Unique Specialties and Opportunities in Travel Nursing
By Melissa Wirkus, contributor
The travel nursing industry has gone through quite an evolution in the last few years, and today it's not just the traditional specialties such as med-surg, ICU or ER that are in demand for travel assignments.
Specialties you may have never thought about for travel are now on the “hot” list being offered by hospitals. Between health care reform, technological advances and our nation’s aging population, nurses with specialized, blended and unique skill sets can now find more travel opportunities than ever before.
Unique Travel Nursing Specialties
Case Manager
Cath Lab
Dialysis
Endoscopy
EP Lab
First Assist
Home Health
Hospice
House Supervisor
Infection Control
Interventional Radiology
Nurse Manager
OR - Eye Surgery
PICC Certified RN
Utilization Review
Wound Care / WOCN
Up and Coming Specialties in High Demand
Janet Peterson, RN, BSN, senior clinical liaison for leading travel nurse staffing company American Mobile Healthcare, an AMN Healthcare company, said she began seeing nurses with unique specialty experience applying to travel within the last five years, and an interest from facilities looking for travelers with highly specialized skills has followed.
“When we began to speak with client facilities about their needs in these more specialized areas, the orders began to roll in once they realized we had experienced nurses available to them,” Peterson explained.
American Mobile has seen an increase in travel nursing assignments in specialized areas including acute care case management and utilization review, cath lab, EP lab, interventional radiology, endoscopy, home health, hospice, home infusion, pre-/post- op, ambulatory PACU and OR, and outpatient oncology, Peterson said.
Nancy Sedwitz, senior clinical analyst for American Mobile, said that although the traditional travel nursing specialties are still in high demand, the increase in travel nurse assignments for nurses who work in unique specialties is changing the way nurses are hired.
“We are seeing an increase in opportunities in new specialties and settings. Facilities are posting orders for these specialties and for management positions in acute care all across the country,” Sedwitz said. “High quality, experienced RNs are applying and being matched with these opportunities now.”
Expand Your Experience and Advance Your Career
Expanding your clinical expertise through continuing education, an advanced degree, certifications or through hospital experience will continue to be an essential part of advancing your nursing career as hospitals look for the best travelers to meet their distinctive needs.
Nurses with a solid foundation of baseline nursing experience combined with proven abilities in highly specialized areas will find more and more travel nurse opportunities available to them.
“The more areas a nurse is experienced in, the more opportunities are available to that nurse,” Peterson noted. “The numbers of nurses experienced in unique specialties is proportionately less than the number of nurses with basic med-surg experience. It is a great career strategy for a nurse to expand their experiences, as it makes that nurse more marketable.”
Sedwitz recommends nurses volunteer to float to other units which can lead to transfers to other areas and new skills and experiences.
“Be open to floating and develop a relationship with nurse managers and charge nurses who can be utilized as references at a later date. Offer to be cross-trained in another area to fill in for vacations or leaves of absences,” Sedwitz advises. “The ultimate goal is to log at least four to six months of consistent experience working in the unique specialty to qualify for travel assignment in that area; management experience is a minimum of one year.”
Continuing education courses and specialty certifications are also an excellent way to gain the required experience and knowledge in a new or more specialized area.
“Seeking education online or at university extension and getting certifications in the specialty such as PICC certification, WOCN for wound care, and others also serve to market the nurse in that specialty,” she said.
Communicate Experience and Skills to Your Recruiter or Travel Company
In order to take advantage of some of these more unusual travel opportunities, it is essential to communicate your experience and skill sets to your current recruiter or to your travel nursing agency if you are just starting the application process.
If your recruiter does not know the full range of your nursing experience, he or she will be unable to match you with an open position in a unique specialty that fits your background.
Most travel nurse agencies, including American Mobile, have their travelers fill out detailed skills checklist forms so they have each nurse’s comprehensive experience history on file. Be sure to fill out the skills checklist early in the process, and fill out one for each specialty in which you have experience. Updating your skills checklists anytime your experience changes or you add to your list of credentials will definitely give you the upper hand when searching for your next unique travel nursing opportunity.
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