What Is A Travel Nurse?

By Adriana Noton

A travel nurse is a licensed health care provider who works different short term assignments that call for traveling. Travel nurses usually works with an agency that coordinates jobs for the nurse. A travel nurse can work any where from a hospital, physician's office, or even on individual assignments. These assignments usually last between six to twelve weeks depending on the needs of the person that has hired the nurse. The assignments can be shorter or longer depending on what the assignment is.

Any RN or LPN can be hired as a traveling nurse, but the nurses who specialize in ER and surgical services are the most desirable. Travel nurses receive the same training and education as the nurses who work permanently at a health care facility. All though some agencies may want a travel nurse to have clinical nursing training for a year.

The use of travel nurses started in the'80's, due to the shortage of qualified nurses. Travel nurses are great for clinics and hospitals because of the demands they face seasonally. Some seasons are particularly busy for certain facilities so they hire travel nurses as extra help. Once the need for extra help ceases then the travel nurses move on.

Being a travel nurse has many benefits. A travel nurse gets to see and experience many places while earning a great living. The travel nurse can also decide how far they will travel and how long they will work for each assignment. If a travel nurse gets tired of the snow, she can just simply ask for an assignment at the beach. It can truly be like your working while on vacation. They also get reimbursed for any expenses while traveling for work.

A travel nurse can also get reimbursed for any pets or family that may travel with them. Some nurses choose to travel with a friend in a type of couple travel nurse team. Being a travel nurse may not appeal to everyone. It would likely be hard to travel with school aged children if the nurse was a parent.

Housing is provided for the travel nurses and their family members if they choose to bring them. Another benefit travel nurses agree on is that there are no contracts to sign for a particular facility, but they will still receive bonuses and benefits.

Being a traveling nurse does have down sides to it too. It can become quite lonely if you are a traveling nurse and you do not have any one traveling with you. Experiencing and visiting new places without your family can be a very lonely thing to do. Another con to being a travel nurse is you can not get advancements in your job.

There are going to be draw backs and benefits to becoming a traveling nurse. You will need to decide if the benefits out weight the drawbacks before you make a decision about this. If you do decide this job is right for you I am positive that you will enjoy it. - 30436

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