Travel Nurses: do I like them? do I want to be one?

It takes a special person to be a Travel Nurse. They must be confident, independent, and ready to take on whatever is thrown their way.

It sounds glamorous to travel for your job, but I would highly recommend laying the foundation to your practice and gaining experience first. It is not recommended for new grads or brand-new nurses. You will be expected to be plug-n-play, as in, "Here's your assignment, Good Luck." You are there to fill a void, to take care of patients, and operate just like staff with very little training - sometimes only one shift or a portion of one before you are expected to perform as a competent seasoned nurse. You will be given training on the specific electronic health record (EHR) that facility is using, a quick tour of where everything is, and then general workflow. You may not be fully aware of specific policies.

It is OK to ask staff about workflow such as "How often do we check VS here?" or "Which doctor do I call for this concern?" or where things are, but you should be proficient in your general nursing skills such as inserting IVs, drawing labs, inserting NG/OG tubes, monitoring IVs, dressing changes, etc. If you are asking too many questions, the staff will probably let you know. Some facilities or units have specific procedures or machine models that you are not familiar with and that is something you learn, but if staff has to walk you through too many things, you are not ready to be a travel nurse. You are risking your license because you cannot fake it til you make it as a travel nurse. A travel nurse may be held to a higher standard than staff. You are expected to be experienced.

I have worked with extremely competent travel nurse and some not-so-much. Personally, I like travel nurses. The seasoned ones know their stuff and are generally outgoing. They might be able to give insight into what it is like to be a nurse in different states or countries if you are curious. During the pandemic, I met quite a few travel nurses that travelled to areas that experienced what it was like to work in different facilities during that time and they shared what worked and what didn't work.

I worked most of my career in a unionized hospital. The Union does not seem to like travel nurses because they occupy union positions. In my facility, staff is given the opportunity to try to "block" a travel nurse coming by filling in all the shifts that they were offered. I feel like we should allow them to come because when travel nurses are utilized, it shows a need and could lead to more positions opening up.

Do I want to be a travel nurse? I wish I had known about travel nursing when I was younger. I may not have been able to do it because I already had a family with kids as a young nurse, but I still somehow feel like it was a missed opportunity. I am planning to retire from my hospital job in the next few years and am pondering whether travel nursing might not be the thing I do next. To be honest, I was burned out during the pandemic and since then, I yearn for retirement, but am not 100% sure that I can leave the job entirely.

As a travel nurse, you have the ability to choose when and whether you work or not. I used to rent out a room to travel nurses and I learned a lot from them about their lifestyle. I envy their ability to take long stretches of time off which is not possible at my hospital job (unless I have an injury/sickness or take personal leave). They enjoyed working in different cities and facilities and travelling, but almost all of them said that California was high on their list for income and low nurse ratios.

In summary, I like travel nurses. I like working with most of them. Someday, I might just become one!