Top 3 Reasons Why Nurses Become Travel Nurses
By Aaron Moore, MSN, RN-BC, travel nurse expert
Why do nurses become travel nurses?
Everyone may have their own unique reasons, but in my book, it all boils down to three major reasons:
1. Life experience: The adventure of it all
Travel is exciting. It changes you.
And as a travel nurse, you are more than a tourist: you’re an explorer.
Road trips are the beginning of your travel nurse adventures. And the ability to live in someplace new for 13 weeks or so gives you so much freedom.
You can take someone along on your travel assignments, or you can share your adventures by inviting your peeps to visit. Plus, travel nursing is great way to meet exciting new people, expand your circle of friends and enjoy great times.
New experiences abound for travel nurses on assignment: new foods, new places and more stuff to see and do will leave you more “cultured” than when you started. To me this is the heart and soul of travel nursing.
I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t worked as a travel nurse. It expanded my knowledge, my tastes, and my acceptance of differences—not to mention my sense of adventure and spontaneity.
2. Nursing job experience: Expanding your skills
If you want to gain confidence in your own nursing abilities, travel nursing jobs can do that for you.
Nothing can compare to the vast experience of travel nursing. You learn skills quickly because you are forced to. You can also learn from some incredible mentors.
Travel nurses are exposed to so many new and diverse meds, procedures, and patient situations. You learn more in a year as a nurse traveler than you could in five years staying in one place.
Traveling can also improve your communication and interpersonal skills. Travelers learn to talk to new people, start random conversations, and even call MDs they don’t know at 3 am about patient issues that are causing concern.
Working outside your comfort zone this way can stretch you, and make you a better nurse.
RELATED: 5 Ways Travel Nursing Makes You a Better Nurse
3. Future possibilities
Travel nursing can be a short-term or long-term endeavor. It can help you see the country for as long as you want, and even discover the place where you might want to settle down.
Thanks to generous travel nursing salaries and benefits—including free housing—travel RN jobs can also help you save for your future.
How long you travel is up to you. Your goals can change, or your life circumstances can change. For instance, you could end up having four kids close together like me and be forced to stop. At least for a while.
But, regardless of how long you work as a travel nurse, it’s going to enhance your resume.
Down the road, a nursing manager will look at your experience and know you must be worth an interview. They’ll know you have learned to think on your feet and adapt to new situations. Travelers often get to work at top facilities and learn new best practices. That kind of experience is hard to find.
Then your experience interviewing for multiple travel jobs can help you land the job of your dreams.
No matter how you rank these three key factors, travel nursing is a great choice--for your nursing career and your life.
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