Study Reveals the Real Travel Nursing Experience
By Linda Beattie, contributor
Since travel nursing first emerged in the health care industry more than 25 years ago, it has grown into a strategic staffing choice for health care providers and a flexible yet stable career choice for nurses. Yet travelers still constitute a small minority in the nurse population. Little research has been done on travel nurses and the unique issues that they face, but as this temporary workforce trend continues to grow, researchers are starting to take notice.
Some have looked at how travelers impact the facilities and patients where they practice. For example, a 2007 study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing showed that supplemental nurses, including travelers, are as well qualified or more qualified than permanent nurses and have a positive impact on nurse and patient outcomes.
Now, a new study published in the July issue of Nursing Management takes a closer look at travel nurses themselves. The results provide some insights into why travel nurses choose life on the road and what kinds of things they face on assignment.
The research team, led by Marcia Faller, PhD, RN, chief clinical officer for AMN Healthcare, sent e-mail invitations to current and recent travelers, and, after the selection process, conducted in-depth, qualitative interviews with 17 travel nurses. Their sample group included 14 women and three men; the average respondent had more than nine years of nursing experience and nearly five years of experience as a travel nurse.
The results provided the following insights about travel nurses:
1. Their motivations: “These travel nurses chose their career paths based partly on dissatisfaction with their current job and a need for flexibility, which is similar to other studies on temporary workers,” said Faller. But these travel nurses also had the desire to get more experience at different hospitals and wanted to see more of the country.
“We found that these nurses chose traveling because they wanted to learn more, gain different experiences in practice and with different people and cultures,” she continued. “Many also saw travel nursing as a mechanism to travel to new places, to escape an unhappy job situation or to try a variety of employers in order to find a good match.”
2. Their expectations: These nurses knew that the hospitals where they were assigned were short-staffed, and understood their primary role was helping out in the current situation (whatever it was). The travelers recognized that they might not get their preferred schedule and might float more than regular staff, but that was okay. Their expectations were not the same as those held by permanent staff.
But they also expected to be treated as professionals who could contribute to the goals of the unit and the facility. They wanted to be treated as part of the team.
3. Their experiences: These travel nurses described their assignments and experiences in detail. At many facilities they were treated well and felt a part of the unit; at other facilities they experienced less favorable treatment, which impacted their feelings of acceptance as part of the health care team.
Which facilities had the right formula? Those that showed travelers a welcoming attitude; provided them with an appropriate orientation; paired them with a “buddy” on staff; included them in unit social functions, in-service training and continuing education, and nurse recognitions; asked their opinions on unit matters; gave them a hospital e-mail address; assigned manageable schedules; and had nursing leaders take the time to introduce themselves to the new travel nurses.
“Even if their experiences were less than ideal, most nurses expressed that they could manage anything for 13 weeks,” said Faller. “Plus, travel nurses have the advantage of avoiding the usual ‘unit politics’ and many administrative duties that staff nurses have to endure.”
4. Their potential matches: One reason that nurses decided to travel was to find a facility and job with a better fit than what they left behind, or to try out a new city before making a permanent move. So when hospital staff and leadership treated them well, it was more likely that they felt like this might be a place they could stay. Often it was apparent to the travel nurses that the hospital was looking to recruit them and it affected how well they were treated on assignment.
5. The lasting benefits: The nurses in this study consistently expressed the belief that they have grown both personally and professionally because of their experiences as a travel nurse. They described how their experiences resulted in increased self-confidence, improved technical skills and the ability to manage successfully in any situation. They also reported that they had become more flexible overall and more tolerant of others, and had learned invaluable lessons from the exposure to many different cultures.
The nurses appreciated the professional exchange of ideas with new colleagues, exposure to new ways of doing things, the chances to broaden their area of practice and the challenges that made them grow. These travelers also believed that they would not have experienced such growth staying in a permanent role.
“Nurses grow and improve in their profession through a wide variety of experiences that allow them to view the world, their work and their patients differently,” said Faller. “For those nurses who determine travel nursing may be right for them, they can expect to find themselves a better nurse for the experience.”
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