Good question. 2009 was a year I never anticipated, to be honest. I thought healthcare and nursing in general was bulletproof. I was wrong. The financial chaos rained upon us rippled through virtually our entire society.

As usual, there was a lot of knee jerk reaction A whole lot of employers got scared and through up their hands and instituted hiring freezes. Travel nursing jobs, by definition a flexible but more expensive alternative for hospitals, was an early casualty.

The truth is though, the RN shortage did not go away. Baby boomers are still retiring, (and a lot of them are nurses), and they tend to utilize the healthcare system more then younger members of society. People lost jobs and health insurance and a small percentage of them put off things that should have been taken care of.

The good news, though, is slowly but surely the economy is coming back. Jobs always lag but the combination of rising employment, a probably healthcare plan from Obama and all of this pent up “demand” for healthcare augers well for the nursing profession job prospects and travel nursing in general……..MORE

Some of you may not know that I publish a weekly newsletter called The Weekly Top 25. It is a compilation of 25 new travel nursing jobs from a sampling of travel nursing agencies. The traveling nurse jobs are located all over the United States. It comes to your email inbox. If you would like to subscribe go HERE and to see a sample copy go to TopTravelNursingJobs.com.

The ongoing shortage of Nurses creates a large number of challenging travel-nursing jobs throughout the world, while offering many rewards. Traveling Nurses are able to work in many different hospitals and learn new ways of doing things on a regular basis, enabling them to build numerous and high quality skill sets for resumes. They typically receive very attractive salaries and sometimes earn bonuses for their contributions to each job. Many also receive benefits like paid housing and tax allowances when working away from home. A traveling Nurse stationed in different geographical locations may obtain the feeling of vacationing while at work and gain the ability to explore future relocation options. Hiring agencies allow traveling Nurses to choose preferred work destinations. They can also meet many new people while traveling and experience new ways of living life. In addition, traveling Nurse’s work schedules may be somewhat flexible and each assignment lasts only 3 months. Thus, Nurses in these positions have to deal with hospital politics and other annoying issues for only a short time before going back home or moving on to their next assignment.

However, traveling Nurses must move from hospital to hospital frequently and there is not much stability. Short-term, there is not much room for advancement in this career, due to the limited work commitment at each location. Most hospitals want experienced Nurses and thus the industry standard prerequisite for a traveling Nurse is 2 years of strong clinical work skills. Once on location, traveling Nurses receive little cross training in their jobs because hospitals hire them to come in and work right away within their field of specialty. Traveling Nurses often walk into new assignments blindly and sometimes experience different environmental obstacles such as poor work conditions or unfriendly staff. They must take competency exams and new employee orientation training at each location. Traveling Nurses must also apply for and obtain a new license to work in each state. Sometimes there may be a lack of health insurance coverage between assignments because it expires at the end of each contract. When traveling from city to city, it is sometimes inconvenient and difficult to find your way around a new area and find necessary doctors, dentists, or other local providers. Some traveling Nurses also get homesick and miss their core group of friends, family, and hometown.

This guest article was written by Christine Howell who frequently writes about online nursing degrees and college related topics for Online College Guru, a directory of online college degrees.

Sure, the pay is good and the perks are great, but there’s much more to travel nursing than meets the eye. On the surface, it may seem glamorous to travel and see the world and get paid for it, but only those who do it on a regular basis know that it’s not all a bed of roses and that you need more than just a degree in nursing and therapy in order to make it work for you. So if you’re a therapist who is considering giving the travel nursing industry a go, here’s what you should first know:

1. Change is inevitable: No sooner than you get used to working in one place than your time there comes to an end and you have to pack up and fly to your next destination. While some assignments do last for as long as a year, there are some that last for not more than six weeks. So you must be prepared to live out of a suitcase with the minimum of belongings and not tend to put down roots wherever you are. On the plus side though, the average assignment is around 13 weeks long, and most come with additional 13 week extensions with a bonus thrown in to re-sign.

2. There are no fixed work schedules: When you’re a travel therapist, you may be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with only the odd day off. While you may not be required to work throughout this time, you will be on call, which means that work may beckon anytime. Also, since you live on the premises, you may be called to work even when you’re not on duty. There are those who say that travel nursing is not for those who’re used to a fixed schedule, but most assignments are linked to 12 or 8 hour shifts. Also, more and more travel nurses and therapists are being offered housing or housing allowances.

Loneliness is a regular companion: The bane of moving from place to place is that you hardly have time to socialize, meet new people and make friends. By the time you get to know someone at one location, your assignment is over and it’s time to leave. So you may be wary of forming relationships because you know they will not last, and this means that loneliness is a part and parcel of this job. So unless you’re the kind who is jovial, outgoing, and able to live for the day without worrying too much about the future, you may not be able to enjoy travel nursing. But on the flip side, you can make a load of new friends and broaden your network of connections. And some nurses and therapists do travel with family and friends to overcome this problem.

You have to deal with two bosses: You may find yourself in a quandary when it comes to taking orders from two employers, the ones who sent you to the assignment and the ones who run the healthcare facility (or those who are in charge if it’s a private home), if they conflict each other. If you don’t know or are undecided as to where your loyalties lie, you could end up not getting paid, or worse, fired. But if the ground rules are clear right from the time you join work, this should not be too much of an issue.  

Acceptance issues do come up: You may face resentment from coworkers who are earning significantly less than you, either in terms of authority or because they see you as an intruder on their turf. But if you’re the kind who gets along with everyone and are a good worker, you should be ok with your new responsibilities and colleagues.
If you can brush aside such issues like water off a duck’s back, and if you really feel that travelling and nursing are your passions, then you could do very well as a travelling nurse therapist.