central line management
• Patient education

Travel nurses also generally need to complete all behind-the-scenes tasks, such as providing patient reports to the next nurse on shift and collaborating with other healthcare providers to coordinate care.

Essential Skills for Travel Nurses

Travel nurses benefit from a number of skills and qualities, which are learned through their nursing education and on-the-job experience. Some of these essential skills and characteristics include:

• Adaptability
• Resilience
• Rapid learning
• Patience
• Patient advocacy
• Collaboration
• Lifelong learning
• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking

Travel nurses must quickly adapt to new environments with each assignment. They must also be strong collaborators with versatile interpersonal skills so they can quickly learn the dynamics of each new nursing team.

Top Benefits of Choosing a Travel Nursing Career

Why choose a career in travel nursing? There are many benefits to consider, including the following:

An Adventurous Lifestyle

Travel nursing can be an ideal career choice for nurses with an adventurous spirit. If you love to see new places, meet new people, and experience new cultures, then travel nursing could be right for you. Travel nursing allows you to dive into the culture of a place in a way that a typical vacation doesn’t allow. Since you will live and work in your new destination for weeks or months, you will experience life there on a deeper level.

Self-care for nurses is essential. Learn how to incorporate self-care for nurses here.

Opportunities for Professional Growth

All nursing careers offer opportunities for professional growth and lifelong learning. However, travel nursing takes a step beyond. Since you will work within many different hospitals and health systems, you will experience a wide range of different healthcare policies, protocols, and procedures. You will be able to assess and adapt to best practices in the workplace in a way that someone who only works within one health system might not be able to.

Travel nursing also offers the chance to work with a wider range of patient populations as you move from one assignment to the next, allowing you to develop greater cultural competencies.

Robust Professional Network

As a travel nurse, you’ll make new professional connections everywhere you go. Every new nurse and healthcare professional with whom you work could become part of your professional network. If you decide to leave travel nursing and settle down somewhere on a more permanent basis, you will have a large network of contacts to draw from as you search for a new job.

Common Challenges to Be Aware Of

There are benefits and potential drawbacks to virtually everything in life. In travel nursing, common challenges include trouble finding housing, complex tax situations, and licensure issues.

However, these challenges are easily addressed. If you have trouble finding housing, you could choose the provided accommodations. Although travel nurses have more complex tax situations, a CPA can handle the paperwork for you.

Lastly, nurses need a state-issued license for the state in which they plan to work. However, travel nurses benefit from the Nursing Licensure Compact, which allows them to obtain a multistate license valid in many different states. Currently, 42 states are part of the NLC, while other states have legislation pending to allow them to join.

How to Pursue a Travel Nursing Career with an ABSN Program

How does travel nursing work if you aren’t yet a nurse? First, you’ll need to go to nursing school to earn a nursing degree.

At Concordia University Irvine, our Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program prepares students to become caring, compassionate, and competent registered nurses in any clinical setting and nursing specialty. The accelerated pathway allows students with non-nursing college experience to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in as little as 15 months.

If you have a non-nursing bachelor’s degree or a minimum of 65 college credits, you may meet the admission requirements for the program. Our ABSN is designed to leverage your previous college education and apply your experience to earning a BSN.

Below are the four steps you must take before applying to a travel nurse agency.

Apply to Nursing School

The first step to applying to nursing school is contacting an admissions counselor. At Concordia University Irvine, our admissions counselors will explain the next steps and guide you through the process.

Depending on your prior college education, you may also need to complete prerequisite courses to ensure you have the necessary academic foundation for your nursing education. Our admissions counselors will help create a prerequisite completion plan and assist you throughout the admission process.

Explore how to get into nursing school in this blog.

Earn Your BSN

Once enrolled in the ABSN program, you will work through our 15-month nursing curriculum. If you are attending Concordia University Irvine, you can choose between two learning modality options: the campus-based ABSN program in Irvine, California, or the hybrid ABSN program in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

The ABSN program also includes 765 clinical hours in nearby healthcare facilities throughout Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Inland Empire. Clinicals are designed to provide practical experience caring for patients under guidance from expert nursing faculty.

Pass the NCLEX®

After graduating with a BSN, you are ready to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX), which you must pass to qualify for a nursing license in your state. The exam is challenging and requires significant preparation. In fact, it is generally recommended to begin preparing as early as your first semester.

Instead of testing the applicant’s ability to memorize key nursing concepts, the exam evaluates their clinical judgment and nursing competency. The best way to prepare is to consistently review practice questions, complete practice exams and join NCLEX study groups early in nursing school. That way, when it comes time to take the exam, you will have undergone months of preparation.

Obtain Work Experience

After obtaining your license, you will need at least two to three years of work experience in your chosen nursing specialty before applying to a travel nurse agency. Use this time to continue refining your skills and knowledge. Then, you will be ready to begin looking for a travel nursing agency that fits your needs and preferences.

Where Will Your Nursing Career Take You?

At Concordia University Irvine, we strive to graduate caring, compassionate and highly competent nurses who are prepared to lead with integrity. As a Lutheran university, Concordia University Irvine encourages each nursing student to uphold Christian values in their treatment of the whole person—body, mind and soul.

If you’re interested in transitioning to a meaningful career in nursing, whether as a travel nurse or any other type of nurse, you can build a foundation for your future here. Contact one of our specialized admissions counselors today to find out if our ABSN program is right for you.